I just did the front gears on my 97 and belive me, it is much easier to work on with the diff. out. It is very easy to get out and does not wiegh very much. There are only three main bolts and then the driveshaft and cv halfshafts. My 4 wheel drive is not working right now either. But that is because my wife dicided that she was a wheeling queen and blew up the cv halfshaft on the passenger side.