Introducing........RAT’S NEST

[R68GTO]

Started to clean up my BE rear today. Found some paint marks on the housing....curious if these are typical? Horizontal white line with runs on the top and a white "6"(?) on the bottom side of the passenger side of the gear housing. Bottom of the gear housing has what looks like (3) wide yellow stripes. All the paint marks look like they are applied to the bare casting. Black paint is on top of both the yellow and white marks.

[big gear head]

Would the black paint have been applied at the factory or was that done by a previous owner?

Are you going to leave the rear end assembled or are you going to rebuild it?

[R68GTO]

My understanding is that the axle manufacturer would have painted the unit black prior to shipping to GM.....experts please chime in on this one. In my stripping process, the paint application on this rear seems to be (from recent to oldest):
1) semi-gloss black
2) chevy orange (side facing rear of car only)
3) semi-gloss black
4) yellow/white paint marks
5) bare steel

Layer 1 came off pretty easily, while layer 3 is adhered pretty good to the hsg. so I'm assuming this is the layer applied by the manufacturer.
My gut feel is to have someone go through it to replace bearings/seals, set backlash, etc. though just my uneducated eye says it all looks basically new now. Any advice is welcome.

Someone (can't remember who at the moment - Frank A. maybe) told me this particular rear was in a 57 chevy in the Columbus and originally came out of a burnished brown Frost Chevrolet RS COPO that had been wrecked BITD.

[big gear head]

Where are you located? You don't have your location listed in your details.

[R68GTO]

Located in Minster, Ohio. Just updated my user details.

[R68GTO]

Pinion yoke - is it correct? Some research I've done says the u-joint should be held in by straps and bolts instead of u-bolts? Found some more paint dabs on the ends of the axles, white in the center and 3 orange dots on the flange. Anyone see that before? I ask because the rear side of this housing was painted orange so don't want to duplicate if it was part of that paint job.
Also curious what the "58" represents above the cast date tag on the housing. Anyone know?

[Flying Undertaker]

Originally Posted by R68GTO

Pinion yoke - is it correct? Some research I've done says the u-joint should be held in by straps and bolts instead of u-bolts? Found some more paint dabs on the ends of the axles, white in the center and 3 orange dots on the flange. Anyone see that before? I ask because the rear side of this housing was painted orange so don't want to duplicate if it was part of that paint job.
Also curious what the "58" represents above the cast date tag on the housing. Anyone know?

R68GTO: You are correct that the u-joints were held by straps & bolts for the '69 model year rears. The rear of the axle housing painted orange and the orange dots on the axle flange were done later by an owner as the dots are holes in the rear brake drums, (rear drums were probably painted orange also). Don.

[R68GTO]

Started working on the wiper motor today among other things. Anyone tell me how to decode this tag? Seems to be an original foil tag that is on the wiper motor housing. Covered in black paint...used some acetone to get to the printing.

[big gear head]

The way I understand it the high HP cars got the larger yoke for the 1330 U joint and used U bolts instead of straps.

[R68GTO]

Bare, naked BE!