Hello,

My 2004 F150 rear axle (3.73 open diff) has been whining for about the last 150,000 miles; I talked to the dealer a couple years ago and they said I could count on a $1,300 repair bill. I also talked to some transmission guys and they didn't do that sort of stuff becuase of the special tools needed. I'm finally starting to get sick of listining to it. I just replaced a leaky pinion seal and pulled the cover to change oil. It doesn't look that hard to repair, or is it?

It appears you need a special tool(s?) to compress clutch packs, but I have an ope diff. If a person can pull heads, replace timing chains and swap out transmisssions, can he rebuild a rear axle? My other idea a while back was to find a completely different used rear end, but it still may be a crap shoot, right? I have swapped out oil and I've tried Lucas. I haven't gotten to the point of adding sawdust, yet ;^). Any advice?

good luck -jim