I promptly damaged my original 5.13 gears when my aluminum housing tore itself apart Upon dismantle, come to find several chipped teeth from the ring and pinion. Purchased a yard housing just for the R&P. Dealership wanted near $400 just for a new set. Received the housing, tore it apart. Ring gear looked great and I had high hopes for an easy swap from the aluminum housing to the cast steel housing. Well, the pinion looked like this





The magnetic drain plug was filled with fine grain steel. I was hoping it was only the breakin.
What appears for the braking of 2 R&Ps is that the pinion depth is not set correct. The mesh paint showed that the ring gear was only getting about 1/4 of the pinion contact. Makes you wonder if both front gear sets were assembled by the same guy, then think about the rear axle.

I've convinced the dealer's part counter for a cheaper R&P - $325 out the door. Will let you know how they 'fit' in.....

Installed the cast steel housing with my dealer-new r&p 5.13's. Used the stock shim and eveything looked tip top shape. Definately better than stock installed. Even the lap was off on the new gears.

Took better of 4 hours to get it all together. I still had to disconnect the strut upper mount, tie rod, caliper, and abs sensor, and loosed the ball joint (kept the axle in this time). Still what a PITA. I had to get my 9 yr son work the jack so that I could wiggle the passenger CV into diff housing. That took more time than I anticipated or wanted (~20 minutes). I once thought that the shaft came out of the cv as the boot had lots of angle on it.  I also had to 'correct' the damage on the cv seal collar. It's what you push on to pull the cv out of the diff. There is a little edge which sits into the 'V" of the housing seal. so be careful.

I once thought that the shaft came out of the cv as the boot had lots of angle on it.  I also had to 'correct' the damage on the cv seal collar. It's what you push on to pull the cv out of the diff. There is a little edge which sits into the 'V" of the housing seal. so be careful.

Any pics of the "V" area that you are talking as I need to replace the seal on the pass. side.
George

I didn't replace my seals in the steel housing. They looked rather great. In my old housing, I'll see if I can get a close-up picture of the seal and the 'slot' which the cv collar fits into. I won't be able to show you the collar as it's installed. I did have to smooth it out before the installation. Recommendation: when using a pry bar to push against the inner cv, only go in ~1/2". Once you start to push it out, you'll see what I'm talking about with the raise lip. Oh, btw, no parts stores have these. If you bring in your old cv, you pull the collar off and place in on the new cv.

If you are going to replace that passenger seal, you should be able to do it with the axle housing in the truck. Though, obviously, you'll have to pull the axle shaft. The easiest way I've found to remove the axle is to remove the strut/knuckle off the control arm. In order to do this, you will need to pull off the caliper and ABS sensor and hang them out of the way. Next is the tie rod. It's not that easy to get off if never been off before. I had to leave my nut on the threads and hammer the nut to get the tie rod to come out of the knuckle.

With the strut/knuckle flopping in your hands, you would think this would be enough to get the axle out of the housing. It may but you'll have to man-handle it some. This is how I got it back in the other day. My son was working the floor jack on the control arm as I was handling the inner cv into the housing. Good luck.

Here are a couple of shots from the long side of the axle.


The lip on the inside is the top of the 'V'. This is where the cv collar sits in. I had to trim my edges of the collar to make them smooth or they would have tear into the seal easily.  

Well changed my leaky pass. side seal this week-end. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would only took about 1.5 hrs and that was with a trip to the store.  I do have say that getting that shaft out was not fun.  And when a final get it out I thought that aI had broken the cv at first.  All I did was unbolt the A-arm from the ball joint let it down a little to free up the strut and use the strut as a slide hammer of sorts.  ::)  Now getting that seal out was a pain in |removethispart|@ss and back in was no better.  But we are all back to gether now and no leaks 

Thanks for the pics and what not they help alot.

George

George,
Want to give me a hand with mine? I had to change my sway bar links yesturday, ( they wore out to the point that they had pulled out of the ball and socket.  ) and noticed my passenger side seal is leaking bad too.

Also I finally have air conditioning again thanks to Hawk.  $166 for a compressor shipped to my house.  I couldn't find a better price anywhere!    Hawk is awesome!

Jeff