Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it!!
I guess getting my questions answered left me with some more questions.
1. Ill have to ask whichever vender I choose and do what you said and make sure the c-clips work. Where do the clips go? I imagine they are just to the side of the carrier bearing? In an open diff, lots of times they are where the spider gears are but you can't access that way once using a spool/locker.
Here is a picture of his setup. (Machined down Ford expedition front diff) This is with an ARB with what now Im remembering are 33 spline stubs from RCV. That seems more correct. I thought 31 was a bit small. Im going to have to custom order those then unless any of you know a company making chromoly 930 33 spline stubs????
2. Gearing. To my knowledge 2.75 gears aren't made new anymore and Im planning on buying used ones. (You may think that sounds crazy but trust me, it will be fine and 2x as strong running this diff vs the factory unimog 404 ring and pinion) So now I wouldn't know which pinion bearing is correct. Thats my next question; is the pinion the same size throughout those years and the bearing diameter that changes? Or does one group of years support a larger pinion and the bearings are the same?
3. The Diff. For whatever reason the 06-07 Explorer/Mountaineer rear diff is the most common thing to pop up on eBay. Since I've only been searching the web thus far, why does the 06-07 keep popping up? Im not really getting any results for the 08-10 you and others have mentioned previously. So is it safe to say that that ARB pictured above will go into the diff I want? Im going to assume yes. As for the diff cover, Im going to buy a fabbed steel one and build brackets off that to mount the diff as well as use the two cast mounts on the diff housing.
4. Stubs. I could call that company and ask whether those were designed for the Explorer or Cobra. Now that Im seeing 33 spline was used, Im probably going to have to take that path. I wouldn't want to use anything less in strength.
5. Placement. Ok this could get confusing for some people, maybe not. I hope I don't make it worse. When running a front engine setup (were talking 4 wheel drive here/using a transfer case) a rear diff can be ran up front. You wouldn't want to flip it upside down. The gears spin the same way front and back. If you flipped it upside down you'd put it in drive and blow your transfer case up because it would be binding. Now if you were running a rear engine (4wd) you would have to flip the diffs upside down. I know now you can say your putting power to the coast side of the gear and all that blah blah blah. Thats a different topic. (Also, that diff pictured above, I have in my garage but won't be using now. Its a hi pinion 8.8 and you can see he is using it upside down in a low pinion position now) So on to what I would have to do.......
Portals (the boxes) spin the opposite way. So if I had a low pinion diff, Id have to flip it upside down to get the correct rotation. The same thing for a hi-pinion, id have to flip IT upside down to a low pinion in order to get the correct rotation. All that becomes opposite when you go to a rear engine. HAHA!!! I plan on doing a traditional front engine setup. Now I dont know if any of you have ever seen a unimog 404 differential in person but the ring gear is TINY! These axles are 1.5 ton axles. The portals take significant stress off the R/P so thats why going this route can make IFS much cheaper. Traditional IFS non portal stuff can run in the neighborhood of $25k+. Thats a diff, stubs, housing, and shafts. Theres a whole lot more you obviously need to complete that front end. I think I can be into my front end for $7500 or less. Thats the price of a pretty well built solid axle. Thanks for the help again!!!
