Guess who's replacing ring and pinion AGAIN?

[OrangeCrush]

I came into work today and about halfway here, the frt diff started making a screeching noise. After getting towed to the dealership where my buddy was going to install it, I found out that the pinion bearing locked up.

I know we that when we installed the new pinion bearings, we didn't use a new race. After talking to my tech friend, he said they NEVER reuse a race.

I've talked to several techs and some say it's okay to use it, some say it's not a good idea. Personally, if I knew it was that important, I sure as hell would have installed it. (I didn't and that's why I had another GM tech with me actually setting up the gears.)

Now to make matters worse. The pinion gear welded itself to the pinion bearing which welded itself to the race.

After using a 20 ton press, it was obvious that the pinion gear assy was not coming out of the housing....

Yup, that's right, now I have to buy a new diff housing.

I got a great deal on it but I'll have as much in replacing my front ring and pinion and diff housing as much as I did replacing it the first time.

And not to make matters worse but I'm pulling the rear apart and having him do it over just to ensure I don't run into the same problem as I just did with the front.

Sometimes it just don't work out...

Mark