The axle was sent off to the blasters and came back all clean and rust free, unfortunately the integrity of the bowl on the back of the diff was a bit suspect and was porous, only found out when it was turned on its back and I noticed some nasty oil on the garage floor, not the end of the world though as I’ve plated up the bowl so it doesn’t leak any more.
However since doing this there is one area that feels like a small amount of distortion is catching on the diff cage, so its time to remove the half shafts and diff and a few carefully aimed blowes on the inside of the diff housing should give adequate clearance, and give me a chance of checking the state of the two holes I blew in the casing when welding in plates.
Funnily enough though since it was cleaned and possibly moved about a lot the small amount of oil in it must have made its way to the pinion bearing which doesn’t feel horrible anymore, it just feels like a good oiling may sort it out, not expensive to fix, but better not to have to split the diff as its not a simple job.
