Looks great. James, overall how difficult would you say this job was? Notwithstanding the health concerns you’ve been fighting. Could a person that does their own maintenance stuff do it? How about special tools? Just wondering.
The most technical part of this is setting the pinion depth if you are changing gears. There are kits sold to do this, I chose to piece together the kit GM techs use which eliminates pressing on old bearings to take measurements. Of course, it was only tough doing it the first time. If we do it again before our institutional memory expires, it would go much quicker!
The most difficult part was getting the rotational torque to spec. Since the axle was out of the car and laying on top of saw horses, we had to have guys hold it down while we tightened the pinion nut to crush the washer to get the desired rotational torque. We used a long breaker bar with the handle from a floor jack and we would turn it a little and then use the special torque wrench (works like a beam style) to measure the rotational torque in inch/pounds.
I went over the first time and ran out of spare nuts, crush washers and seals and ordered some more and we tried again the following week. This time I went much slower, stopping and measuring after every little turn of the nut so as not to tighten it too much. It was tedious work that required patience but not particularly technical or hard.
Some of the specialized tools made the job a whole lot faster. 2-Jaw puller was needed to replace the bearings on the carrier. I used special tools to pull the wheel bearings and tone rings out and special drivers to install new ones. Some generic tools can be used to pull them out. The inside of the axle tube is stepped so that the installation of the tone ring will stop as you press/hammer it in and then can install the wheel bearing the same way without fear of them going in too far.
Guys who do this all the time like LT Tolman, he just uses a hammer and screwdriver for almost everything! LOL
Two or three special tools are required to take apart the carrier. I had no plans to do this so they were not purchased. Yet!
There are also specific tools to make overhauling and re-gearing the front axle easier. I bought some of them but decided that purchasing a used differential would suit me better for now. The "new" front differential has 79K fewer miles than my truck.
Now our three trucks all share the same rear differential and carrier and have the tools to keep them running for a decade or two or more.
So, can you do it? Absolutely!
I can put together a list of tools used sometime if you like.
