help removing leaky front differential 2005 explorer

[dcm0123]

2005 Explorer, 40000 easy miles
Looking for short cuts to do this.

The RH axle tube seal has a bad leak. Looking at the play in the bearing may have to replace CV half shaft shaft assembly along with seal and bearing.

Ford factory manual says you need to disconnect ball joint, tie rod, sway bar end, brake caliper etc to remove CV shaft assembly.

There is a slight leak on the LH seal as well.

Is it possible to remove all steering components on the RH side along with RH CV joint assembly, then unbolt diff and slide it to the RH side to disengage the LH CV shaft assembly, then remove differential from car so I can service the seal and bearing on the LH side, without having to remove all the steering components on the LH side?

Assume I would have to disengage the LH CV joint assembly from the differential and properly support it but do not want to remove it from the steering knuckle assembly or disassemble the steering on the LH side.

Thank you in advance!

 

[dcm0123]

project done

Decided not to pull the differential.
Learned a couple of things I figured I would share-

Upper Ball joint and outer tie rod end can be disengaged from steering knuckle using a pitman arm puller (rented from Auto Zone). Worked nicely since it did not damage the boots like the fork tool does. Will need to remove the lower bolt holding the brake dust shield to do the tie rod.

Ford manual was not clear on how to measure the depth of RH axle tube bearing. The depth of the bearing from the face of the axle tube is about 1.75 inches. Manual says it is .875" but the location you take the measurement from is not clear.

Inner bearing puller attached to a slide hammer rented from same did not work well using the "cone shaped adapter" to hold the jaws seperated inside the bearing. Instead remove the cone and screw the 5/8" threaded rod (end of slide hammer) inside the jaws to hold them out.

removal ball joint tie rod outer axle tube bearing