Mixed Bag

[krewzer]

Bought a rear sway bar for the GT and was under the car to look at the mount points. Found none. After reading the FSM, I found that I have a 1.1 rear end, with a 1.9L engine. Worse than that, I built this engine to 2L, with big valve head, 38 Weber, '75 EFI exh. man., custom exhaust, combo cam, Getrag, and I just bought an alum. flywheel with the group. Should have that in a couple of weeks.
I believe I'm in real trouble with this diff. What should I be looking for as a replacement rear end? I'm in the final tuning stages, but worry that if this setup comes alive, like I hope it does, I won't have long to drive it before the rear breaks down. Any suggestions? Any offerings?
Wes

[kwilford]

What makes you think it is a 1.1 differential? Only the European differentials came with the sway bar mounting brackets. All the North American 1.9 diffs (except a very few that slipped by in the assembly line) are missing the sway bar brackets

[krewzer]

Keith, just from the pictures in the FSM. My pumpkin is smaller, thinner than the diff. pictured for the 1.9L. Is there a stamped no. I could look for?

[kwilford]

I don't know of a stamped number, but AFAIK, all the 1.1 diffs have a gear ration of 4.11:1, versus the 3.44:1 in the GT. How fast does your GT run at 3500 rpm? If it is doing 70 mph in 4th, then you have a 3.44:1 diff. If you're only doing 59 mph, then you have the 4.11:1 diff.

Also, the 1.1 also has smaller rear brakes, with an inside drum ID of only 7.87" versus 9.09" in the 1.9 diff, and I don't think the smaller rear brakes can be adapted to the bigger diff. What size are your drums?

[GTJIM]

Unless you have a Kadett or GT which originally came with a 1.1 litre motor you should have the bigger 1.9L diff - the 1.1L diff IS tiny compared to the 1.9L diff and will not be able to take the power from a 2.0 motor!

A picture of your diff would help us identify if you truly do have a 1.1L diff ...

I guess some "PO" could have replaced the original 1.9L diff with a 1.1L one without knowing the difference ??

[2 Fast 4 U]

Originally Posted by GTJIM ......replaced the original 1.9L diff with a 1.1L one......

Or the other way around changed the 1.1 engine to a 1.9 that would explain the diff.
Isn't the type mentioned on the tag mentioning the color and interior numbers??

[RallyBob]

Originally Posted by kwilford I don't know of a stamped number, but AFAIK, all the 1.1 diffs have a gear ration of 4.11:1, versus the 3.44:1 in the GT.

1.1 diffs were available with either a 3.89 ratio (standard Kadett), or with a 4.11 ratio (Kadett 1.1 rallye and GT). So if the car (GT) was an original 1.1 car that had the engine swapped over to a 1.9, it's probably the 4.11 final drive. This was actually quite a common swap in the early '80's when 1.1's were not desireable at all. You could tell these cars by the quicker acceleration (final drive ratio), and lower front ride height (2 leaf spring in front designed for the 1.1 engine).


Bob