Hey guys looks like I've made a mess of things. I thought my rear brakes were squealing a bit so I waited a while to get them looked at. Too much snow and cold (and a full garage) were not conducive for my doing the work. For many years I have taken all of my vehicles to the quarter car wash to spay down the undercarriage and than use what's left to spray the body concentrating on the seams of the of the door, hood, and hatch panels, and any other crevice that could store salt. I finally got around to checking all of my fluids and only found a puddle in the read differential. When I got the 97 TJ IL6 on the hoist at the corner gas station it was easy to see rear end oil was leaking out of the pinion oil seal. They recommended me to a shop that only works on drive trains. I have been given an estimate for replacing the rear axel bearing, the pinion oil seal and bearing, ring and pinion gears, all seals and labor for $600 complete. This does VERY reasonable to me and this is a very reputable shop that ONLY works on drive train. While under the Jeep they will also inspect further forward including the x-fer case, trans, and front axel. Oh, I forgot to mention that of course they do the proper torque and lashing in their work.
*****Are their any specific name brand parts I should request? Can anyoone think of other questions I should ask the shop? They warrant thier parts and labor for 6 months which is pretty cool. OK, whatta you say?******* The impetus of this damage goes back to when I rear ended someone without any brake lights who made an emergency stop for an unknown reason. I got a dent in my fender and was mostly concerned about the motor mounts, front end and steering system. I never thought the impact could be transfer completely to the back of the Jeep. Ouch. I also fear that other components further forward may need work. I wanted to take on this job myself to get the experience but time and other factors do not make it possible so I would like opinions fromPeace & Love, Steve