I had already started on the gear install previously, but I ran into a snag, and i'm waiting for a carrier support to come in
Here's some of those steps, i'll finish up this install post soon.
First the pinion gear and the support come out the front of the housing. That bearing you see down in the housing, supports the back side of the pinion gear, and that's one of the things that make these such strong differentials.
Before pulling the carrier caps, I make sure and mark one.
Then the carrier can be removed from the housing, and once I removed the ring gear bolts, the carrier can be split to see the spider gears.
Another strength of the 9", the carrier completely surrounds the spider gears, instead of having 2 large openings in the carrier.
Also, there are 4 center spider gears on a cross shaft that looks like this "+", and 2 side spider gears that the axles go into. Much more gear surface and support to spread out the load.
A common area of damage, that pinion support is broken where the the lowest bolt is, that is the part I am waiting on.
I don't have my new pinion support yet, but since on the 9" I need to install the carrier next anyways, I might as well do that.
Unlike Dana style axles, the carrier does not have to be removed to get the pinion gear out and change pinion depth shims, that's because the pinion and the support unbolt and can be removed from the front side.
So once I have the carrier in place, I will only need to use the side adjuster nuts to move it around as I set the pinion depth and backlash, it won't need to be removed again.
But first I need to change the pinion bearing in the case. I've already cleaned up the housing and clamped it in the vise. And here you see that bearing I have already changed.
That bearing was not real tight in the case, it was retained with this wedged in clip, I used an few small screw drivers and pics to get under that clip and pop it out.
Then I drive the bearing in and then the clip right back on top of the new bearing.
Now I can press the carrier bearings on to the Detroit Locker carrier, whenever I have a bearing start to get crooked on me like this one, I release the pressure and move it over a little so the press is more centered towards the high side.
Once one bearing is on, I need to set the press up in a way that it is not pushing against that bearing, these bearing cages set a little higher then the inner race, and I could damage the cage if I pressed against it. So the lower bearing is down below the press surface on this setup.
Then after bolting on the new ring gear with loc-tite on the new cleaned bolts, and the bolts torqued in a star pattern to 60lbs, I can put the carrier in the housing.
It's a little tricky to get everything in place at once, there are bearing races on each side under the caps, I first lubed the carrier bearings and then I set the carrier with those races over the bearings, down into the housing, and then awkwardly held it in place, while I put both caps on and screwed the bolts down to where the caps were almost touching the housing.
Then I put some anti-sieze on the adjuster nuts and carefully screwed those in from each side, at the same time tightening down the cap bolts and making sure the nuts still turned freely as the cap bolts got tight.
That's all I can do for now, until I get the new pinion support I need.
I also ordered a socket thet fits those side adjuster nuts, I didn't really need it to take everything apart or screw the nuts in to this point, but when it comes time to set the carrier bearing pre-load, i'll need to torque those adjuster nuts to about 90lbs, and i'll want a socket that the torque wrench can be used on.
So I ordered one from completeoffroad.com for about $39.