Ok so I finally got to remove the diff cover and check things out this afternoon, I am about ready to go on a shooting rampage in orilleys apparently anyone that can breathe and walk is qualified to work in there but besides that.
Few observations,
-Seems like I could see some play in the carrier bearings and pinion bearings that doesn't look good at all but it was minor and hard to tell 100% what I was seeing
-The gears looked excellent almost no noticeable wear at all
-Google research told me that a FF rearend holds 3.7 quarts of oil, I was struggling to get 2.5 quarts in level so I took it outside and parked it on a hill and managed to force about 3.5 quarts in by quickly squeezing the out of the last bottle and then jamming the plug in as fast as possible. Can anyone with a owners manual please verify what it actually holds?
-It seems alittle quieter now after a fluid change but I didn't take it very far down the road so it'll be another day before I know for sure. What I removed from it looked more akin to used up 5w-30 than gear oil.
So now I guess I am going to start gathering up parts to rebuild this beast of a rear end, the article on pirate and having it apart today looking at it makes me feel pretty confident I can handle it myself. I can't understand what in the heck somebody was doing with this truck to be able to wear out a 14 bolt FF in 182k miles gee wiz I thought this thing was "bullet proof".