I did this entire thing (besides the exhaust) in my garage at home (not very big) with a couple buddies in about a day and a
half. It really was a lot easier than i expected. The fit and finish of the Gforce kit is of very very high quality and is entirely what makes the process go so smooth. Lets get down to the dirty!
Step 1: Break this........j/k........ but seriously
Buy this
Get your car on some jackstands (in a safe sturdy spot as far back as possible without hindering rear cradle) and get the wheels off. Also at this time, break the axle nuts loose (the big nut in the middle of the rotor) with your 34mm socket, remove the nut and thread it back on slightly and whack them a couple times with a BFH for ease of removal later. you can see in this pic how i have the nut threaded on the axle backwards.
Remove your exhaust at the collectors first.
Unbolt rear shocks from the lower control arm mount and put the bolts back in the shock where they came from so they don't get mixed up with all the other large grey bolts you will be dealing with.
Next go to the center of the car under the drivers side and find the parking brake cable union, kinda hard to miss. This is where your buddies will come in handy, have them gently pry up on the parking brake levers on the back side of each rotor to give you enough slack in the cable to push them together and separate them. It will look like this when you get it apart. (don't mind my shotty wideband wire routing)
Next there is two hard lines for the brakes both located in the same spot in the passenger side wheel well attached to a bracket that is held on with two 10mm nuts. Get a flare nut wrench for these, you wouldn't want to round em off, disconnect both of those.
and again, put the nuts back on the studs.
Next is the wheel speed sensor plugs, pretty straight forward just unplug them un pull the clips that retain them to the cradle and move them out of the way.
Now you should be ready to get your jack underneath the diff and loosen the 4 cradle bolts. I don't have any pictures of these but you really cant miss them, two in the from and two in the back. Remove them and lower the cradle with your buddies on each side so your already broken diff doesn't go crashing into the floor. should look something like this:
Once you have it halfway down, remove the rubber driveshaft/trans coupler thingy from the trans with the driveshaft attached, remove the two bolts holding the two piece portion and carrier bearing thingy and the whole unit should be ready to remove.
Then drag it out like this:
you can see the parking brake cable here and in this shot below
(my buddy spencer (audi tech)) illustrating the parking brake cable lol
The whole show:
Next get rid of the old diff and axles. You can do this a number of ways, i unbolted the upper and lower control arms just to get the axles out and once i got them out i bolted them right back on so i didn't damage any ball joints having the control arms flopping all over the place. Once you've gotten the axles out, remove the three bolts holding the actual diff to the cradle.
you can do this differently than i did, but at this point i assembled the 9" center and housing so that i could start mocking everything up and figure out where i was going to have to cut the cradle to clearance for the stub shafts and axles. The only tip i have is that when you are putting the studs in, use some locktight on the case side of the studs and make sure they all bottom out into the case so if you have to double nut them to do that then so be it!
Here is the sticky part, im not going to tell you where to cut or how much to take out. This is completely subjective to your cradle, My cradle required less material taken out than the pictures i saw of forces install. this is what was required of my cradle but like i said, don't go cutting up your cradle based on my pics and come back on here with everything rubbing grinding on your cradle. If you do take it to a fab shop make sure you bring EVERYTHING with you because they will need it to test fit everything and check clearances when they are done.
half. It really was a lot easier than i expected. The fit and finish of the Gforce kit is of very very high quality and is entirely what makes the process go so smooth. Lets get down to the dirty!
Step 1: Break this........j/k........ but seriously
Buy this
Get your car on some jackstands (in a safe sturdy spot as far back as possible without hindering rear cradle) and get the wheels off. Also at this time, break the axle nuts loose (the big nut in the middle of the rotor) with your 34mm socket, remove the nut and thread it back on slightly and whack them a couple times with a BFH for ease of removal later. you can see in this pic how i have the nut threaded on the axle backwards.
Remove your exhaust at the collectors first.
Unbolt rear shocks from the lower control arm mount and put the bolts back in the shock where they came from so they don't get mixed up with all the other large grey bolts you will be dealing with.
Next go to the center of the car under the drivers side and find the parking brake cable union, kinda hard to miss. This is where your buddies will come in handy, have them gently pry up on the parking brake levers on the back side of each rotor to give you enough slack in the cable to push them together and separate them. It will look like this when you get it apart. (don't mind my shotty wideband wire routing)
Next there is two hard lines for the brakes both located in the same spot in the passenger side wheel well attached to a bracket that is held on with two 10mm nuts. Get a flare nut wrench for these, you wouldn't want to round em off, disconnect both of those.
and again, put the nuts back on the studs.
Next is the wheel speed sensor plugs, pretty straight forward just unplug them un pull the clips that retain them to the cradle and move them out of the way.
Now you should be ready to get your jack underneath the diff and loosen the 4 cradle bolts. I don't have any pictures of these but you really cant miss them, two in the from and two in the back. Remove them and lower the cradle with your buddies on each side so your already broken diff doesn't go crashing into the floor. should look something like this:
Once you have it halfway down, remove the rubber driveshaft/trans coupler thingy from the trans with the driveshaft attached, remove the two bolts holding the two piece portion and carrier bearing thingy and the whole unit should be ready to remove.
Then drag it out like this:
you can see the parking brake cable here and in this shot below
(my buddy spencer (audi tech)) illustrating the parking brake cable lol
The whole show:
Next get rid of the old diff and axles. You can do this a number of ways, i unbolted the upper and lower control arms just to get the axles out and once i got them out i bolted them right back on so i didn't damage any ball joints having the control arms flopping all over the place. Once you've gotten the axles out, remove the three bolts holding the actual diff to the cradle.
you can do this differently than i did, but at this point i assembled the 9" center and housing so that i could start mocking everything up and figure out where i was going to have to cut the cradle to clearance for the stub shafts and axles. The only tip i have is that when you are putting the studs in, use some locktight on the case side of the studs and make sure they all bottom out into the case so if you have to double nut them to do that then so be it!
Here is the sticky part, im not going to tell you where to cut or how much to take out. This is completely subjective to your cradle, My cradle required less material taken out than the pictures i saw of forces install. this is what was required of my cradle but like i said, don't go cutting up your cradle based on my pics and come back on here with everything rubbing grinding on your cradle. If you do take it to a fab shop make sure you bring EVERYTHING with you because they will need it to test fit everything and check clearances when they are done.