Stopping oil...

While in there to renew my rear brakes I discovered an unwelcome guest - hypoid oil.  One of my rear axle seals had deteriorated and leaked oil into the left brake drum.  Not a good thing for stopping power.  This meant pulling the axle shafts out and replacing the bearing & seals.

As it turned out, this was not a difficult job, but requires a tall hydraulic press like the one used to install the CV joints.

The old bearings looked perfect, but I replaced them just so I don't have to worry for the next 30 years or so.  There's a nut & lock washer that keeps pressure on the bearing.  To remove you have to tap the ears of the lock washer down, and use the special MB tool (or a chisel) to remove the nut.  Then you're ready to use the press to remove the bearing, seal, and end cap all at once.

The rear axle kit consists of a bearing, a seal assembly that has a lip seal, o-ring, and foam dust seal, new self-locking nuts to hold on the bearing cap, and a cap gasket.

Simple enough, and a job that can be done in about an hour per side if you're in a hurry.  I spent about double that to make sure everything was clean and nicely repainted.  One more thing I wont have to worry about in the future.  It's starting to seem like I'm rebuilding the whole truck at this rate!