I use a thick, flat blade putty knife to separate the gaskets,housing,diff. Its not uncommon and even if you have to get in there with a flatblade screwdriver you won't hurt anything. I have to do this all the time on the race cars.

Make sure the jack is under it so it doesn't pop out, fall and smash your hand. Not that that ever happens :-)

 

Differential ready to go!

I got the 3rd member out with a little tapping of a screw driver all around. Then I had the axle housing on some milk crates and carefully flipped it upside down. The weight of the differential alone pulled the whole thing out.

Turns out my gears are 2.79, no trac loc (wcz-v1 on the tag). I got an overhaul kit which included all new bearings, crush sleaves and seals. Also got new axle bearings and seals. That total cost about 200 bucks, plus another 16 for shipping.

A guy in Gilroy rebuilt the differential and replaced the axle bearings for me. Cleaned the whole thing, painted, set the pinion, adjusted ring gears and bearings and set the backlash to .010". He replaced the axle bearings too. That was about 300 bucks.

So total is about $500 if your parts are decent and you're not looking to upgrade.

Does anyone know how many lbs to torque the 3rd member to the axle housing?

 

25 to 40 lb-ft.

Don't forget to seal mating surface w/ silicone and copper washers under nuts.