How to Remove the Carrier from the housing.

[rcfalcon56]

I've got the pumpkin out of the support beam and I removed the bearing caps but the carrier refuses to budge and won't come out of the housing. Is there a trick to this or do I just pry until it comes out. I don't want to damage anything as I'm only removing the diff guts in order to clean everything out. Once clean I'll reinstall everything the way it was. The diff had water leak into it and who knows what else so I want to give everything a good flush before I put it all back together. Thanks.

 

[4x4junkie]

The carrier should come out with a bit of prying, though ideally you would use a housing spreader to release the carrier bearing preload, then it should lift right out.
Make sure the shims that will be on either side of the carrier bearing races don't get mixed up (also be sure the bearing caps go back on the same way, there should be a letter stamped into them & the housing to help facilitate this).

Also mark the pinion nut if you remove it so you can put it back precisely where it was (this affects the pinion bearing preload) and use Loctite on it (ideally you're supposed to reassemble it with a new crush sleeve and pinion nut whenever it's removed).

Hope that helps

 

[adsm08]

I feel like this should be obvious, but I am asking because you didn't specify...

Did you remove the axle shafts?


If so, then yes, just get a bar in and pry. The carrier will come loose before you break anything. If you don't have them out, you need to.

 

[rcfalcon56]

Thanks for the replies.

4x4Junkie
I don't have access to a case spreader so I guess I'll just have to pry the carrier out. Thanks also for the heads up about the shims and bearing caps. I've noted the letter orientation and position on the caps so that simplifies things greatly. I don't plan on removing the pinion as at least the slinger seems to be doing its job still. The axle seals will need to be replaced though.

adsm08 Yes, the axle shafts have all been removed prior to attempting to remove the carrier. And thanks for asking even though it may seem trivial. It can be an easy step to overlook, especially for a noob like me.

It appears that the carrier has been removed before as there are dents and scraps on the carrier housing that shouldn't be there and one of the bearing caps has some fairly deep gouges on one of the outside surfaces.

After getting the pumpkin separated from the axle support housing there are also some gouges on the front cover from the ring gear. The gear itself seems to be OK but is this something I should be concerned with? I plan on using some emery cloth to remove the burrs from the gouges so they can't contact the ring gear again. There are no dents on the outside of the housing so it looks like the pumpkin was slammed forward into the front of the axle support housing. Is this normal?

Thanks again.

 

[4x4junkie]

It appears that the carrier has been removed before as there are dents and scraps on the carrier housing that shouldn't be there and one of the bearing caps has some fairly deep gouges on one of the outside surfaces.

After getting the pumpkin separated from the axle support housing there are also some gouges on the front cover from the ring gear. The gear itself seems to be OK but is this something I should be concerned with? I plan on using some emery cloth to remove the burrs from the gouges so they can't contact the ring gear again. There are no dents on the outside of the housing so it looks like the pumpkin was slammed forward into the front of the axle support housing. Is this normal?

Thanks again.

I can't say if that's a concern without seeing pictures of it.
If the gouges are not in a load-bearing area of the caps or housing, it's possible it's not something to be worried about.

 

[rcfalcon56]

Just a follow up. I managed to get the carrier out and found some pretty substantial gouges in the case. I decided to take the pinion out and see what was up and to my surprise, about 5 broken teeth were behind the interior slinger and oil baffle! Apparently the previous owner had had a gear come apart and they replaced it without taking the pinion assembly out!
I ended up replacing the outer pinion bearing along with the inner baffle (which was chewed up beyond belief) and the outer baffle since it was bent up some.
Since it was "rednecked" when they rebuilt it the last time and since it has over 250,000 miles on it, I'm not too concerned about all the tolerances in the thing. If it craters again I'll find a rebuilt unit and go from there.
I also found an easier way to get the carrier out. There are some slots molded into the case around the bearings. You can see them easily from the outside of the case and they are about 1/4" wide. I used a brass punch and rested it on the shim surface and gently tapped with a hammer and the shim comes out fairly easy. Once that is out it's a simple matter to remove the carrier. It beats prying the thing out.