Anyone know whats involved when installing a mini spool in an 8"? Posi carriers seem a bit on the expensive side.
Also when you remove the main caps, make sure you mark them as to which side they came off of. They are line bored and honed in place so they must go back on the side they was removed from.
The guys have given you some good basic tips but I have a few other things to add (I never make short posts). Most 8in carriers do not have screws holding them together, the trac-loks do but on open 8in just remove the ring gear bolts and also the small roll pin that keeps the diffy gear shaft in place. Some can be done before splitting the halves and some not. This is not an easy job but if you have the right tools is simple. Make sure you clean the whole assy. before starting, makes it easier and less messy on the bench. After removing the diff. gears and spacer washers on each side of them, install the spool using the spacers from the gears. I recommend installing a new shaft also, but thats up to you. Put the two halves back together and install the ring gear and torque the bolts. If all the bearings and races are good reinstall the carrier into the housing and snug the cap bolts. Start the adjuster nuts and screw them in on the bearings until the ring gear is positioned into the pinion. To tighten up the gear lash, back the opposite one off and tighten the other in to force the ring gear against the pinion. Marking the adjusters usually will get you back close to proper gear lash but you really need to use a dial indicator to be accurate. .008 to .010 is what to shoot for. You can make a wrench to fit in the adj. holes or sometimes use a punch and hammer, your call on that one. Torque the cap bolts and install the adjuster locks There are some who can set the gear lash by feel and have in my day used a piece of paper rotated between the gears. If it sheared clean leave it, if it did not move the gear in closer. Dial indicator is the true way of doing it. Many manuals and some web sites explain it more accurately. Might be a good idea to get an exra 8in center section and use it for the spool and practice if you have doubts about doing it yourself. Nothing tried, nothing gained, as they say.
Wish I had read this BEFORE I did mine. I did mine from scratch without measuring everything beforehand...
Two more tips: Use locktite on the ring gear bolts. I used grease on the gear teeth to reset the gear lash. You want the pinion gears to make a centered pattern in the grease on the ring gear teeth.
Definitely...I put mine together and didn't remember if I did this. So this year when i dropped the axles for new bearings and to test to make sure they weren't twisting, I pulled one and found that it was lock-tited. Got me to stop worrying about it, as well as the chance for twisting axles.
