Round #2
 

OK....time for an easy one.  We now need to remove the front bearing retainer cap.

Here is Alan applying a little bit of leverage to one of the four bolts that hold the retainer cap on.  It is pretty easy to take these 4 botls out, piece of cake!
 

Once the bolts are removed, you can again use that big screwdriver to pry the cap off of the housing.  Yep, it has some RTV sealant on it so it will take a little bit of effort, but nothing you can't handle by now.  You made it this far....heck, you are darn near a t-case veteran!  Somewhere along the line you need to clean the RTV residue off of the retainer cap.  If you want, pull up a stool, take a load off of your feet, and clean the cap.  Be careful not to scratch up the sealing surfaces.  Also one thing to remember when putting this cap on the new case....those bolt holes are not equally spaced.  There is but one way that the holes line up.  Be sure you have them lined up before you squish the RTV covered plate into place.
 

So....you are probably wondering what the heck those two things are that Alan is holding?  Well, it is his handy-dandy stud puller.  Up until this project, I didn't even know that such a tool existed.  After this project, I hope I never have to pull any studs again without having one of this little beauties.  So, how does it work?  The piece in Alan's left hand is a tapered collet that matches a specific size bolt/thread pattern.  Just in case you were wondering, the studs in the rear housing (the ones that attach the transfer case to the tranny) are 3/8".  The thread that goes into the t-case is coarse thread, and the thread that sticks out (the tranny end of the stud) is 24 pitch fine.  The collet is loosely inserted into the outer shell (the piece in his right hand) and the adjustment nut at the top is turned to take the slack out of the setup.  It is then threaded down over the stud.  Once you have engaged as much of the stud's threads as possible (all of them in the case of the studs we are talking about here), you tighten up the adjustment nut.  This pulls the collet into the outer shell and forces the collet to tightly grip the stud (and I mean it really grips that stud big time!).  Then, you take a 1 1/8" open end wrench and turn the outer shell, which in turn causes the the tightly squeezed collet and the stud to all turn as a single unit. Iti is as easy as that.  Let's take a look.
 

In the above photo, the collet has already been screwed down onto the thread.  We are tightening the adjustment nut at the top of the outer shell.  To do this, we used a 7/8" wrench on the nut and held the shell in place with the other wrench.  Remove the adjustment nut wrench and start unscrewing the stud using the wrench on the outer shell.
 

There you go.....easy as that.  The thread comes right out of the case housing, just as good as the day it was installed.  You then loosen up the adjustment nut a couple of turns and tap on it a couple of times which causes the collet to slide out of the tapered shell.  You then unscrew the stud form the collet with just your fingers.  OR.....you can use the method offered in the instructions which is to double nut the stud and then unscrew it with a wrench on the lower nut.  This will certainly work, but I guarantee you it won't be as easy as using a Snap-On stud puller.

More of Round #2