DIY tip: Cleaning and painting a differential

Awesome, Ivan. Well done!

 

very nice! Had a '69 Mistral way back....miss it.

 

Great job.
Now can you come over to do that to mine?

 

more pix please, is this an open or clutch type diff you got in there ?

 

WHat about the colors combo for a 70' Ghibli SS ???

 

Hello Ivan,

the differential of my ’67 Ghibli was black, apart from dirt and grease. Maybe repainted? On the E-Type Jag only the 3.8 had the red differential while it was black on the 4.2.
Is there a colour code for that pumpkin shade? Thanks.

 

Ivan,

Will do this afternoon and let you know !!

Was the paint originally so glossy ???

 

Attached is a picture of my 1971 Ghibli showing the differential.. In it
you are able to discern that it was red-orange as Ivan indicates... This
probably means it's the original factory color...

Hope this helps..

Mike
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These diffs can be either open or clutch style...

Yes, your diff looks great, but I would warn that the diffs are not indestructible. That often suffer form loud bearing noise and often enough a howl at certain speeds. The front gasket on these things is made from leather and tends to dry our over time letting in moister that ends up causing light rust on the bearings inside. This situation is aggravated by the fact that most of these car tended to sit for long periods of time with out moving. This in activity means the gear oil fully drains from the bearing surface leaving them susceptible to moisture.

This is where i disagree with Ivan, sorry Ivan, on the color he chooses to paint the center of the diff. These are Salisbury TYPE differentials that I believe were manufactured by Jaguar and shipped to Maserati. Remember Maserti purchased other suspension part from Jaguar. I agree that Jaguar painted them orange, they are painted orange in Jaguars, But I contend that Maserati painted over the orange with black. I would also say maserati did a poor job of painting them black and did not spend anytime on prep meaning the black paint would tend to ware off thus showing the orange underneath. Maserati is known to have painted other purchased parts in black, ZF steering boxes and idlers were shipped by ZF in a range of colors over the years, hammer tone silver, green for instance. In all Maserati's I've ever looked at those items were painted black or should be. During the 1950's Maserati had a tendency to paint the undercarriage of their road cars in mono chromatic gray, everything. Also there is a picture of a series of Maserati Differentials laid out on the factory floor, although its a black and white photo, it does not appear that the center part of the differential is a different hue/color from the rest of the diff.

Please if anyone has further thoughts or evidence please step forward. I do want to say I have nothing but respect for the work Ivan has done and his knowledge about the cars. His photo documentation is out standing.

John

 

On my 05/1970 SSS, difficult to say...
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inner part of the cover
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exterior view of the diff.
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IMO, same aspect of the axle and the rear diff.

Primer red paint beneath the black exterior paint (and not glossy).
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Your right Ivan the undersides and engine bays of Maserati's look nothing like their automotive counterparts, ferrari, lambo, jaguar or Aston. All those other cars have some color and contrast going on, visual excitement. I've always been baffled and disappointed by the drab visuals Of the Maserati engine bay, only those folks at Maserati those many years ago could shed light on their thinking regarding the engine bay. I too am compelled to add color, but I'm also keen on originality. It's a conundrum for me....

Keep up the great work Ivan

John

 

The detailing of the engine compartment on the inner body side view is a real shame.

 

Maseratis were for mature gentlemen not show offy youngsters ...
Pete

 

This may be true, but it seems very odd. As an OEM, Salisbury (then owned by GKN) supplied axles to a lot of companies; Jaguar, but also Jensen, Aston Martin, Rover and many others. At the time the Ghibli was introduced, Jaguar was just ending production of the MKII, which I think was their last live-axle car. You can imagine that they had excess inventory, but the track width is different as is the axle location, so it's not the same assembly.

It's the same for the front suspension. Alford and Alder sold those parts to all comers. In fact, if you look at the parts used in the Ghibli and contemporary Jensen Interceptor, you see the same suppliers for control arms, steering knuckles, rear axle, and brakes. The rear Girling calipers are (I've read) exactly the same part number, and they look it, complete with the dangling emergency brake. Jag MK2 rear calipers are very different.

Anything is possible - Jaguar built 85000 MK2s, so maybe they got a volume discount and it was cheaper for Maserati to buy from them instead of directly from GKN. Even so it would have had to be a custom assembly only for Maserati. In that case why paint the carrier a different color than Maserati wanted?

 

And, which color Maserati did want pls ?

 

I don't know. I was just trying to find some plausible chain of events that would lead to one color or the other. When I wrote that I was convinced that logically the desired color was orange due to the reasons I mentioned plus some factors of the assembly. The idea that ordinary OEM parts had come through Jaguar seemed implausible.

Since then I've thought of another logical path that leads to black, so maybe not. Ivan said the color was like red oxide primer. Suppose it really is primer. It's feasible that the cast iron center sections were painted this way to prevent rust in storage, or to make later painting easier. When the axle tubes are pressed in and plug welded through holes in the casting the paint would be damaged, but if it were only for protection in storage that wouldn't matter. Then the final assembly would be painted, covering up the primer. Frankly, it's always seemed odd that anyone would choose that color for an invisible (usually) part.

Probably the best thing to do is to ignore my rambling - most people do! I get caught up sometimes in trying to figure out puzzles; it's an engineering disease, I think. But... maybe tonight I'll scratch some paint off the Jensen differential. If GKN delivered the parts primered in red oxide, I should find it on this Salisbury 4HA also.

 

Mine was primered of course, but obvioulsy completely and originally painted black as you can see on my pics posted on another topic.