This assumes you have the hydraulic press, dial indicators, stands depth mikes and calipers to set up a rearend (it isn't like you see on TV were a gear set gets thrown in the case and within 10 to 15 minutes you have a perfect contact pattern to show the audience on TV).
It has been my experience that the shim that the factory installed with the housing is what you should use, provided you are replacing a factory gear with another factory gear.
I found a 59 vette posi P case and dropped it right into the rearend on my 62 Biscayne. I also replaced the stock axles with new Yukon Axles specifically for the 61-64 full size Chevy car.
There are a few tricks to strengthen the old Hotchkiss style drop out center section rearend, but most replace the whole rearend with a bigger one. The weak link in your rearend is usually the spider gears and the cross-shaft that they ride on.
In a Spicer rearend there are different series of carriers to mate the ring gear with the pinion and any minor difference in ring gear thickness is compensated for with shims.
Press the bearing on by itself first. DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT press on both bearing and lock ring at the same time. Again, this is how the service manual instructs installing the bearing. Press it until the bearing is tight against the seat on the axle.
Ugh, I was just going to reuse my 2.93 gears on my axle rebuild with a new differential, but the bolts are just breaking off inside the gear. By the time I spend a ton of time drilling them out I figured that I should just put a new gear in and be done with it.
This was my first ever attempt at this task, so I read over the procedure in the Chevrolet 1961 Impala shop manual a couple of times and made a list of all the parts and tools I’d need.
Installation of carrier bearings, pinion bearings, ring and pinion and a crush sleeve are covered in this video. The main tricks given in the video are about the actual set up bearings.
Currie ® 9-inch RearEnd Builder for 1959 thru 1964 Impala, Biscayne, Bel Air, El Camino, and other GM B-body vehicles are offered with a broad range of options ranging from kit components to complete, highly optioned, ready-to-bolt-in assemblies.
Installation of carrier bearings, pinion bearings, ring and pinion and a crush sleeve are covered in this video. The main tricks given in the video are about the actual set up bearings.