Hello everyone, I'm looking for a little advice before I get into too much of a mess. I bought my truck real cheap from a friend last year, it has 280,000 miles on it. It needed a little work, leaky vacuum hoses, tune up, that kind of thing, easy stuff I fixed myself. But the guy had kept it up pretty good otherwise.
A few weeks ago, I noticed a metal on metal grinding sound and some vibration coming from the rear end. It only seems to do it under load, going up or down hills, but it is getting worse every time I drive. First thing I checked was the u-joints but they all seem fine. I'm not sure how to tell if the carrier bearing is okay. When I push and pull on the drive shaft, the rubber around it seems fairly stiff, there is not a lot of play. I checked the oil level in the differential, it's topped off. The next thing I am thinking of doing is checking the wheel bearings. I'm really hoping that there is nothing wrong with the differential itself, I am trying to rule out everything else before messing with that.
If anyone has some suggestions or has had a similar problem, tips will be greatly appreciated. I'm too cheap and stubborn to take it to a shop just yet, I'm a DIY kind of guy.