Pinion Service

Greetings,
Anybody have any ideas or opinions about this, is this something that a novice should attempt? Pinion Service, new gaskets, go through the entire rear end.

What is it that you want to do? Why do you want to "go through" the rear axle?...There are tools needed to remove carrier side bearings and the inner pinion bearing. Tools also needed to measure gear backlash when setting up the rear end and also for checking bearing preload. This is not something I would recommend someone to do "just because".

Setting the pinion depth requires the tool for determining the pinion depth then shims to set it up.
There are still a few hot rod shops that can set up a Dana 60/80.

I'm guessing I'm going to bite the bullet and pay my mechanic to do this?

Here's a downloadable 2001 service manual.
The download is kinda slow but worth the wait.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/42304/2001DodgeRam.pdf

Starts on page 242