I thought the rear diff was OK as everything turned. I took out the drain plug and nothing came out. There were plenty of metal scraps in the drain plug.
I stuck my finger inside and it came out with a silver sheen and accompanying bits of ground up metal. BUGGAR!.
So the rear diff was pulled apart and what a mess I found. The pinion inner roller bearing was next to non-existent. It had ground itself to smithereens between the pinion and crown wheel.There were no rollers left. The crown wheel and pinion were beyond re-use. Both had many many divots and dents ground into all of the teeth.
The pinion nut was seized onto the shaft and the cotter pin broken off so there was no alternative except to used a lot of heat and a fine 1mm. cutoff disc. Fortunately I was able to use the universal flange again.
I was fortunate that I had located a complete Lynx front axle around about 2001 and that gave me a good crown wheel and pinion to use. Both these rear and front diffs had come from the same vehicle originally. The rear diff went to Childers and the front to Newry. Only about 100km apart. The cut down Lynx had been used as a loader for a sand pit up at Swifts Creek, Vic. It was cut up and sold about 40 years ago, the rest went to scrap. I swapped a White Scout Car gearbox for the front diff.
Regards Rick.