Weren’t there aftermarket companies at some point that built high strength or billet bearing caps for these differentials?
I hear you on the machined together at the factory, but if there were aftermarket add-ons how did those work?
Yup, you can certainly replace your bearing caps. that's true for connecting rods, main bearings, and axle housings. (with the noteworthy exception of "cracked" caps on Coyote connecting rods...)
The key word from
@Broncobowsher is "affordable." The proper way to resize any main cap is to remove a small amount of material from the cap mounting face, so that the resulting journal "circle" is slightly smaller than the intended finished diameter. Then align bore to the finished diameter. It is VERY straightforward, but requires extensive set-up, and is labor intensive, and therefore expensive. Usually far more expensive than a replacement housing.
I like to get bronco D44 housings without caps, because I can install new caps and bore them in my spare time. Usually takes about 4 hours on the Bridgeport, after the housing is stripped and cleaned. At $200 per hour, that's an $800 job. Which is not economical for a $500 housing. Thus the "scrap" value noted by
@Glass Pony
But if you have nothing but time, and when you are doing it for fun...I've saved them before. Obviously if you are building a high performance race car, and budget is not important...
