3.73 gear install

You'll want to soak the driveshaft flange bolts and the ABS sensors where they are pressed into the mounting plate. Be careful removing the ABS sensors. There is one bolt that is a torx head that holds the ABS sensor on. AND the sensor is plastic so be careful using tools to get it out. I used a large adjustable wrench (cresant style) to carefully twist the sensor to work it loose.

That is a very nice write-up in the link you provided. If you don't plan on replacing any bearings then be sure to return all of the shims to EXACTLY where they came out. You can even use the same pinion shim if you have a press to remove the pinion bearing. I did this and have absolutely no problems with noisy gears. I even used the original crush collar since it was not fully collapsed.

Another way to deal with the drive shaft bolts that sometimes can be tough to get off is to heat em up a bit......the heat softens the lock tigbt on the bolt threads.

Later
Grady

That is a good walk through. If you want to look at some other good tips, run a search for a thread by Mo_Dingo. He has some good tips and links to other walk throughs.

I soaked the driveshaft bolts, abs sensors, and rear end cover bolts in PB Blaster. Maybe overkill, but everything came out ok for me. Well everything but the sensors, which were corroded in rock solid.

You might want to make sure you have a female torx socket in the right size. It is a fairly specialized item, and i ended up running to get one in the middle of the install. The other thing you might like to have handy is a bolt extractor socket set (sears or any big box has em). It's a set of harded steel sockets with blades on the inside. I had to use it to pull the carrier shaft retaining bolt (which I believe Ford hits with red threadlock that holds very well - so well I rounded over that bolt good).

Good luck.

Somebody had a thread about a simple mod that allows you to do this without having to mess with the ABS sensors. Its been a while since I've seen it. You make one of the holes a little larger for the sensor to slide down in which allows you to pull the c-clip. Thats all I can remember about it.

Later
Grady

Have fun doing the crush collar

Yeah Especially if you are doing this under the car yourself... It took me and my bud to tighten the pinion nut enough.

Chris

The best way to do the crush collar (at least that I found) was to get the long arm ratchet (buy one if you don't have it, you will thank yourself for it) and set it up on the pinion nut. Then come out from under the car and pull from the passenger rear wheel well to tighten. It makes it EASY to tighten, you just lean into it. This approach works best if you have a friend. One of you can stay under the car and set up and pull the ratchet back for a full yank, and make sure its good and on the nut, also make sure the screwdriver, or whatever you are bracing the pinion flang with stays in place. From under there you can swap over to the inch pound torque wrench to measure from there too. The other guy stays in the well, and pulls.

And loosening the pinion nut was a snap too. I just loaded up the breaker bar and propped a jack under the end. About an inch of lift on the end of the breaker bar was plenty to break it loose.