Is it difficult to replace the carrier bearing races ?

I picked up a SD 3 pinion LS and want to install it with new bearings and races.

 

You'll need a shim kit for pinion and carrier and a dial gauge to set your backlash.
you'll also need some of the paint stuff to set your pinion to ring alignment so its connecting properly.

 

Thanks Talyn. I'm swapping in the carrier and want to replace the bearings. Is it really that much of a job ?

 

I'm not 100% sure on all that entails on a full floating axle, so as for pressing bearings and such I'm not sure on.

But generally you have to press on bearings, you don't usually want to beat these ones on with a hammer and a board.

You'll need a dial gauge torque wrench to set the pinion drag as well.

As for being a lot of work.
If everything goes back in easily, then yes.
But if your swapping carriers, its a lot more work.

In the end, doing a carrier/rear end is a very very rewarding experience.
But, its better if you have somebody there to help you who's done it before. That really helped me out when I had done it.

 

If you are JUST doing the carrier you will not need a whole bearing kit.The factory shims are selective.You will have to assemble and check backlash then if it is not in spec calculate the difference needed vs shim difference and order from ford.DO NOT use the thin crap most aftermarket kits come with.I have had several the shims worked back out and believe me that gets expensive.

 

He picked up a 10.5 carrier, he has to do a whole swap and re-shim it all.

 

If worse comes to worse you can use the old carrier inner bearing races turned upside down to drive the new ones on.I have pressed,heated to slip,knocked on like above over the years and not had a problem with nor ever seen any adverse affects later from either.
since you are just swaping the carrier you will only have to set backlash.with no pinion change the pinion depth will be the same so the work load is one third of what a complete rebuild would entail.not a big job at all.

 

I should mention a good set of calipers will come in really handy.

Your gonna have to figure out how much spacers you need and how to get the proper amount in the new axle.

You should, in theory, be able to just take the spacers from the doner axle and put them in the axle your installing the carrier in.
It might work out the first time.
You'll still have to shim the pinion properly though.

 

Hmm,i just saw the 10.25 vs 10.50 yea,um just disregaurd my previous comments.i have not done a swap of that nature.i have built hundreds of rears but that is not something i am familiar with.i will have to do some research and get up to speed on the subject.my appologies...

 

It's an easy to do swap and a worthy upgrade.

Puts you from 2 spiders to 3 spiders and is a better axle vs the older 10.25 when running larger tires. Larger tires kill the spiders in the gen 1 and 2 10.25's.

 

So it uses the gears and center section from 10.5 in a 10.25 housing?

 

The only problem im curious about is pinion depth.the ford tool assumes all gears are created equal.it figures depth based on housing and carrier centerline.im not saying it cant be done,(it is obviouslythe a commongreat swap)just curious to the specifics of the setup.

 

From my understanding, yes.

The actual axle housings are the same except for minor differences.

Now that I think of it though, the gen2 pinion and gen3 pinion are not interchangeable.

I know you can put a gen 3 in a gen 2 housing though.

 

Thanks guys. Anyone have an example of what type of press one would use to install the races ? This will be my first carrier swap. No one around I know of that has done this before.

I do have the old races and shims from the donor. Guess I could beat them in as fordman mentioned.

 

Personally, don't waste your time with a 10.25 to 10.5 swap. If you order 10.5 aftermarket gears, you get long pinion 10.25 gears. As for the carrier swap, you'll need several things. One being patience, among other things such as a 0-20 in.lbs. deflecting beam torque wrench (amazon.com under bicycle tools) a caliper, shim kit for both the carrier and pinion since if you replace the carrier bearings, you're almost guaranteed a pinion bearing failure if you don't replace it. I cut off the carrier bearings with an angle grinder and salvaged the shims as you'll use these as a starting point (and most likely will not be changing it unless you change gear ratios). Problem areas for me were the outer pinion bearings as the new ones were press fit and the old ones are slip fit.