CF Bedford Van

[Dylan]

I once looked into a crewman diff for another project, good diffs but wreckers want top dollar for them.

[Holden202T]

yeah im not expecting them to be cheap but if it gives me the length i want for the diff its worth it cause its either that or custom axles, and they are going to be $1000+ i'd say.

in other news, last night i started pulling the old motor out, its been a long time since i've worked on something so dirty hehehe so i knew there was a leak in the bottom of the radiator and thats most likely why it over heated on the way to my place, but i didn't realise how bad the cooling system was.

no thermostat in it and also this:

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for those not familiar with holden 6's, this is the water pump outlet .... how it wasn't leaking is beyond me!

[brindo]

Are the Crewman/Tonner diffs really that good? I thought they were plagued with bearing problems that never really got sorted.

[Holden202T]

i honestly have no idea!?!?!?

[vs ss]

Yeh that's right brindo. I have had to build dozens of them as the company (I don't know if I should mention names) who supplied the gears and bearings had big problems.But that been said if worse comes to worse a new gear set and a good set of bearings will make it as good as anything else.
Holden never fixed the problem as they just put the same brand back in instead of sourcing something else so they wore out very quickly again.
Who knows you might be able to get a noisy one cheap,cheap,cheap and sort it out yourself.

[Holden202T]

So the gears are wearing out not just the bearings ??

[Dylan]

They are the 86 series Borg Warner. Same series as Ford BA turbo 6 and V8 but they were IRS, unlike crewman and tonner.
You can get Tru Trac centre's to go in them, problem solved.

[Charlescrown]

Hasn't the 86 been around for yonks. I thought the VN was the first Holden to use it and as far as gear sets go they are all the same except for ratio whether it's a 4 cyl Nissan or V8 arse hauler.

Hey 202 you gotta remember those old Holden's only had 2 sacrificial anodes in the cooling system. The water pump and the thermostat housing. I have seen heaps like that due to no coolant. Gotta love it.

[Holden202T]

the inside of the thermostat housing and the water pump look ok that's the funny thing, anyways no big deal!

the diff your thinking of is the BW 78 series! later VK, VL, VN etc all used it, same era falcons and nissans as well.

I'd prefer to use it because the parts are cheaper and more around, but its really longer commodore stud pattern axles is what im after.... i'll have to do some measuring and checking .....

wondering if the crewman axles are longer maybe I can use them and lengthen a 78 series diff .... but im not sure if the crewman is still 28 spline or not.

so on the motor cooling side of things, pulled the water pump off, and looks very nice inside the block, not a bit of rust/barnacles to be found!

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the bores are reasonably worn, small lip at the top of them, but otherwise all looks ok in there!

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I was very surprised to see the head gasket is actually what looks like a MLS type thing, stainless on both sides with a small paper gasket in between ... I've never seen this on a holden 6 but im wondering if its to like with lugging loads around all the time and last a bit longer!

[Charlescrown]

That's right the 78 series (mental lapse). Inside that cooling system looks almost as clean as a Jap import. I do know that if the hose clamp is placed too far from the end of the pump housing the small area where water/coolant can be trapped and remains there will cause what's known as crevice corrosion in just that spot and nowhere else. We had heaps of trouble with head gaskets with stainless rings around the combustion chamber because they wouldn't compress and coolant leaked out along the side of the head so we stuck to copper ones.