Per the direction of the guy doing the sand blasting, I removed the axle shafts and shoved old t-shirts/rags down in the axle tubes and wrapped one around the yoke at the pinion seal area. This was then covered real well with multiple layers of duct tape. I completely wrapped the tubes outboard of the caliper bracket mounting flange and up onto the pumpkin a 1/4" or so at the pinion. I left the ABS sensor in place and put a bolt in the vent hole. On the D30, I just wrapped the vent hose fitting real good with multiple layers of duct tape. The silver kind, so they can see it... As long as the they don't go hog wild, the duct tape will take more abuse from the sand blaster than I thought originally. Cut off the tape, clean up the areas that were covered, wash it down (air won't get all the dust off) and then pull the rags out of the axles tubes.
To answer your original question, the differential can be fully disassembled without replacing parts. Before removing the yoke from the pinion, put a mark on the pinion and on the nut so that you can line them back up when reassembling it. Other than that, just make sure that everything goes back in the order and location that it came out of and you're good to go. The guy doing the sand blasting said that even if I was replacing the ring and pinion, his suggestion was to leave at least the pinion gear in and plug the tubes. Easier than trying to get all of the sand out from inside the housing...
I will caveat all this by saying the guy I go to for sand blasting is just a farmer who does it in one of his out buildings. It's his name on the business card and he's been doing it for years. It's not somebody off the street making minimum wage... I suggest working with the place doing the work, ideally the actual person doing the work, to figure out the best way.