Well, that loud whine lasted over a year and a half... had no issues putting on another 30,000 miles almost (have been out of work all year otherwise it would've been twice that mileage), though I still couldn't be certain where the sound was coming from until now... was worried it was the transmission, as that would be something I definitely couldn't afford to fix if it went south. But, this past week, felt an odd vibration at lower RPM, fine on the highway, but now it's a lot more pronounced. So I crawled under it and yup, leaking oil from the front of the diff now (U-joints are fine), so I guess my first theory of the pinion bearing was dying was correct. Of course, now I'm like, oh great, it's 20 degrees out in the winter. Wondering how long I can drive it before it eats the ring and pinion up. Wishing it was a 9" so I could just yank the pumpkin out, drag it into my garage, and rebuild it, but unfortunately it's not, and I'm sure there's more going on in this than the 2WD 9" rears I'm used to. So I'll be at the mercy of a shop, which means big bucks that I don't have atm. Oh fun! Wondering how much this will cost... just read some of your comments and $2k would be on the cheap side and twice that is possible. That's nuts.
