After spending many hours reading the Factory Five Forums while waiting for my kit, I was dreading having to install the differential. The thing weighs nearly 100 pounds and needs to be lifted input shaft first up into the frame, leveled above its mount points, lowered into position, and attached with threaded bolts aft and through bolts forward. Often it isn’t a perfect fit. I contemplated asking some friends for help but around 9PM on a Sunday I decided to take a stab at doing it single-handed with some ratchet straps. I started by wrapping a single strap around the forward arms and anchoring them to the open roll bar mounts. A few pulls of the ratchet and it was off the ground. I placed some strap 2×4 under it, released and reset the ratchet, and brought it a few more inches up… repeat, repeat. Once the input shaft was well above the crossbar, I put another strap around the rear of the diff and hoisted it level. After releasing some tension on the straps, it dropped roughly into place. I begin mounting with the rear threaded bolts having only pushed their sleeves partially into the bushings. This allowed me a little wiggle room and the bolts threaded in perfectly, pulling the sleeves flush into the bushings. I released the tension on the rear strap and moved to the front. A few light taps of the through bolts with the blow hammer and everything went into place with minimal fuss. I job I had been dreading took only 30 minutes!
