Rear diff wheel bearings???

[MASTERBrian]

I'll soon be heading to the rear diff to check things out. I currently have the stock unit on the truck and haven't had luck finding a replacement so unless things change for now I'm sticking with what I have if everything checks out. BTW....1960 1/2 suburban with the Atlas rear diff.

There are some signs of leakage, I plan to drain the fluids, pull the cover, look inside and clean up any gunk and see if any signs of wear. On this Atlas, do I pull both sides of cover, is two pieces correct? RTV black to seal it back up?

Some other questions, is the pinion seal/bearing easy to replace? What about the wheel bearings? Any easy way to check either? Prices on those don't look horrid and my guess is if the rest looks good then is there a reason not to run it?

If either are tough to replace I'll look at having shop replace if I can locate decent deal on the parts. Will likely need to go there before I get her on road much for alignment.

Part of my dilemma on this is the condition of the drum brakes after sitting for fifteen years in field. If they are eaten up, I might opt for disc conversion in rear as well, but I'll discuss that in a separate thread, but mention in case it has any bearing on my situation.