congrats. so what did you buy? a carrier, spiders, pin, clutch kit, or did you buy a new carrier that was pre-assembled? and if so, can that be installed inside the pumpkin w/o removing the ring/pinion? link to it?

 

The ring gear is mounted to the carrier. If a new carrier is used it will require the R&P to be set up again for proper gear mesh. If you just rebuild the current carrier, it should still be checked but it shouldn't need any shim changes.

 

Ok, I'll try to resolve some confusion. I bought the carrier with ring gear attached in the pic below. I got it off ebay for $200 shipped. It was off a 97 ram with 3.55 gears. The rear end was fully rebuilt less than 10k miles ago according to the seller (by looking at the clutch packs I believe him). So, he sent me the carrier with new clutch packs, mounted Timken carrier bearings with races, and the ring gear still attached. I wasn't expecting the ring gear and was going to swap mine onto the carrier. After getting it, and seeing it had the ring gear still attached, I gambled and left it on. It looked better than mine, plus I have no bench or vise to remove and replace mine, so it saved me a trip and money to a shop. I know you should always keep rings and pinions as pairs, but I checked and rechecked the contact patterns and backlash at various points and was satisfied. I also bought new axle bearings and seals. All in all, I replaced everything in the axle EXCEPT the pinion. Once I got the carrier in, I followed the instructions from the video I posted. I had a side adjuster tool that I got from ebay for $50 shipped as well as a dial indicator and base ($40). I got the backlash set between 0.006 and 0.008 all around the ring gear. I torqued it all up and filled it 80w90 limited slip fluid and let er rip. Before I did this it had a terrible whine and grind after 25mph. Now it is silent and tight. The posi works great too. I believe the side adjusters and bearings caps were just too loose on the old carrier because they were too easy to get off. Seeing as how the old carrier looked though and the fact I added posi, I'm glad I did it. Total parts costs was about $250. Tools another $80-$100. Ebay has used trac loks all the time. If you can find a good one, get it. It isn't that bad of a job. Again, my pinion was firm and fine, so if you have pinion issues the job will be more difficult. I did this in a carport on jackstands, so nearly anyone could do it.

 

That's the beauty of these rears. There are NO shims. If you have the side adjuster tool, it's a pretty easy job, just time consuming getting the backlash just right.