I wouldn't do that. If you're just replacing the pinion seal you can rotate the pinion back and forth within the backlash and feel the preload by hand. If there's no drag it's too loose, you should feel some resistance. If you pull the carrier out you're making a lot of work for yourself, and the carrier bearings are under preload, too, so reinserting the shims can be tough. Some ring and pinion sets are non-hunting, meaning they have to mesh together one way to avoid noise. There would be a paint mark on 2 ring gear teeth and one pinion tooth.
To clarify, my reason for even contemplating taking the carrier out is that after replacing the seal , i have a whine on acceleration that wasnt there before. I didn’t touch anything else (put nut back in same place) so I couldn’t see where i could have affected anything but the preload. That’s why i wanted to double check preload with actual dial type torque wrench, in which case -gotta remove the carrier for that.
BUT, thats why i asked. Im not sure how deep i want/should go down this rabbit hole.
What i can say is the flange has no play other than backlash and its not hard to turn. It feels close to what it was before i did anything, maybe a touch less drag if anything.
I was just trying to get it as right as possible before i call it done and im not sure how much i should worry about the noise on acceleration. I don’t want to tear up more than i fix.
Now, if anybody has a general range as to what preload should be WITH carrier, that would be great. But im guessing it doesn't work that way.
Thanks for the replies.