Peep this rear end.

No one is probably tracking, by my crusty New England truck is getting cleaner and cleaner. Rear axle is next.
The pinion bearing is bad, and you can see I’m down a shock mount, one of the e brake cable supports, the lspv bracket(deleted anyway), and of course the diff cover is rotted out.

The truck is an 04 double cab, 4.10 LSD. I don’t think I’m finding an exact replacement. The best I’ve seen is no LSD, but off a truck from Massachusetts with over 300k on it, and the yard wants 1300.

I think what I’m going to do is send the Diff to ECGS(~800$) for a quality rebuild and buy a clean axle housing. There is someone nearby with housings from Florida for 650$. I will need to swap my abs sensors and add axle seals, then pop the axles and diff into the new housing. Seems straightforward right? I was wary of the axle seals, because of the PHM drama with it, but it looks like his trouble was really bearings.

My other option is to clean up this housing and get welding, but this housing is pretty far gone.
Looking for any alternate COAs that I haven’t thought of, or red flags with swapping my housing out that I haven’t noticed.

Thanks!

 

If you’re going to do axle seals, do the rear wheels bearings as well and be done with it for another 300k miles.

I think it’s salvageable if you clean it up with a wheel grinder and sand it to a smooth finish. A new aftermarket diff cover will mostly like need to welded in place. Choice is up to you.

If you do decide to swap it out, at least buy new backing plates and hardware to mount the leaf springs to the axle.

 

Why does only one leaf pack have the downward kink on the overload? Camera tricks?

 

There was a broken leaf on the drivers side, replaced it. The remaining clapped out old leafs have slightly less arch. The overloads themselves are OG.

 

I have welded in the past, but a diff cover would something I’d pay someone to do. Any thought on what I’d be paying someone to do it?

Leafs and bumps are on the list once I settle on a camper and the weight.

 

Good question. I have no idea what it would cost personally. I’d guess 2-3 hours of prep/weld/cleanup worse case. The trick is finding a place to do it. A fabricator shop would be my best guess.

 

A few years I noticed my diff cover (03 AC stepside) here in Cheshire MA Jay's Bends has A 1st gen as a shop truck. They sourced and installed a new cover. The price must have been reasonable (less than any numbers I see here) but I have no problems since.
Good luck...