Well this settles things, stick with Timken. I switch to Timken before install for driver side because the National seemed off on dimensions. Glad I did because that side seems good in relation to the pinion gear with the ring get in place - although not loaded. But the BCA/NTN bearing has an install issue. My options are to either cut and remove the bearing and install a Timken or pull the single factory shim and go for a thinner shim setup. As you can see below there is a gap. I used A LOT of press power to get it to go further, nothing. And I can turn the diff while looking at the gap, there is no random debris causing it to hold up. My guess is the radius is different than a Timken at the base. So while its other dimensions looked good, that was something I could not measure or would have noticed. And I know this will not work as is because with just four bolts to snug things up I could barely move the diff and the scale was into the 20 lb range. So the bearing is certainly sitting a little higher in the housing. My other concern is that the bottom lip of the inner race could maybe break off in parts from load? Not sure if that concern is valid or not....

Again the bearing I went with was NB32010X via BCA which is also NTN and the bearing that arrived was in a BCA box with the bearing itself stamped NTN. Generally considered a very good brand that I will now avoid. My local search for a Timken is not going well, at least not on a Saturday.

edit: Timken ordered via Amazon. Will be here next week. $46 shipped was comparable to anyone else. If not for being the weekend I bet the Industrial Bearing shop in town would have one, I always forget they exist. They supplied a couple odd bearings I needed long ago and alway have em in stock. Oh well.

 

Why didn't you try Rock Auto? They are reputable and have all the Timken bearings, even the ones sold as National brand.
I'm always weary of Amazon, there is no effort on their part to provide any resolution or attempt to control the authenticity even after confronted with selling fakes. I bought NGK plugs that turned out to be fakes and had to reach out to NGK because Amazon told me to **** off. NGK sent me free replacements in exchange for the fakes and all the paperwork that I could provide so their lawyers could possibly stop the sale of fakes.

I'm glad you posted the pic, I might not have paid close attention to this shoulder issue if you hadn't mentioned it, really helpful. I'm more of the visual person, my ADHD sometimes gets in the way of reading...

I managed to remove bearings almost intact using cheap-ish Amazon bearing puller, my plan is to build a jig so I can accurately mic the bearings I removed VS the ones I'm installing and it might save me some shimming headaches down the road

I have a press but this jig was easier to use because I didn't have to suspend the whole diff while pressing it.

Pic below of what I purchased, with one warning: it's smaller than I expected, while it barely fits over the axle side bearings it's too small to remove the pinion bearing

 

Easy... Rock lists no Timken bearings under the differential section for the LR3. Why? Not sure because if you distill to the generic industry part number they are there but I did not know what I needed at the time. And there is no list out there, sellers of the kits don't like to say what parts they come with because they know those bearing kits are marked way up. And most use generic pics that half the time don't show part numbers well or are just some other random bearing kit that shows very wrong bearing even though they may ship the right ones. Of course now that I know what I need I can see a few sellers do show some pics that prob have the right nearing part numbers on em. And there is not one forum thread that I could find which breaks every part needed to a list. In theory if industry standards are followed they should fit fine. So I went with National and BCA because that was what was in stock, very reputable bearings brands, and I wanted them on hand to start the project. Wish I had know there is so much variance in bearing dimensions of the "same" type.

I have that same puller kit, worked on one carrier bearing but not the other, it broke the race lip apart. But now that I know how fast and easy they come off with cutting and a whack, I will do it that way. And I have a press too but no way to remove bearing with it, just install. Another thing I bought was race installers. Probably not needed but they did help a little. Freezing would probably work as the fitment is not very tight. They are certainly pretty easy to pop out, way easier than expected. So if one needs to still shim it is not hard to get the races out, insert shims and reinstall with no damage. Just make sure if you don't damage the original spacers which likely will happen. Just take a Dremel and grind and raised dents smooth. it is not like the spacer need to be perfect, a few impact pits are okay - raised bits are not.

 

And def check what you need for pinion bearings to be sure. I listed just one, the outer bearing part numbers since that was the only one I could read. Several sources say two of the same are needed but I have doubts. And Rock only lists the outer also, not inner which makes me think in the case of out modified M200 they are not the same for both. My guess in the inner bearing is a Timken NPI59221.

Case in point, note the bearing at middle right. That is what is typically used by Dana from factory for one of the bearings in the M200. Pinion I believe. But a lot of aftermarket kits swap it out for a roller type like in ours because of more contact area and thus strength. Just one more thing that made it initially confusing looking for information before buying bearings.

 

Pinion has 2 different bearing cones, the ID is 100% not the same on inner and outer, it's very obvious once pinion is removed.
The number I got from the outer Pinion bearing is listed on Rock as "diff outer" or something like that, all the photos on rock site show Timken where it's listed as such, so I'll see what shows up... Again, away from wok for a few days and all my notes are there. Rock is cheap enough so I'm getting a couple versions of everything so I can measure them against the ones I removed and preserved for this very reason. My original plan was to cut them off.

here's what comes up under LR3 specific and just a part number search

 

NP310800 bearing needs NP312191 race (pretty sure it's pinion outer, and it's not the same as pinion inner)
LM603049 needs a LM603011 , together they are sold as SET37

I've noticed that last few weeks AI search summary has been blatantly wrong in many cases, I tested it and something is definitely wrong with it, so I only trust the specs that I can get from manufacturer.
Also on AB site you can make out some of the bearing numbers on DOK007 and they match the numbers you listed

 

two screenshots below are from Heritage kit DOK007, same p.n. as AB, 3 out of 4 are KOYO, ones I removed so far were all Timken

 

When it comes to the plethora of kits out there, this one seems to be most accurate to our needs when it comes to a photo of correct parts which is readable. Top two bearings being carrier, bottom two pinion.

 

Found specs on this exact issue using 32010X as a reference, apparently Timken makes a dozen bearings with same OD (D) and ID (d) the only difference I see is overall width (T) and specs like shaft radius (R) in the picture which is exactly the problem you have, so matching the letters becomes essential

pdf attached

 

Well, that is a very interesting find! Now I am concerned that the Timken I ordered may not be correct.... The original found on my diff was XAB32010XM to be exact. I ordered a Timken 32010X. According to that sheet, the XAB32010XM has a max fillet radius shaft of 3.0 for the inner race (large letter "R" on diagram, not small letter "r", to be clear). Now part of the issue is that with my order of an 32010X is there is no starting letter and on that PDF they all at least start with X. And this could mean a value of 3.0 or 1.0..... And this is the same part number of the BCA from Rock that was listed for our truck under carrier bearings. Which was NB32010X/32010X and a google AI search of "NTN-NB32010X specs fillet radii" come back as 1.0. Further confirmed via a site with the bearing specs.
https://www.motion.com/products/sku/...WY4fq_I1vgTVGz

So that explains the fitment issue as suspected. I will have to cancel the Amazon order and look more into this. So this is less of a brand issue and more of the fact that while the generic bearing part number across brands may be 32010X, there are more variables needed....

What a pain, and thanks for that PDF! You helped me dodge another bullet it seems.