here's the pinion out of the diff, may as well have a crack at that as well. The inner bearing is proving a beast to remove, and of course pulling it this far down now means the pinion gear and crownwheel meshing needs to be adjusted properly, as well as the 1/2 shafts location. When the pinion shaft was fully out, I found the inner bearing had the hard coating starting to come off the cone part, which couldn't be seen before dismantling. 
 

 
 This diff had been assembled as standard with the crush tube, as shown, as opposed to a solid tube, where you need to shim it instead to set the preload. Some have suggested that the solid tube is better, as you can tighten the end nut up properly. Maybe they did not have the special spanner needed to properly set the torque up?
I'll give it a go, but may have to send it off in a box off bits to the local diff guy to finish off. Was quoted $850 though, so while it may be worth it due to the time, I'd prefer to have a go, bugger it up, then seek professional advice... :)
 

Noooo, yours is not the longest build thread in history..... Paul Dunstan has that title 😂, sorry Paul had to !!

They wheels look rinsing , shame the poxy postage took your money.
You will need a limslip diff for those fats, while the centre is apart, do it.. what's another $750 to the build aye 😁

Was going to say the same, chuck a LSD in.

Im really enjoying my 3J now its in, the car feels more planted and comes out of corners so much nicer! Def do it!

Wow the wheels look the bomb Deano, I understand the frustration with postage but gotta say it was worth it in the end.
Anyone had any dealings with ATB diffs? I like the principle but hear mixed opinions. 

Drewdog, Quaife do the best atb , I've had one in my mk2 since 1998 drove a few laps at mallala plus hard daily driving and flying for nearly 10yrs(I mean hard driving) . I went thru different ratios but kept the same centre and swapped oil every few yrs regardless.
Only drawback is if a wheel lifts you lose some speed but a small price to pay. They lock at about 75% so aren't ever fully 2wd . They are quiet, not clunky like Ford MS centres and in my opinion they are most suitable for road and weekend track fun.
I'll be buying one for the coup in the near future, whether Quaife or Blackline which is the new kid on the block and has great reviews plus a great price .

LSD: what and throw away all I have invested so far: 10 hours of bashing, swearing, grinding etc?
Maybe once its one the road, thats when I see whats sub standard, and revisit round 2.
Anyhow, I got the damn inner pinion bearing off after grinding and brashing, and repressed a new one in.
So the diff head is all cleaned and reassembled, ready to start to fine tune. Before I can get to that point exactly, the pinion still seems too much float between the bearings. A new crush tube was fitted, but I suspect the outer bearing is still not pressed home fully.
Its difficult as the outer bearing looks to get fitted in situ.
So while the crownwheel and pinion appear to mesh nice, and smooth enough to think its in the ballpark, I can still pull the pinion up and down maybe a mm or 2.
I'm probably just going to take it in now to the local diff guy to finish setting the preload etc, but Im wondering if its just that the inner and outer bearing arent pulled together enough, against the crush tube?.It doesnt seem possible that you would do the pinion nut increasing tighter to take this slack up, but is that all I might need to do?
It has been good learning, and it would be a bit dissappointing to hand it over and not finish the job.Logic would say im better off doing extra hours at work, and pay an expert, but wheres the fun in that?
 

A quick way to see if it's the bearings not seated or is the crush tube is to measure both crush tube and then fit the old one in to see if the slack goes away . I've bought crush tubes from UK and found they are too short so had to hydraulic press the old tubes bump out to expand it lightly so it can be torqued up correctly.
Did you fully press the bearings and shells down correctly, maybe give them another squash to make sure they seated.
Why work more hrs to satisfy someone else's pocket when you can learn and get knowledged up for free and knowing you did it.. 😁

Ha, you want to see my old crush tube!I used it to protect the pinion nut thread while in the vice, no amount of massaging is going to get that looking nice every again.
I found an old turbo forum thread which gives good info, and a couple of youtubes, so swatting up now.
And there's such a thing as a "bearing splitter" for around $50, to help get behind the axle bearings to press them off.
 
Who would have thought, and yes I have been living under a rock for the past 50 years. :)

garage is nice and clean, so normal programming can continue.
Rear arches need the inner lips reshaping:
 
 

front are ok. Nothing like the 4wd look:

 
 
 

I impressed the kids on the weekend.
Who needs protein powder when old school welly will do?
That ended Mondays diff rebuild, was trying to hold the pinion flange end good and tight ready to collapse the spacer.
I think an old school dawn engineers vice might be better than the chinese import jobs like the above, but need something in a hurry. Having the swivel base was good when welding though.
 
Halfshafts come back tomorrow with new bearings pressed in.