your post from a couple days ago about  front axle bearings got me  curious.    You  said  the inner bearings tended to go out first.   Is there any  clues  that it's about to go south?    Whine,  temp...  Or  measuring for  'play' the only way??

 my front axle  runs  quite warm, and has  since I got it 10 yrs. ago.   I can  put my hand on the  diff,  but not for long.  2 or 3 seconds is long enough.  The  outer part of the trumpet housing is   'normal' warm.    I'm hoping that  running the  thicker oil in  those  wide gears  is  what is heating mine up.

I changed out  my fluid  today,  and  put back some new  85-140   gear lube.    Apparently the PO  already changed it up to gear lube too.   So,  it's safe to say it's had gear lube since I've owned it.

All my other Massey's  tended to   puke the outer seal  when the bearings went bad...    but if  the inner bearing  craps out first,   it might  take longer for symptoms to show up?? 

Just recently, I've noticed  a  whine coming from  'somewhere'.  This is in  high gear,  running down the road.  It's only noticeable going up a  hill.  Flat and down hill is  quiet.

I run in  2nd low,  intermediate for most of my field work.  This  puts me  in about 5.5-6.0 mph.  depending on  rpm.   I'll try  3rd low, and  2nd high  next time I'm  bombing  down the road.