If your rear ends been sitting around, better open it up and look inside !!!

[Green Machine]

Son of Dammit, I better quit taking things apart or I'll never get done. Have the rear end out of my 70 for a frame off, was just going to pull the axles, replace the seals and do the brakes, well found some pitting on the axle on pass side, not too bad, bearing looked pretty good, left side axle was good but had one rusted flat roller, Ok so I need new axle bearings, well ok so I look and find one tooth on and axle gear with rust pits, not too bad that will run I think, but hey just four more bolts and can check carrier bearings, well driver side was fine bit found 2 really rusty pitted rollers on pass side and race had large rust pit also, yes I marked the caps before pulling and bagged shims and races left and right, well hell, might as weel pull the pinion too, seal wasn't leaking, but bearings might ??, well the inside bearing and race is ok, but front bearing race had a fair rust pit but bearing is OK, damn got to order more parts.
Well it's got a 3.73, and over in the corner is a 3.73 posi I pulled from a parts truck, and checked and the carrier bearings are good !!! I had marked the races and shims after pulling so I think i'll swap ring gears, get some new bearings and I found my excuse to put in the posi - yeah.

I have driven the truck maybe 1000 miles in the last year since I got it and never heard anything, we did change the grease to clean it out, but this truck had been sitting for 12 years in a shed before we got it, good for the body I guess, but rust got some of the parts you normaly wouldn't see rust.

So to wind this long story up, If you get a junkyard rearend or its been sitting a long time, better just bite the bullet and check ALL the bearings, I don't know how long it would have ran, likely would have had problems some time. getting more expensive all the time !!!!!!!