Questions About Differential install

[Squeegee]

I am just coming out of the other end of a few months of family issues that have put me far behind on my build.

I am now at the point of installing the diff (I'm just about convinced that "diff" is short for "difficult"). Actually, I have partially installed it several times already, but I just can't get everything to fit. I have few questions for anyone willing to chime in:

1) Top bolt in first or bottom bolts in first? Top bolt first seems logical to me, but some of the build logs have the bottom bolts going in first.
2) What about tolerances. In a test fitting of the top bolt I had four washers (3 mm thickness) on one side and five washers (less that 4 mm thickness) on the other side. Is "close" (less that a millimeter) ever good enough?
3) How severely can I chamfer the bottom bolts to get them into the thread?

I am at your mercy.

Thanks,
Dave

[sf4018]

1. Not sure if one is better but we put in bottom first because it’s easier to get in (I stress the word “we” as I couldn’t have done I alone, it was the hardest part of the build!). We used a jack to support the weight with one person holding it steady and the other person hammering the bolt in. Then we raised the jack to line up the top bolt openings. The top bolt took some major hammering to get all the way through, what a bear.
2. I would guess yes as it connects to universal joints?
3. We put a ton of copper slip on the bolts, didn’t chamfer, so dunno about that one.

[11Budlite]

1) I did the bottom first too.
2) Don't remember exactly but I had different washer thickness on the left and right sides to get it centered.
3) I used anti-seize too. What helped me getting the upper bolt in was taking a 2.5" x 1/2" bolt and chamfering it and then putting that in from the nut side until it lined up. Then I took the long bolt which I didn't chamfer (didn't want it to rust) and tapped it in until it pushed the chamfered bolt out through the nut side. Worked great for me.

[Squeegee]

Thanks to both of you. I really appreciate your help.
Dave

[Squeegee]

I got the diff installed! I promised myself that i would get it installed before the end of 2020. By my calculations, I finished in the early morning hours of December 34th, so I guess I met that goal.

[panamericano]

So important to have goals.
Congratulations from 12-3 in the evening.