This poor Jeep.

Al dropped it by because of some noise from the rear, or possibly the transfer case. I drove it up to the store and back and heard some awful clunking coming from the rear parking brake assemblies.
Oh
That's a new noise.
We need to fix the old noise too.
What is the old noise?
I didn't hear it. All I heard was scary clunking. I was afraid to drive it over 25mph.

I took the rear brake noise which i was hearing 'out' of the picture by removing the discs, and I ran the Jeep with the rear up in the air. The transfer case made some roaring noise. The fluid, normally red, is black. I talked to Al. Apparently this happened before, and this is a salvage yard case in there already, put in about 5yrs ago. Well, lets change the fluid and drive it after also fixing the rear brakes. If it still makes awful noise we can put a rebuilt case in it.

So I get ready to go get parts to fix the brakes and change fluids. Let's pull out the axles first to make sure I wont need anything more. It's been pouring grease out of the right rear, so let's make sure the axle and bearing are OK before I come back with just a new seal, fluids, and some brake parts. There was no noise from them when I had it running off the ground, but off the ground it has no load on the bearings. Gotta do a visual inspection.

OH GOD!

That's a deep f*****g groove! And what's this? A "repair bearing" replacement for the original... So this isn't a new problem either. A 'repair bearing' is a new bearing and seal assembly which changes the position of where those parts ride on the axle. There was some pitting where the bearing used to ride, which must be why someone installed this part. Sometimes they work. This one didn't. It needs a new axle. Actually two, because the other side has some pitting/grooves around where the seal rides. Let's do this right and replace both axles, bearings, and seals.

click on any of these photos to see the whole stream on my flickr account.
BTW, I really like this particular photo, ignoring the subject.

I have to order the axles. I'll post a new entry with all the new stuff :)