How much of a pain is this to do without the thousand dollars worth of tools referred to in the shop manual? I don't think there's an easy way around the special socket which I'll probably have to purchase for the adjuster lock ring but how easily does the rest of it come apart and reassemble?

Thanks in advance

As a straight mechanical repair, I would place this in the catagory of automatic trans repairs. It requires special tools, techniques, and offers too many oh-oh possibilities.

The cost of the socket is probably equal to the labor charged for doing the job, so if you are not going into the business I would pay someone else for this one.

The most difficult part of the job is the crushing of the crush sleeve and preloading of the axle bearings - very similar to setting up a pinion in a differential; except harder. Not only will you have to have the socket but also something to grab the flange as the force necessary to crush it is in the hundreds of footpounds. I have stripped two or three nuts over the years from the force. I now precondition the crush
sleeve before installation.