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[Cash]

I finally made it!
I had mine apart forever it seemed like and talked myself out of doing it myself because of the spreader requirement and so many posts by knowledgeable guys suggesting to have it professionally done. After about 3 weeks of trying to get someone to come to my place to finish up it was the last straw when a fellow stood me up at the eleventh hour. It was either put it all back together and head into town with my tail between my legs or just get down and do it. I bit the bullet and decided to give her a go on my own so with my brothers help we took it on. I can't imagine anyone doing it alone. Not sure if it is physically possible.
Firstly, with a 6 speed at least, forget that spreader nonsense! Crap, I was so caught off guard that when I loosened the side adjustment it would have fallen 6 feet to the concrete if I hadn't put a cross bench between the tracks of my lift to put tools on and luckily was able to grab hold as it bounced off that. Scared the heck out of me.
What I did need to buy was a bearing separator ($60 Can). Setting the pinion preload is a hit or miss thing (at least to me) and it took 4 times removing the bearings off the pinion and adjusting the shim width. You can't remove the bearings gracefully without destroying the shims each time without the separator (IMO).
The upshot of it is that my gears wound up with a perfect wear pattern and I have to ask the church mice to keep it down. They are absolutely silent!