Bought me a used set of 9 bolt 3.45's .The gears look identical to the 3.27's i'm replacing them with, with the exception of the size difference of the inner pinion bearing. The 3.27 bearing is huge compared to the other 1. Any comment Big gear head?

 

Don't know if it's ratio or year dependent but there are two sizes of bearing. I ran into that and had to pull the bearing off the pinion and replace to match the carrier housing size.

 

I don't have a lot of experience with the 9 bolt, but I know that the bearing size wouldn't change with the gear ratio.

 

Thanks, shocked to see the difference. The big bearing is 1 they use in the ford 9".

 

I was a little shocked too when I tried to assemble it. Got the "other" bearing and fortunately have access to a shop press so getting the new bearing on the pinion was a breeze.

 

Def. harder to get it off with no exposed lip, lotta grinding and chiseling

 

9 bolt is the only rear end I ever had any problems getting the bearing off. I busted 3 new bearings on one gear installation.

 

Yes. I sacrificed a wood chisel and went round the bearing until I had a gap big enough to get a bearing splitter/puller under. And had to buy extra longer bolts for the puller to get it started.