With the Covid lockdowns in place, the work to replace the busted diff ground to a halt. Restrictions have now eased a bit, so the diff got done. Picked it up today, hopefully throw it in over the weekend.
Number 1 Son had snapped the shortened axle right at the recut spline toes. The old 28 spline axles are now replaced with the beefier 31 splines. The old VP slippery centre got replaced with a Harrop TruTrac (the VP unit wouldn't suit 31 splines anyway... at least that's my excuse

). Put a TA Performance girdle into it while we were there.
The diff had been shortened a long time ago by V6 Conversions in Moree. When I first fitted it to the wagon and filled it with oil, it leaked on the drivers side. Hard to see, but looked like a crook weld. The leak stopped dripping, and I forgot about it... figured it was a leaking seal that had taken up. When I stripped down the busted diff a few months back the driver's side axle tube and the handbrake shoes were oily. Looks like it had still been leaking, just not enough to drip. Bugger.
Craft Diffs had a good look at the welds, and all looked good. Hmmmmm. A long, hard look at the seal showed the culprit. Looks like V6 Conversions had resplined the standard Commodore axle on the passenger's side, but had used a HQ axle on the longer side. A spacer is used to let the Commodore seals seat to the HQ axle. The axle/spacer dimensions are poor - feels tight when first put on, but once seated the seal is a horrible sloppy fit on the spacer. The poor fit lets oil slowly weep out. Can't say I'm overly impressed with the use of HQ stud pattern either.
Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.