Drive Axle bearing replacement question...

[tinaslynn]

Posted this on general forum.. wanted to get some input... here's rundown on situation:I checked the front end noise with tires off the ground had someone 'drive' it... the noise is definitely in the drive axle. There is no play in the spindle area and the noise is coming from the transmission. The tire/axle will catch or hesitate at low speeds like a bearing is causing it to stop rotating for a second then catching, or perhaps the splines on the axle is skipping.. definitely coming from transmission and not tire end. Sounds horrible. I parked it and am subjected to driving the gas guzzling explorer in the meantime lol. When I get time, gonna pull the axle out and take a look at the end.. one thing I did notice is excessive oil, dirt, etc around that area of the seal to the transmission. My transmission was extremely low on fluid (added almost 3 quarts the other day and found it odd for a manual transmission to get that low on oil). The driving had gotten worse and the whole car shakes.. I can watch the tire and axle shake while its in gear moving... pretty bad too. Question now is... is that bearing (if so bad) pressed in or is it fairly simple to pull out (with a bearing puller?) if I can even get my hands in there to it?

Thanks for any advice,T

[Rev_D21]

The final drive could be toast. Sounds more like a gear problem than a bearing. Let us know what you find out.