Well I finally did my first gear swap. I got a set of used 3.55's with a TrakLoc Limited Slip carrier to replace my open diff with 2.73's.

I took it for a test drive and it works great, very satisfied with the change to the 3.55's. No noise coming from the rear, but after about a 15 mile trip the differential housing is hot to the touch. I don't know if this is normal or a sign of trouble to come ... Someone please respond with experience/ opinion?

It took me two days as I was trying to be real methodical with my measurements and not mess up by being in a hurry. I am satsfied that my pinion depth and preload on pinion bearing are good and I did all I could to get the paint pattern centered, but my shim set did not include any super thin shims. I noticed that the backlash measurement was tighter on one side of the carrier than the other. What I ended up with was about .003" on the tight side and about .011" on the loose side. The previous set up gave me a paint pattern that indicated proper pinion depth and too much backlash (I think my measurements were between .007 and .015) I shimmed the carrier the smallest increment I could and got evrything snug (I had to tap in the shim and carrier) but it didn't seem too much .... sorry, I'm rambling a bit. The gears did show a little wear but not bad. I filled it with Synthetic 75W-140 gear oil as that's what the axle tag indicated. I hope I don't have to tear into it again, but I'm worried that something maybe too tight.

 

after a 15 mile hard run my diff runs about 115F that is using a infrared temp sensor.

 

Thanks for the reply, I checked mine and I got 120F after another 15 miles so I'm going to call it good and drive it as is. I've put a little over 60 miles on it since the gear swap and it's driving great and no noise so far. Not bad for used parts, borrowed tools and lots of praying.