How the bleep do you remove the carrier from the front differential housing on a 1989 Sidekick? My shop manual walked off at some point and the internet is drawing a complete blank so I'm making a video for Youtube to show how it's done. Once I figure it out that is. Just got a Sidekick with this diff that supposedly has 5.38 gears in it. I have a feeling it's really a 5.12 but there are no markings on the case and no guarantee it's the original. Decided I may as well pop one open while I have it out of a rig and rob the gears if it is indeed a 5.38 R&P. So far I've removed the bolts around the carrier, looked in both the drain hole and fill hole for access to a clip, saw none. Found a clip inside the carrier on the output shaft that I pulled through the stub axle side. Tried carefully hammering with a dead blow to remove the output shaft. Nothing moved and don't want to hit any harder without further advice.

Essentially it's remove the half shafts/CV axles, unbolt the third member and yank it out - it appears you're having trouble with the half shafts - there are snap ring style circlips that secure the half shafts into the diff side gears, use either a dead blow hammer (left side) or a slide hammer puller, (right side).

Essentially it's remove the half shafts/CV axles, unbolt the third member and yank it out - it appears you're having trouble with the half shafts - there are snap ring style circlips that secure the half shafts into the diff side gears, use either a dead blow hammer (left side) or a slide hammer puller, (right side).

Thank you, was able to pop it right out,now I can finish the video.