I hate working on differentials!! First time I have taken one apart and I hated every second of it. The smell of gear oil made me want to vommit the whole time and that damn pin took forever to get out and my poor fingers are proof. I had to take a die grinder to the carrier to get the aussie to slide into place which got metal chips everywhere and had to clean the whole thing again. Got all those damn little springs in and then realized I forgot a spacer and had to redoe the whole thing over again. Then I stripped a brake line putting it back together and then pumped/bled the brakes without the drum in place and blew one side of the brakes off. One rough day . I tried to do the tire rotation thingy while the truck was off the ground and I couldn't get it to ratchet at all. Stayed locked and would't budge. Said fudge it and lowered it for a test drive. Pulled out of the Garage and a Loud ass POP? After that seemed to drive fine and I must say I hardly notice this thing. I tried several U turns as hard as I could to see if it would suck ass and all I heard was a little ratcheting. Even gassed to to try and lock it up and no tire squeal. It did jump around one corner that was kinda scary but nothing major. If this is all I have to worry about then I'm glad I didn't waste my money on a ARB or any other high priced locker. Can't wait to try out my only modification offroad .

 

Welcome to the school of hard knocks. You can't expect to do anything the best the first time around. I would have had a professional install mine and I am a mechanic!

 

From what I understand, Aussies arnt too bad to install. I think I would go at installing one, but a full on detroit.... no way! Nice job on the install, I will be tackling it in a few weeks too.

 

I'm pretty mechanically inclined and I wish I would of taken it somewhere. Well at least the 3rd member. Would of gladly paid 200 bucks for someone to put this thing in.

 

poopy- I didn't hear you mention anything about re-setting the backlash...or getting the carrier bearings with the right tension....how'd you do there?

 

I don't believe you have to set the backlash on the install, if you mark it correctly.

 

true....