[FC] Differential side bearing

[Charles]

Hi all,

Well, I'm back from a long weekend to take another look into what is 
making noise from my van's rear end. Ok, I've gotten some good advice 
from some of you already about this. Here's the original observations:

I heard some nasty scraping from what I thought might be the rear 
brakes. There was no real change in the sound when the brakes were 
applied so at first I thought a rock or some piece of spring had broken 
off and was grinding around in the drum. It happened a couple of times 
for a few minutes and then just stops and then starts up again. I can't 
imagine that the bearings would stop making noise once something goes 
wrong. I pulled the drums and can't see anything wrong. There was no 
evidence of something scraping around. I did notice that the star wheel 
for the self-adjusting brake was not engaging on one side (the side 
where I thought the noise was coming from). I can spin the wheels and 
hear nothing like the god-awful scraping. Before I parked I put it in 
reverse and then applied the brakes and then went forward and the noise 
decreased significantly. I'm beginning to suspect that the differential 
is the problem. The noise is not engine-speed related. I did notice that 
when I pulled on the hub that it moved in and out about an eigth of an 
inch. The bearings aren't great but again I find it hard to believe that 
they could go quiet once they start making noise.

Tonight I'm taking off the section of floor over the tranny/diff and 
having a peek inside the diff which is where I strongly suspect the 
problem to be. My question is:  Is it possible to remove/change the side 
bearing in the diff without having to remove the diff or drop it down?

I have another question: Has anyone sucsessfully separated a rear axle 
bearing from the axle shaft without destroying the bearing of course? 
 If so, what's the secret?

The reason I ask is that I had previously taken a set of axle/bearing 
assemblies to a licenced machine shop to have the bearings pulled off so 
that I could inspect them properly and with a bit of luck salvage one 
useable bearing as a back up. When I went to pick up my professionally 
separated bearings I was informed that they could not budge them. They 
even tried pulling on the outer race which of course 
cracked/broken/useless. A good reminder to never trust anyone. Sure, I 
could have complained but to what end? Anyone who would do what they did 
is not going to stand behind their "mechanical skills". All I can do is 
warn my local car enthusiasts about this shop.

Thanks for the opportunity to rant a little and I hope somebody can help.

- Charles