i was planning to swap the 88 (or 89) mk3 back axle i have into my mk2 van, at least this was the 'plan'
... so i have a few spares for it, now i have had a change of intentions and am going to use the mk2 axle 
mainly because of the "width" issue, the mk3 being narrower, just looks wrong and is also closer than i like between the floor edge and the inside rear wheel, also having a full set of wheel bearings for the mk2 axle helped with the discission,
so now i have a set of mk3 brake shoes and wheel cylinders and also the large innerside edge oil seal spare, and was wondering what i could use ..
the brake cylinders are listed under a different part number, and on investigation, the only differences are the mk2 ones come with the extra long bleed nipples (dont see why these arent fitted to the mk3's anyway !) and the bore size of the cylinder itself ... the mk2 ones are 23.8mm bore and the mk3 ones are 25.4mm, so, what happens if i use the mk3 ones with the mk2 master cylinder and with the standard mk2 4 pot front calipers ? (remembering the rear load apportioning valve is brand new and will be correctly adjusted)
the brake shoes also list under different part numbers, but are both 254 diameter, and 70mm wide, so does anyone know the differences other than that ? i have visually inspected them and the lining lengths are different, but dont know why ... also is the handbrake and adjuster stuff the same between the 2 models ??
also different in design is the lower spring that holdds the shoes together, the mk2 one has a single coiled section in the middle between the shoes, whereas the mk3 spring has 2 coiled sections, one at each end and sort of sits against the shoe rather than in the space between ... anyone know why this is and which is better to use ? (the other springs all look the same to me.
whilst doing this swapping around, i have looked into a number of the parts and found they are listed differently aswell...
wheel bearings and seal
drums (i think this was the drum thickness but not sure, will check later as i might be tempted to use the mk3 drums if they are thicker and better
)
hubs
and backing plate
that is basically all the fittings
does anyone know of all the exact details that are different ?... like is it the outer dimensions of the bearings that are different and the hubs different becasue of that, or is it the main axle shaft that is different
and whats different with the back plates ???
the oil seal on the inner edge of the hub assembly is of a slightly different design .. i have both but was curious to know if the later one was just a redesigned seal that works better or different sizes (i will measure them up later) ... again looking to see if anyone has any experience with this
one other strange thing i found was the hub nuts, the ones i removed from the mk2 seemed to me to be the original ones and untouched, BUT on trying to undo them, my 65mm socket was too small
... so i had a friend check with a different socket and his did not fit either, so i measured them ... 67mm (ish) so that explains why the socket didnt fit, but why are they that size ???? all the info i can find says they should be 65mm, infact they only seemed to have used 2 sizes ... 57mm and 65mm .... so what the hell ... anyone seen this before ? and can i get away with using the 65mm ones from my mk3 axle ? as long as they havent been too mashed up on the edges because of gash gits tightening them with a screwdriver and hammer 
