Remember not to drop that center section on you hand, head, etc... it is one heavy chunk of iron. No need to mark the axel shafts alignment to the carrier.

You don't have to line up any gears. The gears are all in the diff carrier/chunk. There is no alignment issue with axles - they just spline into the side gears. Since there is sometimes a minor out of balance in the rear yoke, you mark it to make sure it goes back the same way.

Ditto it's a heavy mutha and will mush you real easy. I like to position a jack under the diff carrier, and ratchet strap the carrier to the jack saddle, then when it's loose, I can just let it down and roll it out to fool with it in the open.

Just so I'm sure we are all on the same page here, you do have an "RD LOCK" switch on the dash, right? Not just the 4h and 4hlc shifter positions?

Buy a new carrier gasket before you start, and some diff juice.

Thanks for the heads up, I was not expecting the carrier to be that heavy (just learning, no prior experience).
Onething I was not expecting was pulling the axle shaft a few inches (both sides) to be able to take out the diff carrier? that makes me doubt if I should just wait and have somebody do it for me?
This is my daily driver as well, what if I use it for a while and hope that the locker unit pull in by itself? (btw, tried hitting the back of the axle with a Sludge hammer a couple of times but no help).
Is there any way I can stick a screw driver and push the push plate back, through axle drain hole?(bottom right, looking from the back) it might sound stupid but not having enough experience and just recovering from a heavy engine rebuild bill, cant afford to spend more $$$ right now, so all suggestions are very appreciated!
<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

mate, if you take the axles out fully, you have to disconnect the hand brake assembly & its a [censored] to connect back up, Ive done it twice. S ome say you can just pull out the axles a couple of inches without removing the brakes etc, but I couldnt do it, so had to take the brakes off. Oh & yeah the diff centre is one heavy mother, make sure you definately put a jack undder it so you can lower it, its also a bugger to actually get it out but once it does start to come out it is only going one place & thats on your head, hand or whatever you have in the way, so use a jack. cheers

Then you're not locked. I Bet you've jacked up that indicator somehow, and the 4wd ECU THINK's it is locked, and inhibiting some functions. Unplug the indicator, and see how the truck behaves.

If the pump ran forever before you messed with it then the diaphragm was likely leaking, and fooling with the indicator won't help that issue any.

The reason I am thinking it is mechanical is that I do not have any rear locked indicator (it only turns on when the motor is activated by the rear locker switch, and it keeps blinking), AND the turning radius is horible, the tires are dragging when I go on a tight turn (they squeal)...

It could be that the truck is just stuck in 4wd. If the rear tires turn in opposite directions of each other when the rear is jacked up the rear is NOT locked. There is an indicator that is in the differential. It detects if the actuator has actually engaged the locking mechanism. It feeds the 4wd ecu the info that the RD is locked.

You could pull your Hub slugs up front, and see if that relives the bind when you are turning.

I am not sure we are on the right path here. Lets do the following (I kibitz, you do the work. I'm not driving to Denver <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />)

1. Jack up both rear wheels and put it in park and rotate one wheel. Report what the other wheel does.

2. repeat above in neutral and report results.

3. Jack up all 4 wheels and put it in neutral and tcase in 2wd and rotate a rear wheel, and report if one front wheel turns

4. shift to 4hi and repeat 3 and report back.

Ebrake must be off for all tests. I'd turn the key on for each, then repeat test with key off. Humor me...

See earlier post...