why such bad luck with carrier removal?

hey everybody

so ive installed 3 Aussie lockers, and working on my 4th right now. i installed mine and everything from the lug nuts, to refilling the diff with oil went as planned, and as should have. i was given a free d30, and the carrier came out of that with 0 problems...removed it by hand. now every other jeep ive installed them in the carrier WONT come out. lucky 2 of them had 3:07 gears and we were able to get the cross pin out without having to remove the ring gear. well this Xj has 3:55s and the gears are just a smidge to tall for the pin to slide by. if i could just get it out, and down onto my work bench we wouldn't have a problem. but this carrier will NOT come out. i didn't start the original prying to get it out, but is there any way for it to get diagonal a little big and kind of wedged in there..or am i just a sissy

sounds like you need a housing spreader

your a sissy. make sure you either have somebody there to catch it, or place a box with a few of your wifes best towels in there so it has something soft to land on, and pry it out of there with a nice long prybar.

They really should be tight in the housing, just like pinion bearings, carrier bearings need preload on them. If your pulling them out by hand there is not enough preload.

Usually two pry bars top and bottom prying against the ring gear bolts will get it moving outward

Take a shop rag and feed it between the pinion and ring teeth. Keep turning the ring gear using a wrench or socket on one of the ring bolts. The rag will spit the carrier right out. It may take a minute to get the right rag thickness fed but other than that; you're good to go. HTH

If you think the carrier is cocked in the housing, put the caps back on, torque them down then remove them and try again. You can try running a chain around the carrier in the center and use a big slide hammer connected to the chain to pull it out. Make sure someone is prepared to catch the carrier as it will come shooting out. Good luck.