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Just curious if anyone can tell me how to positively identity the rear diff in my car! The vin code says it's a GU6 which means it should be an 8.5" with 3.42 gears but ordered a new pinion seal and it wasn't the correct one so the new seal I purchased was for a 7.5" rear end also it's a 10 boltNone of the stamping on the rear diff is legible also
It's a 7.5"; DEFINITELY NOT a 8.5". No 8.5" ever came in these cars. Web sites notwithstanding.
All the "codes" "stampings" "whatever" whatever will tell you is, what it CAME WITH. None of that will tell you WHAT IT IS NOW. Even assuming you can come up with the CORRECT translation of stamping to YOUR car which OBVIOUSLY you can't. (or at least, haven't). Not a trivial matter regardless of what popular well-known web sites with lots of ads would like you to believe.
Since you're obviously a smart person as evidenced by your coming to this site and asking this question, clearly much smarter than me (as pretty much everybody is), you SURELY know that one of the most important maintenance items on an old car is, to change the rear end grease. So...
While you're catching up on the LONG OVERDUE deferred maintenance that you OBVIOUSLY are behind on, including one of the VERY FIRST things that an intelligent car purchaser like yourself will do AS SOON AS you park the car in your own driveway, and you're changing the rear end grease like a good car owner will ALWAYS do right away, make a point of LOOKING AT the gears. Count the teeth, or if you're lazy like me, just rotate them until you can read the markings on the ring gear. They'll have something marked on them like 41:12, which is 3.42 (41 ÷ 12 = 3.4166666 etc.), or 41:15 which is 2.73 (41 ÷ 15 = 2.733333333 etc.), or 41:11 (41 ÷ 11 =3.7272727272727 = 3.73) no doubt you get the point. You don't need some dumba$$ like me telling you all about what you SHOULD BE doing to maintain your car like changing the lubricant fluids, or how to do simple arithmetic. You'll be able to figure it out as soon as you quit dinking around with posting on the Interwebz and instead start getting out and doing ACTUAL WORK and of course LOOKING AT THE PARTS.
Codes are WORTHLESS. Parts ARE WHA T THEY ARE, and will tell you EVERYTHING and MORE besides, if you only LOOK AT THEM.
