Thanks for the advice. I checked the axle breather and it is plugged solid. As a mather of fact it has been soaking in solvent for about three hours and it is still clogged. I decide to check the fill level of the differential. I put a 1/2 gallon plastic ice cream container under the fill nut it to catch the drips. Well, fluid poured out and by the time it stopped the container was almost 3/4 full - that would be about 5 to 6 pints. I looked up the lube capacity of the differential in the manual and it is only 4 1/2 pints. Sure looks like I have transmission fluid coming down the torque tube big time. So JIMerit - what is an "okie bushing" that you mentioned in your reply to my last post. By the way, the oil that came out of the rear end was dirt brown in color - or maybe it is rust brown??? Any thoughs or idea would be appreciated. One more question - should the fill plug be in the upper half or lower half of the differential rear plate. Mine is positioned in the lower half. Is this correct? My next obvious step is to check the transmission fluid level. Now I think I know why the truck came with a plastic gallon of gear oil!
