[ron]

Hi Darrin,
There seems to be thought that the type of spline on the diff denotes the type of carrier where its either an L P 2, or an LP2a,it seems that the early ones had the splined diff and the later L P 2 A had the tapered diff, but as in all things nothing is cast in stone, over many years , (over thirty years,} I have seen many changes done to carriers by the army I guess it was all done just to keep them going if all they had was a certain type of diff in the field it was fitted, some people might not agree with this but its what I have seen,you just have to draw your own conclusions, the early LP2 had its tool rack on the side as well as the rear one,whearas the LP2A had a pioneer rack fitted to the rear of the carrier to hold all of the tools
On the later carriers the bins and lewis box were moved so that a radio could be fitted on that side under an armoured cover, I think its possable that the I D plate that you have with the stamped small A, denotes that it was intended to be used on a 2 A carrier and they were just using up surplus cast plates in stead of re casting others, my carrier is 434,
Regards, Ron