Ok, one thing that might help me is to get the right terminology applied to the right pieces. From the pics on Calmini's site, the anvil is just the front long portion of the housing. What is the actual correct name for the rear-most piece of housing that the pinion snout comes out of? That's the piece I recently broke. From closer inspection, it appears that the crack started right at the pinion snout's mounting ear, then progressed all the way around the snout housing until it completely separated the pinion from the ring gear.
I recognize the need to reinforce this area to keep this from happening again. After reading Jagular's post above, it seems as if the snout housing and the drop-out third member are separate pieces and this is getting me confused. According to that post, Zig is running an anvil, XL7 third member, 5.83 Track/kick gears, a modified sammi case(machined to fit the 26 spline side gears), an ez locker and a Track/kick long side inner axle... I was under the impression that the pinion snout housing had the carrier for the whole differential molded into it. Is this right or wrong?
Like I've stated before, what I'd like to end up with is the following:
Full steel outer case(axle housing as well as pinion snout housing)
26 spline side gears/shafts
5.12/5.13 R&P(are these actually the same or are there actually the 2 different ratios?)
And I want this to be able to bolt in without too much modification(but I plan on adding a snout collar of some kind to reinforce the snout mount).
So what pieces do I need? The entire case set from a 99 and up Grand Vitara, right?
Are there any Grand Vitaras that came with the 5.12/5.13 R&P? If so, wouldn't that bolt right in and give me everything I want? (as long as I snag the entire front diff assembly along with the right(passenger side) cv and left(driver's side) long inner axle shaft? Or would I need the entire front diff assembly as stated above from a 99 and up GV and the right side cv from a 96 and up track kick for the right length?