[CT2500HD]

I have done several full ring & pinion jobs, and two Detroit TruTrac diff installs (before Eaton bought Detroit).

If you are keeping the same gears, this is NOT a big deal and only minimal tools are needed to replace the differential and carrier. REPEAT: ONLY IF YOU ARE KEEPING THE SAME GEARS.

Why? Because your pinion gear is going to stay still. Your ring gear, that rides on the differential carrier is only going to move laterally (side-to-side).

You'll need:
- Diff bearings & races
- Diff shim set
- Ring gear bolts
- Gear marking compound
- Diff case spreader (?)
- Micrometer
- Dial indicator with good clamp/threaded stand.
- Torque wrench
- Bearing pullers
- Bearing press
- Oven
- RTV sealant for diff cover
- Diff fluid (you do not need anything with friction modifier in it)

Nice to have: Lift to get this at eye-height. It will save hours of time.

General procedure (typed quickly, I might miss minor things):
1) MUCH easier to have axle at eye-height, but can be done from underneath. Get rear axle on stands, wheels off. Transfer case in neutral. No e-brake. You will need to turn the driveline by hand.
2) Diff cover off and oil drained.
3) Rotate driveline to expose pinion shaft bolt head, remove pinion bolt retainer and pinion shaft. Spider gears and washers should fall out of place.
4) Off hand I don't know if you have a C-clip axle- if yes, clips off and slide out axle shafts a bit. You said you're doing a bearing job so that side will go all the way out.
5) If removing both axle shafts, KEEP THEM LAID OUT IN THE SAME ORIENTATION THEY GO BACK IN. Some axles have slightly different lengths for each side. From this point on, EVERYTHING you remove- specifically SHIMS should be laid out so they go back in the same orientation, order and side they came out from.
6) Differential carrier bridge caps off- lay them out exactly as they were installed.
7) Pry the differential carrier out- not sure if you need a case spreader for this axle.
8) There will be a stack of shims that are between the diff carrier and axle housing- extremely important to keep these set aside for each side. Use a micrometer to measure the total stack for each side and write it down. You will be using this as a starting point for reinstalling the new carrier.
9) I would advise using new diff bearing while you have it all apart, but you can get away using the old ones. You'll need a puller to get the bearing off, I would not be pounding anything here.
10) On the diff carrier, remove the ring gear bolts and discard.
11) You will need to slowly heat the the diff carrier and ring gear to get the ring gear off. Nothing more than a plastic mallet will be needed when its hot enough. An oven at 200-250 degrees is all. It has to expand.
12) While hot, new ring gear seated onto new TruTrac carrier. Use new ring gear bolts and torque to spec.
13) Press new diff bearings, set new bearing races on, get diff assembly back into axle housing with those shim packs on exactly the same sides.
14) Tighten diff carrier bridge caps to spec. Axle shafts back in.
15) Rotate driveline a bunch, both directions.
16) Check the backlash. Set the dial indicator onto the diff housing into one of the diff cover bolt holes and set the tip against the ring gear. Hold the pinion or driveshaft totally still and rock the diff- there should be a little "give. that is your backlash measurement, set the dial indicator to zero and see how much it moves. Too little backlash means your diff carrier is too close to the pinion gear, too much and that means its too far away.
17) Check gear wear pattern. You are ONLY going to be able to adjust backlash- if the pattern is too tight, you'll need to subtract a little shim from one side and add what you removed to the other.
18) When gear pattern is good, double check all torque specs, diff cover on, oil added, check everything again in a few hundred miles.

If you hear any kind of whining "tractor"-like noise, your backlash is almost definitely off. No disaster, by keeping the same ring and pinion, and NOT moving the pinion at all, the backlash is all there is to adjust.

 

[CT2500HD]

Even better- I found ARB's install guide for their locker into the GM 10-bolt.
This will be the same procedure for your TruTrac (minus any of the air plumbing, tone ring, etc- skips those steps).

https://www.carid.com/images/arb/transmission-drivetrain/pdf/arbrd84-installation-instructions.pdf