Help: LSD spider gear tension stuck

[roverz]

In the process of taking out the spider gears from the LSD carrier on a 2000 explorer and i can't seem to get the gear tension "S" shape piece out from between the gears. I have tried pushing it thru to the pinion gear side and pulling it out the rear housing side and can only move it about 1" inch either way afraid that i tackled this the wrong way?

Help please so i can get my Powertrax unit installed before this weekend's trip.

 

[techieman33]

have you pulled the cross pin out?

 

[roverz]

Yes pulled cross pin, took out C clips and pulled both axles, but the S spring will not come out for me with vise grips or by using a long screw driver.

 

[techieman33]

only thing I can think of is your not compressing it enough and it's catching on the spider gears.

 

[roverz]

What is the best way to compress it as I can only seem to grab the center and one end of the "S" instead of getting hold of the whole thing?

Can i just bang it thru to the rear all the way since with the Powertrax i wont be putting the Spring or the Spider gears back in the carrier?

 

[techieman33]

I always use a pair of needle nose vice grips, then I can get the front and back parts of the spring.

 

[roverz]

Do you just grab the passenger side and the middle of the "s" spring and compress there then pull the spring towards the rear of the truck?

 

[techieman33]

yeah

 

[roverz]

Ok, on to the next problem, got some longer needle nose vis grips this morning and got the S clip almost all the way out at least 1/2 of the way but it appears now to be deadlocked with the ring gear 4.10 gears..... Is it worth wrangling with the S clip or should i try to hacksaw some of it out? Or just pull the carrier and put it up on the bench to do the work?

If i pull the carrier do i have to reset backlash and stuff ?

 

[techieman33]

Weird, it shouldn't be fighting you that much. I would be leary about cutting it, if you do you'll have to be very careful not to get metal shavings anywhere in the housing.

 

[roverz]

Yeah I wish it wasn't also, I called Richmond Gear and they didnt think that it should have been such a struggle either but i don't see anything that i could have done wrong.

 

[roverz]

Ok figured Pictures are worth a 1000 words. Hopefully someone can give me some suggestions on getting this S tension out of here without removing the Ring gear or carrier.

http://img97.imageshack.us/i/picture1865.jpg/

 

[roverz]

 

[techieman33]

I would put your vice grips in the red box, that should compress it enough to get past the ring gear.

 

[my pos mounty]

OR, you could try a hose clamp, tighten it down to squeeze the spring

 

[roverz]

Techieman, Thanks it worked the way you said with two vise grips