Another must have is a carrier/pinion bearing puller. The bearing have to come off each time the shims are changed from one side to the other. This tool ensures that the bearings are not damaged.
I don’t have a bearing press which would be nice. I can get the bearings on easy enough with a dead blow plastic hammer and this short length of tubing and a small maul. The hammer gets the bearing mostly on and then a couple of wacks with the maul on the end of the tube and the bearing seats fine.
Having problems with the fitting. I started with the shims that were already on the TT unit that I had earlier put together. Some how nothing is going well. The pinion ends up grabbing and the unit doesn’t want to turn. Usually it happens on one spot only. Totally confusing.
Also, I’m having a problem seeing the wear pattern with white grease so I picked up this tube of Prussian Blue from NAPA. Less than $10. So now I’ll remove shims from the TT unit until I get slack without expanding the housing and go from there.
A buddy told of a situation where the ring gear would grab on the case when the carrier bearing was tightened. The 3.07 ring is noticeably bigger than the 3.31 unit. So I ground off a likely spot, but to no avail. It was still grabbing. So back to the easy chair and more thought.
Next: success at last