61. The axle shaft U washer is simply pushed out using two fingers.		62. We will now pull the axles out of the differential case. Be careful not to damage the axle shaft O-rings.
With the axles pulled back out of the carrier, the first item to do is check our running torque on the pinion. We do this by using an inch pound torque wrench. (This is best done using a dial type torque wrench). We will be looking for how much force it takes to turn the differential pinion. We will use this later during reassembly to set our bearing preload with a new crush sleeve.
63. Place the torque wrench on the pinion nut and turn the pinion taking note how many inch pounds it requires to make the pinion turn (not how much force it takes to break the pinion into movement; but how much it takes during the turn). We will make note of this for later reference when we set our preload on our new pinion bearings.		64. Next we want to mark our carrier bearing caps. We did this by using a center punch and a series of dots to identify the bearing cap side and direction. You can mark them any way you wish. The important thing to achieve is that the bearing caps go back on the same side and same direction they came off. The bolts can go back in any position or side.
65. To do this we placed two dots on one bearing caps center to show side, and a third dot on the end of the bearing cap to show direction. We also did this on the differential housing. On the other side of the carrier we repeated this but only using one dot in the center and one on the end, along with the corresponding dots on the housing.		66. Once marked we will break the torque off and remove the bearing cap bolts.
67. Once the bolts have been removed we will remove the bearing caps.		68. With carrier bearing caps removed we can now remove the carrier from the housing.
We used a crowbar and a screwdriver to pry the carrier loose from the housing. We placed a piece of wood between the tools and the housing to avoid damage to the machined surface of the housing. The carrier bearings are seated very tightly in the bearing saddles of the housing. These are close tolerance machined saddles. Be careful to not damage any part of the carrier or housing. It will take a little elbow grease to pry the carrier up. Then it will let go rather suddenly so be prepared. When it lets go, the bearing cups will be free to come off the bearings also. You must keep the cups with the bearing cones as they are a matched set. If you plan (as we did) to replace the bearings then this is not a concern. Also, when the carrier bearings come free you must take note of the shims between the bearings and the outside of the bearings. These must be noted as to what side they are on and keep them together (if more than one on each side) so we can use them later in our initial setup with the new ring gear and pinion.
69. Using a crowbar and a screwdriver to pry the carrier loose from the housing.		70. Here we now have the carrier removed from the housing.
71. Here is the shim from one side of the carrier. There will be one or more on both sides of the carrier outside of the bearings. Do not mix them up as to side or thickness.		72. Here is the housing with the carrier removed showing the pinion in place.
Now we need to remove the pinion. We do this by holding the pinion flange and using an impact wrench to remove the pinion nut. We held the pinion flange by putting two new bolts (do not use your original flange bolts) in the flange and placing a wrecking bar between them to keep the pinion and flange from turning. We then put the impact wrench on the pinion nut and drove the pinion nut loose. The pinion nut is on with a lot of torque, upwards of 200+ foot pounds so it will take a good 1/2 inch drive impact wrench or a very long breaker bar to back this off. We suggest using an impact wrench of 500 ft/lbs or more torque. It will make very easy work of removing the pinion nut.
73. Wrecking bar in place between two new bolts.		74. Here it shows us using the impact wrench and the wrecking bar to remove the pinion nut.
75. Now we need to remove the pinion flange. We used a standard two bolt puller to do this. The pinion flange pulls off fairly easy using the puller.		76. Pinion flange removed.
77. Next is the removal of the pinion seal. Place the old pinion nut finger tight on the pinion to protect the threads. Using a screwdriver lightly tap from the edge of the seal to bend enough of the seal edge out to grab with a pair of vise grips		78. Clamp the vise grips on the seal edge and hammer on the vise grips to remove the seal from the housing.The seal will come out rather easily.
79. With the seal removed we can reach into the housing and pull off the oil slinger washer and set it aside.		80. Next we put the old pinion nut back on and lightly tap on the pinion shaft to unseat the pinion bearings. Be careful not to hit too hard as when the bearings unseat the pinion will fly into the housing.
81. We can now reach into the housing and remove the front pinion bearing cone. Pinion bearings must be replaced with the new pinion. The inner pinion bearing is pressed on the pinion shaft and will be removed with the pinion.		82. We now remove the pinion and inner bearing from the housing. The crush sleeve will be on the shaft, so take care not to drop it in the housing.
83. The pinion with bearing cone and crush sleeve.		84. We can now remove the crush seal. This will be discarded as we will replace the sleeve on final installation.
85. We will now clean the housing with parts cleaner.		86. Now we must remove the pinion bearings front and inner bearing cups. This is done by using a punch to drive the cups from the housing. They will come out fairly easily and you must take care to not damage the housing.
87. Here we are removing the inner bearing cup from the housing.		88. Inner bearing cup removed.
89. Here we are removing the front bearing cup from housing.		90. We then remove any sealer from the housing face.

(Swapping the Gears Continued)