Do you have a slide hammer? If so you can make something that will grab the back of the race and pull it out. They make 2/3 jaw internal pullers but I don't think you will have enough room with the pinion in there.

 

So I got into the diff, the rear bearing looked fine as did the race (when I got the bearing out), also the pinion had no play up and down/side to side so I opted to keep it in there as I have more faith (albeit just a smidge) in the OEM bearing vs the aftermarket one I got.

I have everything put back together but my issue is I can’t seem to torque down the nut to spec. I’m doing this on my back so it doesn’t help but I’m now where near the 210 ft/lbs needed. The manual says to do this with the wheels off and a special tool but I can’t obtain it and everything I saw online said doing it on the ground was fine, just to block the wheels off. I also have the parking brake on and every time I apply force I can hear the springs in the assembly straining but I can’t get the pinion nut any tighter. Any suggestions?

 

A large pipe wrench to hold the pinion yoke in place, and torque it down.

 

Unfortunately I have the circular pinion yolk, so the only non-round surface is the nut itself, unless I’m missing something?

 

A good pipe wrench will still grab it.... 210 ft/lbs worth of grab though? That's a good question. Chain wrench, or strap wrench would likely work as well.

 

I was able to get the pinion nut back on (jacked up the truck, bolted two of the driveshaft flange bolts in and finagled a ball joint separator between them with a pipe on the end that was long enough to push against the floor while I used the torque wrench) and everyhting back together again. While I had everything taken apart I tested the pinion to see if there was any movement, which there was not so the outer bearing is at least okay. Got it all bolted up again and have driven about 120 miles since then but unfortunately I still have a leak, however, the whining noise has either decreased substantially or changed pitch. It still occurs at about the same speed but it's now a higher pitched whine so something is definitely up with the gearing, although the magnet in the differential had virtually no metal on it whatsoever so hopefully whatever is up is minor? Unless someone else has an idea I don't think there is much more I can do to mess with this short of pulling it all apart and getting someone to rebuild it.

 

Did you happen to inspect the u joints(drive shaft)?

 

I checked the U-joint at the connection the pinion flange for movement and it seemed fine? I didn't notice any movement outside of the normal range of motion and it didn't look damaged. The driveshaft is definitely original though, one of the last original parts on this thing (besides the leaf springs lol) so 208,000 miles at this point. Is it possible that one side of the U joint might be fried and causing noise but if the rest aren't it might not appear to be an issue when I inspected it? Unfortunately driveshafts/differentials are not my strong suit.

 

A u joint may look OK until you take the caps off. Only way to know for sure.