As received...apparently it ran low on oil...
only 1/2 cup drained out I am told. The 
bearings are shot and the ring gear has major
abrasion marks. I ordered a new 4.56 Yukon
r/p and master kit from Randys. Ordered 
on Wed and had it Monday eve.


 
I don't have any close up shots of 
the etchings on the ring gear but I
did not recognize them. Never the 
less, the r/p seemed to be hi-quality
by visual. Setting up a '4 cylinder'
ring/pinion(79~85 applications) into
a V6 3rd(88~95) is easy.....just that
the shim behind the pinion head has
to grow a little. Requires about .140" 
more than the typical shim value for a
total shim thickness of about .215~.245" range.


 
This V6 housing did not have the access 
cut-outs that all the 4 cylinder versions
do......so when trying to chisel out the
old bearing cups, it's easy to chinger the
surfaces as shown. Those surfaces must
be leveled again somehow whether it be a 
flat punch/sanding/dremel/filing.


 
Everything is layed out....
mostly cleaned and inspected. 


 
The factory 4-pinion open diff was taken
apart and inspected due to the low oil 
condition. All looked very good.


 
Now here's the trick. Included in the 
master kit is a stack of much
larger shims designed to fit nicely 
behind the main pinion bearing cup.
Using a stack of them here relieves 
the need for the whole .243 behind
the pinion head. Here in the pic, I 
have .085" which means I will place
only .158" behind the pinion. A
'side effect' of such a shim behind 
the cup is that the crush sleeve will
not work right unless it has a shim
added to it as shown later.

Editor's note---I now place the entire
.243" shim behind the pinion head....there
is no strength loss or any other 
reason not to do so. 4-5-2008 ZUK


 
I like using a soft punch....one 
that is not close to the hardness
of the bearing cup....that way, no
damage or nicks occur to the cup.
Brass punches flake too
much for this application.

edit---Best to stay away from all punches...
use an old race to evenly "pat down" the new race.
Using a punch could result in "oscillating" pinion
preload measurements with the torquw wrench.
1-8-2011 ZUK


 
I had 2 thick shims on
 hand that put me at .155".


 
Just comparing how much bigger the V6
bearings are. The V6 pinion bearing 
is a monster. Not shown but the V6
pinion bearing dwarfs even the one
on the imfamous Dana 60. The 2 bearings
on the right are carrier bearings.
A properly tightened up large carrier
bearing is best for minimal ring 
deflections.....the larger carrier bearing
probably helps in the over-all strength of
the ring gear install at least a little bit.


 
The surface was filed flat to 
minimize run-out...ring gear 
bolts tightened with to 70
ft-lb with loctite.


 
The carrier bearings were tapped on
with a pissed-off hammer. In the pic,
the ring gear teeth are NOT in direct
contact with the steel vice.


 
With the carrier bearings on...carrier
inside the 3rd....carrier bearings real
tight and 7 thou backlash....I ran the
pattern and it's too deep.


 
Tear it back down...remove .010" from 
behind the pinion head and this is 
dead nuts right on zingo bingo(total
shim thickness final=.230").


 
Coast side is good.


 
Owner of this 3rd requested a crush
sleeve which meant one more teardown 
to actually install the crush on the shaft.


 
I just don't care for the
loose fit (side to side)....


 
A nice thick black rubber o-ring would
probably work 'cleaner' but I wanted
something to center that crush 
properly....so I used 11 wraps
of clean-room tape. Yes, the heat
on the pinion shaft will likely
destroy the tape....but it just
needs to center it for the actual
crush for me.
The small screwdriver is showing the
extra thick shim that was added to
offset the effect of the 'pinion cup shim'.


 


 
Last steps....install the splash shield
followed by the pinion seal. Grease on the
rubber prevents a dry start-up condition. 


 
Clean threads and Loctite on the new nut.


 
Pic of my method used to secure the 
yoke while crushing the collar....


 
Leverage is your friend.


 
With the bearings cap bolts about 1/4
turn loose, run the CB pre-load up to 
about 75 ft-lb while maintaining the 
.007" backlash. Sometimes, the tightening
of the cap bolts or the rapping with 
the hammer near the bearing cups 
(to shock the cups into a natural position)
is enough to cause the BL to change
so some tweaking is needed again.



Another date-code. Done deal.