Hey guys, I'm just a poor student trying to upgrade my car for cheap, so I have yet another question. I found a set of 3.36 gears already bolted to a 3-series carrier for my 8.2 10 bolt. I need to replace my 2.56's. Here's my question, the carrier and pinion already has the shims and bearings set up on it. Is it possible to swap it into my housing with out have to reset the shims. the carrier is out of a 65 impala I'm on a total budget and am trying to do this cheaply, but safely. Is this safe?

You should expect to need to redo all the shims.

You might luck out and have it all work, but the whole shimming process is as much to accomodate variances in housings as in the gears.

Not gonna work. Aside from manufacturing tolerance differences there is one othr isue at play here. The factory "shims" are not reuseable. The minute you try to tap them into the housing / carrier / Bearing assembly they will shatter. Somehow in the manufacturing process the factory figured a way to get them in there but no way you and me are gonna tap them into place. I have tried it to no avail. You gotta use the "Service" shims that are made from steel. gm offers kits of these shims.

My advice is get a Chassis Service Manual ..might be called a shop manual there are two different manuals...it details how to set up the gears very very clearly / very well.

Even with the manual and the shims you need a dial indicator and a hyrdaulic press and a way to CORRECTLY check pinion depth installation in the housing.

THis is really not a DIY weekend project. Your chances of getting lucky and getting a setup that will be both long lasting and quiet running are almost nill without the right tools.