I have a 2001 f150 supercrew XLT. I had a rear axel leak so I decided to change seals myself. Whan I was dissasembling the rearend I had to remove a "s" clip that seems to apply pressure between the axels. It was pretty hard to remove but now I cannot put it back in. I need to know the order in wich to assemble this. I tried installing clip before spider gears but I could not install spider gears after. I tried after the spiders were installed but can't seem to make the clip fit in. Please help!

 

http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/5o...5ohtech001.htm

This how to is for the full ring and pinion but it covers the "s" clip. It's for the 8.8 but I'm sure it will get you want !

 

Oh boy.

Good luck getting that bastard back in.

There's a tool that compresses/rotates it back into place along with the spiders when the differential carrier is out of the axle and clamped in a vise, and it's still a job to get it seated back in place.

You're in for some serious hell, dude. Sorry. You shouldn't have had to mess with the S-clip if you were just resealing the axle. My advice would be to remove the carrier from the axle housing and carry it and the spring/clutches/spiders to someone with the tools to reinstall everything. The above link says it's not that hard to do, but they've always kicked my *** and I got all the tools to do them. YMMV, of course.