I've got this all original 170,000 mile 86 Trans Am. Nothing on the car has ever been worked on. Last night I cleaned all the grease off the 9bolt differential. It still has the 2.77 tag and the limited slip tag... But the fun begins when I hose it down with carb cleaner and the center section is painted bright orange. Not the cover, not the axle tubes, just the housing.

I was under the impression that they were all painted gloss black from the factory, but this differential doesn't have any black on it, and only the orange. So has anyone seen orange paint on a 9 bolt?

I'd just chalk this up to a meathead with a rattle can except nothing on this car has ever been touched.

 

Never heard of that but one would have to ask why would gm do that? I can't think of a purpose for orange paint there from the factory? Just my $02

Later,
Conrad

 

Neither can I, but it makes about as much sense as the blue paint splotches on the strut tower bearings and the torque arm. If the car had any other tell tale signs of tampering I'd just write it off as a previous owner with free time, but since I'm the third owner and nothing except wheels/tires were ever changed on the car, I have to assume the orange was there from the beginning.

 

i have bought four 9bolt rears over the last 7-8 years and everyone of them was orange. i think they were all painted orange, but i am just going by everyone i have ever seen.

 

That is weird cause I have 3 BW 9bolts now and I double checked yesterday and they are all black. I wonder whats up with that?

 

I've only seen black as well and I've worked on over 100

 

ANy one have a pic of the ORANGE ones?

John

 

There was a thread a while back where a guy opened up his 9 bolt and it was orange on the inside.


I bumped it to the top of the tranny/drivetrain section.

 

I think he is talking about the outside of the housing.

Conrad

 

Weird, both of mine were black.

 

Yep, just the outside, I haven't opened it up yet. The 3.45 posi 9bolt I have wasn't orange on the inside, but then it also was blown up and the cover was sliced open so it was really dirty.

To make things even more interesting the output shaft on the transmission out of the same car has a chevy orange inspection paint mark on it.

 

Since this thread never seemed to get answered for sure I figure I'll revive it again since I am wondering too. I pulled my 3.27 9-bolt BW out of my 85 TA and there was definitely orange paint on the center housing, not much left however so it is hard to tell for sure. I know it is original color too because my uncle is the only person who owned the car before me for the past 18 years and Ive been the only one to touch it for the last two.

Does anybody have any more info on the elusive orange BW 9-bolt? Im going to refinish mine soon and if it was originally orange with black tubes or something along those lines I would like to reproduce it.

 

nobody knows?

 

Mine was orange too

 

I think what he is looking for is some sort of picture or detail to how it was originally painted.

John

 

Exactly

 

Apparently 9 bolts were orange. Mystery solved!

What, exactly, are we trying to figure out?

 

What part of it was orange???

I guess you have not been following the thread. Some people when they go to restore their car they want a pic so they can figure out what to paint orange and what to paint black etc....

Why did I need to explain that?

John

 

Pulled my friends 9 bolt apart 3 weeks ago, 10k miles on this rear end, never been apart before... its black on the outside, and orange on the inside of it. weird.

 

same here when i still had the 9 bolt.

 

my 9 bolt is in the same color config. the outside of the whole axle is black, and the inside of the pumpkin where the diff and ring gear are is orange. i took a 2 pics with my camera phone as it was the only phone that was around. i will try and get it up as soon as i get the data transfer kit.