Big T,
I don't know of another way to fix it. It will be a big job because to remove the axle housing you will have to disconnect the u joint behind the tranny, in addition to removing the rear u bolts and disconnect the rear brake line. You must also remove the axles from the housing. You will then have the rear axle housing, differential and torque tube as an assembly. The only other hard part will be finding the right sized pipe (around 3 inches as I recall) to just barely fit inside the axle housing to act as an anvil on the head of the rivets that hold the spacer. On mine we flattened the rivet heads sufficiently that the spacer no longer moved around in the wallowed out hole in the axle housing through which the oil was leaking. For added measure we applied sealant around the spacer although I am not sure that alone will help much.
My truck has been at the painter's shop for several months but as far as I know our repair has held up. If it leaks again, I will just get another drip pan or two and call it quits.
Kent
