Over the years I've had to use machine shops from time to time. I recently had to take a pinion gear out of a Dana 60 that a stuck bearing race on it. Dana 60's are out of my normal realm of work so rather than risk messing up the pinion gear I decided to take the pinion gear to a local machine shop and have them remove it. My press wouldn't budge it. It should take them about ten minutes once they set up the press.
I started by first calling the shop last Thursday 6/3/25 and got no answer. I called multiple times both Thursday and Friday and no one answered the phone.
Monday morning I decided to drive to the machine shop and see if they were even still in business. I took the pinion gear with me in hopes if they were open, they'd just press it out and I'd be on my way.
I arrived at the shop at 9:00AM after calling a couple times on the 30-minute drive over low and behold they were open.
I asked one of the two machinist there why they weren't answering the phone and he replied "my bad" that’s all he said.
I explained to him what I needed done and he looked at the pinion and said "not sure if we can do it without destroying the gear"
The second machinist walked over and looked at it and said "we can probably do it but we're busy."
I told him I understood they busy and asked if given the fact it would likely only take them ten minutes if maybe they could squeeze me in.
He replied "Yeah just leave it here and we'll call you when we're done"
No call and I called multiple times yesterday afternoon and no answer.
I get these guys are busy.
There other two machine shops in town are even worse.
One of them I won't do business with because the kept the heads on one of my BMW's for over six months. I finally went and picked up the heads and drove them two hours to another machine shop who had them back to me in a week.
Frustrated, now I've got to do another hour round trip this morning to the shop to only be told they didn't have time to get to it I'm betting.

 

I cringe whenever I have to find somebody to do some work for me. I feel your pain.

 

Point out what seems to me you were given more enough clues these guys weren't the best option so much of your frustration is self-imposed. Anyone giving me that sort of BS lack of straight answers doesn't get this much opportunity to waste me time like this!

I also share your frustration but these days any good shop will be busy, those with the best reputation for quality work even more so Businesses like "machine shops" are slowly growing more and more non-existent and doesn't seem to be getting better as time goes on.

 

That will NOT be your last rodeo with a pinion race that is stuck on there real hard
Better learn to get one off
Most of us seasoned vets use a die grinder or a cutoff wheel
Once you cut and remove the cage and rollers, you can slice the race just about all the way through
Then take a chisel and "crack" the race
* It comes off with your fingers once you crack the race
I can get one off with my Dremel tool before you can even drive to the machine shop
You are NEVER done learning BMW guy
We had guys at the dealer trying to use the press tools and a bearing puller
That does not work well or at all
So,
Do it the EASY way

 

If I had planned on doing any additional Dana 60's I probably would have gone your route. This vans only purpose will be to haul interiors for the BMW's. I lost an BMW 850 CSi headliner driving home in the truck a few months ago. When this van ended up in my lap its the perfect vehicle for hauling expensive cargo.
The good news is once I got the diff apart it was in great shape. It's an open diff so I was just going to go with 80/90w gear oil unless you guys have a better recommendation.

 

Right, the gears will outlast the bearings
So, you replace the bearings and check the pattern, crush a new sleeve if it has that style
Crushing the sleeve will make a man out of you
I used to hava a 83 633 csi
Wish I had a 650 or another csi coupe
They make coupes anymore?