i knew this was coming next. those are dinky little bolts.
just drill out the centers a little (or a lot) and hit em with an ease out.

 

ok so i got the vacuum switch housing off and I can see the inner shaft. The darn thing won't slide out and there isn't enough room to get a good grip on it, what should i try next? the only thing I can think of is the carrier isn't aligned.

 

Nevermind i got it out FINALLY! The carrier popped out and now its time to start and fix everything. My question is when I pulled off the housing motor, a bunch of fluid spilled out. Do i have to fill it somewhere or is that from the housing of the diff?

 

Fluid as in gear oil you mean right? If so then you are fine just make sure when you refill the diff that you wait to put the plug back in and give it a few to work it's way into the axle housings and keep adding till it is full. Try to be on as level of ground as possible when filling the diff.

 

nothing special on the oil in the cad. its just diff oil from the pumpkin that slings out into the axle tube on the passenger side. the oil seal is on the outside edge of the CAD opening.

your next challenge will be to replace that passenger side seal. see the pavement article for his all-thread tool, or buy the expensive one.

also - take a look at the bearing on the inside edge of the cad and the bushing on the outside edge. replace if necessary.

 

Ok so i finally got around with taking the bearings off the side of the carrier. I found out that there are shims/spacers. Can I just slap the new bearings on the old spacers or do i have to re space the bearings?!

 

You should be pretty close with those shims that are on there now. they are there to set the gear mesh from ring to pinion. Keep each side seperate from the other and do not mix up sides. Clean one set of shims at a time and clean the carrier good then reinstall the shims per side and install bearing then do the same to the other side. If you don't have marking paint you can use a little automotive paint that comes in a spray can and spray some into a small cup and take a brush and paint it on the ring gear in a small spot and rotate the ring and pinion and see if the mesh looks centered in the gears. This is the part that is tricky to get right. If you don't feel comfortable in whether or not it looks right take a pic of it after reinstalling the carrier and torquing the caps back down and having applied the paint and rotated the assembly and we can tell you if it looks right. In most cases you should be darn near close to set if you put the new bearings back on correctly and don't over press the bearings when installing them.

 

Ok thank you so much. i kept everything so I know which shims go on what side. I work at a machine shop so i can measure each shims and make sure everything is good. I will let you know how everything turns out. Thank you once again.