Got the new bonded seal in place, lubricated with gear oil, and seated with the clutch gear. Pictured is the bonded seal covered by the clutch gear, with the wavespring on top. Take great care to make sure everything is super duper clean upon reassembly. I hit the mating surfaces with green scotchbrite on a die grinder lightly, just to brighten up the metal and remove all crud. I then stone the mating surfaces with an oiled 1000 grit stone.
Other half of the carrier:
Not pictured, but the two halves of the carrier are mated together and held with two small countersink head allen screws. I use bolts through opposing ring gear holes in both halves to get the alignment just right. Blue loctite on those bolts gives me peace of mind, although it's impossible for them to back out against the ring gear. Care is used to ensure that the clutch gear and wave ring are aligned when placing the top half on the bottom half.
Use shop air on a rubber tipped nozzle just pressed into the gland seal port to test the bonded seal operation. As expected, my gland seal operates properly, whereas this same test failed before. Feels good to have confirmation of the original problem
Ring gear is then heated with a torch (propane plumbers torch in my case) and slipped on. Super easy to do it this way. Once on and two opposing bolts are started to align the ring gear, install all others with a generous amount of red loctite. Make sure you remove the two you put in dry to align the ring gear after all others are in, and apply loctite, then reinstall.
Torque the ring gear bolts in a star pattern to distribute torque evenly, and paint the top of each bolt as you torque them. I use a normal paint pen, but white-out or a sharpie would also work. I do it in three rounds; hand tight with a ratchet, torque all to ~80, then torque again all to ~120. Torque spec is 120ft/lbs for this carrier. There is a paint mark on the head and the side of each bolt. Paint mark on the top of the head indicates torqued to 80#, then paint mark on the side indicates torque to 120#.
Once that fun is done, install new seals in the gland seal. Lubricate with gear oil. Slip it on taking great care to ensure you don't cut or roll a seal. Once that's in place, test again with shop air pressure and ensure that the locker actuates properly. As expected, the locker continues to work properly, so I pressed the carrier bearing on:
Now, to find the source of the metal shavings:
None on the passenger side, but it's getting new bearings and seal anyway.
Plan to finish it all up tonight.
