ok, so the trick with just taking the 3 diff mount bolts out does not work. I fought my diff for 3 hrs trying to get it out....had someone helping me too... ended up taking the entire mounts off the front side, and having to micro loosen the two verticle rear dif mount bolts that hold that aluminum piece with the stud to the third to get it off.... the driveshaft flange would not sneak past the steering joint and one of the transmission bolt locations, it was about 1/8 inch too narrow.....

soo, any tips to make the replacement not so frustrating??? i was fully expecting to knock it out in less than an hour... at least thats what the searching i found on here and ttora lead me to believe....

only damage done so far was pulling a cv boot off by accident, so ill have to repack that one and re clamp it... any suggestions on that one?

 

If you didn't tear the rubber and you didn't lose any grease I'd say you are fine to simply re-clamp it. You could freshen the grease by giving a few pumps inside the boot with a grease gun.

 

Yeah, no tear, it just pulled off