Rear end

Next it was time to redo the diff. I wanted to replace all the rear end bearings, and rebuilding the diff didn't seem to be to complicated.
The rear axles came out easily enough. Only problem I had was that the outer bearing races stayed in the axle housing. These were removed later on with a slide hammer. The bearings came off the axle shafts easily enough. I drilled the retainers, then broke them with a chisel. The bearing races were a bit tougher. Those I cut with a wheel, and then again, broke them with a chisel. The main thing is to not to fuck up or mar the axle shaft in any way. 
With that done installing the new bearings was fairly straight forward. It helps when you have a friend with a hydraulic press in his laundry room.
As for the diff., I replaced the bearings, and all the seals. I replaced the crush sleeve with a solid bushing. I then torqued the pinion nut to 200 ft lb repeatedly, using different combinations of shims until the pre load was within spec. This was probably the most time consuming, and tedious piece of the whole affair. For the differential gear i used a dial indicator to measure, and adjust backlash. I used prussian blue, and adjust the gear back and forth until I got a good pattern.
While everything was out, I cleaned up the axle housing. I then drilled a hole in the bottom of the diff carrier, and welded a nut on it to add a diff fluid drain.
Re assembly was simple, and everything went together as it was supposed.
I wish I would have taken better pictures throughout, but I wasn't thinking about stupid blog posts at the time. Aplologies.

Here's a wheel bearing as it came out. Not that great. As you can see the outer race has stayed behind. Also, I apparently removed the retainer before I took the picture.

Axles. out.

A Ford 9'' blown apart on the bench. Not that it matters but the ratio on this one is 3:0.

Here I am re installing a rear axle.

Correct.




I used the shim kit from Yukon gear and axle. Purchased from Randy's Worldwide.

I found the following videos on Youtube. Extremely helpful.
Check it out before you start. Starts at Part 1, and you should be fine from there.