Rear End — 5 ½ Hrs
Borrowed two large pipe wrenches to reset the caster on the front axle.
Continue to assemble the rear end. The pinion was hanging up on the carrier. Fixed Set the bearing thrust clearance by surfacing the drive shaft top hat bushing. Had to modify the retaining pin that holds the U-joint in place. The hyatt bearings fit nicely in the new bearing sleeves. I installed the plugs and outer seals. They fit nicely. Fine-tuned all the clearances and bolted the housing together. Sealed the pinion spool with black RTV.
This has been a challenging build. The only part of the rear end that I was able to salvage was the two housings and radius rods. The good news is that the housings are excellent. It's unusual to find housings that aren't bent. I'm really pleased with the smoothness of the rotating assembly. There's no clogging. This will be a quiet, smooth running differential.
I still need to remove the radius rods and file off some powder coating so the castle nuts will fit properly.
