[89lxinwky]

I just put in my first set of gears last year. You might do like I did. I took everything apart, had a guy who's done it before take it to the shop and press the pinion bearing out and press it on the new one, then he made sure the wear pattern on the gears were OK after install, then I put everything back together. He was only there about an hour. I used the Ford 3.73 gears, it came with shims/new crusher sleeve; however, I didn't need any shims. In my case and I've heard from others, that basically if you replace your gears from the factory with Ford gears, it shouldn't be much more than take the old ones out, put the new ones in and check the wear pattern. You'll need an impact wrench to crush the new sleeve, otherwise, just use the old one and flatten it out with a hammer on four spots like I did. Don't forget some good gear oil and speedo gear for transmission.