There are surprisingly few threads on these, but they've all been very informative. So this is more of a "just making sure I've got this straight" question, prior to working on my driver's side.

Mine has a lot of extra play that I noticed when I replaced the outer u-joint the other night, so I ordered a used output shaft assembly with the bearing, and all that. So while I wait for it to arrive, it seems that the process should be undoing the four bolts, releasing the clip or whatever, and then the assembly unscrews from the diff all as one unit, and the installation is the reverse? It's assuming I can get those stupid bolts off. The passenger side never budged, so I'm hoping this side goes better. It looks like I have more wiggle room for tools on this side, so maybe I can get lucky. I just didn't want to get lucky on them and have something else jump out that needs some crazy tool or process that I'm not prepared for.

 

DO NOT mess with the castellated part of the diff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That sets the crownwheel/pinion engagement depth and preload on the carrier bearing!!!!!!!!

Just use the circlip and shims to replace the stub axle (output shaft).

bob

 

sooo... touch the wrong thing, and things explode... that sounds reassuring lol.

 

After you get the halfshaft off by removing the 4 nuts, all you need to do is remove the circlip and you should be able to pull or gently pry the stub out. No need to unthread the aluminum piece like motorcarman mentioned, but it should have a small plate bolted near the side that prevents it from turning, so as long as you don't intentionally remove that piece and start turning it, you should be OK.

On the junkyard donor car that I got my good stubs from, it took a good bit of prying to get the stubs out. On my XJR, a couple light hammer taps and I was able to pull both sides out by hand, so YMMV.

 

Ok, sounds good. I've never tackled any such animals before, and the part that I ordered off ebay seems to be the complete assembly with that collar, so at a glance it looked more like unscrew old, and screw in the replacement. I guess I'll see how it goes when I get to it next week. Ultimate goal is to make the bad bearing, not a bad bearing any more, and this seemed like the cheapest way to do it for the time being, instead of ponying up such a ridiculous figure for just a bearing, and then the labor on top of that. Does the stub and bearing come out of that collar as one, do you know? Or am I in for more than a simple out/in job?

 

Remove your old one, leave the original shims (if any) and install the replacement.
The bearing assy is already shimmed to the collar so I always use the factory setup shims in the original diff.

bob

 

 

Are you referring to the wheel hub bearings???

bob

 

Sorry, I mean the bearings on the lower pivot pin, whatever they're actually called officially. The rear-most one must be basically non-existent, based on the movement of the assembly once I was in a better position to see everything. Looks like per a few DIY write-ups I've seen on here, they should be relatively easy to tackle.