Ken,
I've got the rear axle out of my '65 +4, the 4111 tag means that the ring
gear has 41 teeth and the pinion has 11 which is a 3.73 to 1 ratio, typical
for +4s (mine has the same tag). My entire rear axle was painted black at
the factory. The inside of the diff housing was painted an identical red to
the Glyptal paint sold by Eastwood, as Fred Sisson mentions in his book, in
order to seal up any porosity in the casting. Perhaps yours is a
replacement axle that wasn't finish painted? By the way, the substitute
paint that Fred mentions in the first edition of his book is no longer
available from Dayton, I tried.
Mine has three vent holes! The one that vents the differential and axle
tubes faces backward and is located in the right tube near the diff
housing, about the same distance from the center of the housing as the
emergency brake bracket is on the left axle tube. The other two holes face
forward and are at each end, obviously venting the rear axle bearings.
BTW, does anyone know how to read the scratchings on the ring gear? The
book says that the backlash specification is "etched" on the "crownwheel"
(ring gear). Someone has indeed written on mine, but it looks like
graffitti. My interpretation so far is "Billoox31", perhaps there was some
satanist gang in Malvern in 1965.
At 10:56 PM 12/3/1998 EST, you wrote:
>While Notakit is done for a radiator fix, I've decided to fix a few oil
leaks.
>This lead me to hunt for the rear axle vents. After scraping off lots of
gook
>& undercoating, I found one on the right axle tube. It was totally plugged.
>Perhaps that is why the diff leaked! And it might explain why the oil
drained
>so slowly before removing the filler plug. There is no sign of one in the
>left tube.
>
>??? Should there be one in both axle tubes???
>
>Under all the gook, the diff housing is painted red. The is also red
paint on
>the diff. Are they normally painted red, or some other color? The axle
tubes
>show no sign of paint. BTW, axle ratio is 3.7. Found a little tag under one
>of the diff cover bolts with the number 4111 on it. Does this have any
>significance? I keep finding other 4 digit numbers on other bits, none of
>which match the chassis number.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Ken Payne, 63 Plus 4 4seater
>
>
Howard Clark
P.O. Box 413, Brookston, IN 47923
765-563-3210 fax:765-563-8946
'65 Morgan +4 2 str, '36 Cord 810 Beverly, '47 Ford Street Rod
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