How To Swap Rear End Gears??

Santa brought me a new ring and pinon gear set for my 8.5 chevy rear end. i never tore into a rear end before. what's the do's and dont's. are the axles held in by clips? easy, hard? thanks

 

Buy the rear end setup video put out by Richmond, avalible from either Summit or Jegs. Also have a factory service manual for your rear end on hand. That'll get you started. It's not really hard, just tedious(especially your first few times) because you have to get the wear pattern just right or it will make noise. that means lots of in and out and reshimming.

 

Need a press to press pinion bearing off pinion to put shims under bearing to set pinion depth axels are held in by c clips must take bolt outta pinion shaft in middle of carrier and slide out first then shove axels in and c-clips will fall off usually.Not real tough to do but setting pinion height is critical so make sure its right on or they wont pattern out and gears wont last.,

 

you'll need a press ,and bearing spreader.calipers guessing the gears didnt come with extra shims so you'll need those.a good impact.a new crush sleeve.if you,ve never done it i would take it to a pro ...some guys do it there self but i would have it done by a pro the $150-$200 you'll save wouldnt be that great if you have to have it redone.set it wrong and it could ruin the gear set... and you'll need a dail indicator to set the backlash....

 

here are some GM shop manual page scans, to give you an idea of what you're up against. With some ingenuity you can get by without a lot of the special tools, or make the ones you do need. For shims if you know a guy who has a shop that does this work they usually have a box of used shims that you can borrow and swap the wrong ones for the right ones.

Dial indicator, press, torque wrenches, bfh, various sizes of pipe for driving bearings, etc are the tools you'll need.

 

thanks guys for all the info. maybe i'll check out and see if anybody in indy can do it. it's too cold to be outside not knowing what i'm doing. i do have a bfh and a torch