Paint

[Anson reid]

Best colour code to paint my 85 vk commodore sedan , original colour is white need some help on some really good colour codes what makes a vk commodore sedan look nice , another question I'm doing a project on this car I have a 84 vk wagon what has a three speed atuo gu4 it is in good condition , can I beef up the three speed to make it strong enough to handle a mild 308 , or should I get a t5 gearbox and put it in , on my compliance plate it does have three speed atuo diff is gu5

 

[Vin999]

Factory VK 6 cyl had the smaller borg warner diff as in gu5 3.23, ONLY the VK V8 had the 10 bolt salisbury diff mostly 3.08 ratio and as high as 3.55 ratios. that might answer your project car query. Try using the vl 3.45 turbo 28 spline borge warner.

 

[Anson reid]

Ok that is good to know thanks mate

 

[Vin999]

Ok that is good to know thanks mate

glad to help the query, I have the VK V8 LSD 10 bolt salisbury 3.55 in my early car but I don't hammer it to much, the small inner lsd spider gears are a little touchy, but I do burnouts in my son's vl turbo car with the bw 3.45 with no problems. If it was me, pay the extra and go for the borg warner. Both diffs are a lil scarce and hard to find.

 

[Anson reid]

In the vk wagon I'm using as a parts car it is the large 10 bolt Salisbury the 3 speed auto seems to be strong slammed me into a tree when the lsd kicked in front gaurd stuffed lol ok cool mate , see what I can find capella and yes correct parts are hard to find now ,

 

[Vin999]

I just thought of something after reading your last post about the 84 vk wagon and the 1st post where you said about the 85 vk sedan GU5 on the compliance plate. its a bit confusing.

If your wagon is a factory v8 then it would have the gu4 3.08 ratio 10 bolt salisbury,
The gu5 compliance plate 85 sedan diff is the borg warner 3.23 25 spline diff.

In 85 the VK changed from salisbury to bw which had the 25 spline axles ready for the change to vl model which used the same bw diff, however the vl turbo/v8 had the larger gears/28 spline axles bw diff, thats the 1 I mentioned earlier not the 25 spline one.

Also make sure you have the larger 10 bolt salisbury diff and not the smaller 6 cyl 8 bolt salisbury diff which were also fitted prior to 85 in that model. A lot of things and swaps without matching plates have happened to 30 year old commodores. Both salisbury diffs have 10 bolts on the cover but the larger v8 is physically bigger in size/shape n weight with egg shaped cover and has 10 bolts on the inside crown wheel gear and not 8 bolts like the smaller 1.
Also the wagon diffs have different mounting to sedans so check that out if you want to use it in the 85 sedan model and depending what diff you use you will also need the tailshaft fitting as both diffs the tailshaft flange pinion connection is different.

Hope you understand that, the 10 bolt salisbury will handle 308 power but has 4 old weak spider gears, the vlt turbo bw 28 spline diff would hold up much better and spare parts are easier to source. In the future when I redo my v8 I will pay and do diff and go to the new harrop truetrack centre insides and keep the salisbury body.

 

[Anson reid]

Thanks for the information i understand what you are saying , i will go for a drive later on and take some photos of the diffs but both have drum brakes not disc I'm only new at this with parts , right what you say their alote did happen to the commodore over the last 30 years ,the old guy what I got vk wagon of he got it from sarina range wreckers near mackay and was parked up for 20 years underneath it don't look right someone has painted it some grey hard undercoat and has spent some money on it underneath, got the vk sedan from capella even looking under it someone has lowered it not original to factor but thats ok can not wait to start this project , sounds like your doing a project to mate

 

[Anson reid]

I see the difference in the bw diff

 

[Anson reid]

Don't know if this is the large Salisbury diff

 

[Anson reid]

Back plate