Vibration problem. Now how to fix it

Right, I've found the vibration problem on the Disco. Took the rear propshaft off and the input flange on the diff is moving all over the place. So, presumably the pinion bearings are shot.
Can I just undo the ring of forward facing bolts on the differential housing to remove the whole of the pinion assembly complete with its housing and leave the rest of the diff in place in the axle? Having done that, I presume replacing the 2 bearings on the bench should be fairly routine.
The Rave CD isn't too clear on doing a partial dismantle.
Rimmers do the bearings but they seem a bit on the pricey side. Nobody else seems to do them though.
Any advice would be most welcome as I haven't been inside a Diff before.

The pinion bearings will probably need a preload, and I haven't looked in the manual to see what method is used, crushable spacer of set by spring balance on the flange.

The bearings will be available at most good bearing stockists, you need to get the numbers off the old ones first.

Change the oil seal and the diff oil.

Just checked the Rave manual, Disco II diffs have a shim(s) to set the bearing preload, might be different on older vehicles.

Peter

Is yours a D1 or D2?

i got axle manwell for d1 if ya want me to look

Its a D1. I've just realised I am being thick. I had the idea in my head that you could the pinion section of the diff off the front and the rest of the diff came out of the back. Moron.
I've just pulled the diff out of my rebuild project and am going to put it in the other one. Looked at the manual and the rebuild doesn't look too difficult though it talks about setting crown wheel to pinion backlash without telling you where exactly to measure it. If you could tell me that, it would be very helpful.

i did my defender a coupple of years ago and if i rember you need to put engineers blue on the croun wheel (no set measurement) to see where the croun wheel and the pinion are touching each over there is a diagram in the manual showing you where they should be the most important part is setting the height of the pinion the manual gives you a measuerment to measure down and there should be some numbere on top of the pinion giving a + or - of that mesurement the preload of the pinion is set buy a shim on th bottom bearing
got my bits from here LRdirect.com : Land Rover Parts & Accessories for Defender, Series, Range Rover, P38, Discovery & Freelander

Thats brilliant. If you go by the Rave CD you end up messing around with dial gauges and all sorts. Much easier when you are only changing bearings.
Many thanks