Leaderboard

The bolt pattern changed in '89, so you want '90-'95. I thought auto was almost always 4.6, but it turns out it's not that simple. I checked the '90 (PD-142) and '95 (PD-98) manuals. Same chart in both. VG/manual is always 4.3. VG/auto/SE trim is always 4.6. VG/Auto/not-SE can be either, depending on original tire size. (I assume larger tires = deeper gears, but the chart doesn't come out and say that.) So if that auto/small tires donor you're looking at isn't an SE, you might be onto a winner. I would still want to see the build plate and/or check turns by hand to confirm. And yeah, ideally the donor should have the same brakes, or you'll have to open it up. And if you've gotta open the diff, and your old one is otherwise present and correct, might as well open that one and replace those guides.

Regarding filtering...I needed to do something similar a few months back. I used paper coffee filters in a funnel. Took a while to get all the oil through but worked fine. Rebuild's not too bad. Amayama is a good route for parts. I also have LSD parts around. If you have an older unit that happens to have tabbed spring plates (see my post for examples), then I have a set of unused friction guides for you.

Yes. you only have to worry about backspacing clearing your strut plate if your tires are going to be over 31". 265/70r16 is ~30.6". I think you'll tuck with both of those options. tiresize.com has an offset calculator you can mess with to test your options: https://tiresize.com/wheel-offset-calculator/