Marc's out of El Segundo, California and sent both diffs for a 488 re-gear. Solid collars and new master kits were included. This link shows the front 4 cylinder 3rd being set-up.

The carrier bearings slipped on loosely so 2 drops of this sleeve retainer compound would lock the bearings in place.

Compression was used overnight to allow the compound to set-up.

.056" for the solid collar shim value turned out to be the right value to give 15inch/pounds of pinion drag. The 080 pinion shim was not so lucky... I had to change it twice again to get the correct depth.

The Park Tool TW-1 makes pinion pre-load measurements so easy. As many times as I've done this, I still use the tool for every install.

Red Loctite 272 and 75 ft/lb of torque.

deep

deep

A complete teardown has to be done to change out the pinion shim. This tool makes quick work of removing the inner pinion bearing.

The bearing is actually pulled off by the 360 degree capture of the race cage itself.

Better but still deep.

deep

right on the money.

good.

Getting the BL set to 007 and getting the CBPL at 150 ft/lbs is a little time consuming because, half the time, it's generally done with the bearing cap bolts about 1/2 turn loose and numerous hits with the hammer to set the bearings. Then when the bolts are tightened, the BL changes a little....then loosen the bolts and crank the tension in the direction needed to bring the BL in spec. and hope it falls in the range desired.

Sometimes, when rapping the seal in with a hammer, the tiny circular spring on the underside of the seal falls out. Always eyeball down the center to see if it did. This has happened twice to me that I know of. Here, I'm using some gear oil on the seal lip to prevent a dry start-up.

The confidence level is very high that the pinion will stay tight...forever. Solid collar is the only way to go. 200 ft/lbs and red Loctite #272 keep it tight.

A little black paint and it's heading back to Marc :)