I was cleaning the differential from my 83 T/A and it’s blue. I believe it to be original; it has all the correct stampings. Is the diff painted from the factory? and if so what color is it suppose to be?

 

That's crazy, I was always under suspision that the axles were either bare iron or sprayed black.

 

could it be one of the saginaw rearends?

 

All 10-bolts left the factory unpainted and the 9-bolts were painted black due to transit on salt water. Nothing changed over the run of 3rd gen cars. That is unless the Dealer did some undercoating work.

 

Ok thanks, the car was undercoated. Good for preserving it all these years, bad for me trying to remove it. I’ll just paint it black.

 

I know some of the pieces were painted with a marker to verify that the bolts were tight.

I suspect to possibilities for the B&W axel being painted 1) its an outsourced part, they are usually held to higher standards than in-house equipment. 2) Since they were coming from Australia, I suspect that they may have painted it for the trip across the pond.

I actually read somewhere that the 9 Bolt axel was not as strong as the 10 bolt they used it for fuel milage as it was slightly more efficient... anyone?

John

 

I have a 83 trans am ws6 that I removed and cleaned. What little paint was left on the rear end looked to be a low gloss black.

 

But you didn't say if it was a 9-bolt, which are painted and came on some early Firebirds.

 

I believe the 9 bolt wasn't available till '85 on the T/A and a year or so later on the Z28/IROC.The Dana 44 was used as a service replacement and was also available over the parts counter.As stated above the 10 bolt was left bare except for marks as Okfoz mentioned.Then enter the dealer which generally undercoated all new cars as a profit margin(and it does help if applied properly).The 9 bolt being painted for shipment makes sense plus being an out sourced part.