Last weekend I got the crank out of the engine again and put aside all the engine parts on a tray. I've yet to pack it up but it will be headed out soon for rework. After that was all cleaned up I started looking for something else to work on. I momentarily considered disassembly of the transmission, but wisely left that alone for now. I tried removing the rear shocks for inspection but found that the caps had seized to the shafts which is something of a pain unless you have a special tool to assist getting them off. I then turned my attention to the final drive, which when we last saw it looked something like this:



I picked up the service manual and did a bit of reading. There were a number of special tools listed as being required. I then poked around on the internet and found that really you only need one. The others can be replaced with a blow torch, a piece of rope, a soda can[1] and careful application of several foot pounds of torque. So I ordered the tool for the final drive and the one for the shock cap removal.

A few days later I got the tools. Well, mostly. There was a bit of a mis-ship so I don't have the shock cap tool yet, but it'll get here soon.

To make a long story[2] short I now have the final drive mostly disassembled:



The only thing that I have left at this point is to remove the axle tube and inner seal. The good news is that everything looks to be in very good shape. The only potentially bad news is that proper reassembly requires a set of parallels and a depth micrometer, neither of which I own. If I can't find someone who a set of these that I can make use of then I will have to acquire a set. This isn't a job one should rush.

The information here about rebuilding the final drive has turned out to be extremely useful. None of my manuals actually tell you how to remove the axle tube so you can get at the inner seal.

[1]: Not kidding
[2]: Involving me balanced atop a contraption built out of among other things: the rear wheel, a tie-down strap and a breaker bar