Wow! I lucked out

[js4x4]

I finally crawled under the truck to investigate why my rear axle was making such hideous noises, i unbolted the driveshaft and /forums/images/graemlins/yikes.gif the pinion nut was almost off!! I took if off by hand!!! I popped off the pinion seal, and the bearings looked good not a bunch of slop...so call me crazy put on a new seal and bolted it all back up and added oil. she drives like a champ now. just hope i didn't totally jack the ring & pinion up, cuz i put about 40 miles on it (it wasn't dry for what its worth)
I finally paid my subscription, so i'm an official member!

 

[kennyw]

There will be some weird wear on that r/p but if it quits howling you will probably be ok. Just keep it close to home until you get some miles on it to be sure.