The folks at TPC are doing some work on my 2009 CS w/PDK, one item being the installation of an OS Giken LSD. Part of the installation includes reusing the bearings from the original diff. OS Giken's recommendation is to drill two holes in the housing to relieve pressure and then carefully remove the old bearings. Careful is the keyword as my understanding is that Porsche does not sell replacement bearings or even complete diffs - recovery is a transmission. The TPC team was concerned about this and took what they felt was a safer approach to releasing the bearings. The following is a quote from Tom's email today:
Voila - clean release for subsequent installation. Thanks again to the team at TPC for their hard work and attention to detail. Needless to say, can't wait to take this puppy for a spin!
We took an extra safe approach by slowly machining material off the ID of the stock diff snout on a lathe. 0.10" per pass to the point the snout collapsed and the bearings just glide off. Drilling is more risky and can deform that bearing to some degree causing the inner race to spin later. I think everyone should have a machine shop do this on a lathe rather than drilling and hammering.
Voila - clean release for subsequent installation. Thanks again to the team at TPC for their hard work and attention to detail. Needless to say, can't wait to take this puppy for a spin!