In search of a squeak
 

Hello everyone, as you can probably tell I am new to the forum. So I am going to give a little back story about the Blazer. My father leased a blue Blazer in 2000 I think, I recall it being an LX because I thought it stood for "Luxury", well anyway it lasted us for a few years but then due to misfortunes caused by black ice we had to get another vehicle. Due to the confidence during winter driving that the Blazer bestowed on my mother my father decided to get another, but this time a red LS which other than the color differed only by the lack of fog lights and a different four wheel drive selection system. We have had it since and in the passed 7-8 years the Blazer has endured the learning permits of my older brother and sister and myself, it also assisted us as we attempted to get a fallen pine off our homebuilt shed, it has taken us on many camping trips, it has made many many run to our local dump (2.5 hr-ish round trip) carrying 6-700+ pounds of junk and the most brutal of all...aggressive teen driving lol. My dad was not terribly pleased with 200 miles a tank at $4 a gallon. I've done some stuff to the Blazer that I will share at another time but now to get on topic.

About a month ago the Blazer started to squeak, like a suspension squeak only in the drivetrain but I didn't really care because I only drove it to and from school in like 10 min each way and it only happened noticeably at very low speed (pulling away from a stoplight/sign) so I rarely heard it. Then like all squeaks it got worse and was more apparent when I was using the throttle even a little tap would increase the squeak. Using the window technique I was able to isolate the squeak to what I thought would be the driverside rear wheel bearing. I informed my dad and asked him if I could try my hand at fixing it during the summer and he said that it was a good idea and that we could save some cash (accursed college).

So last week I bought some jack stands and some metric hardware and commenced the dirty work.

http://i46.tinypic.com/2my0l87.jpg
Front view

http://i48.tinypic.com/2z9h6k8.jpg
Rear view

http://i50.tinypic.com/o5t98n.jpg
The secrets that lay beneath

http://i50.tinypic.com/swzlp0.jpg
Driver side

http://i45.tinypic.com/103hojs.jpg
Passenger side

http://i48.tinypic.com/ngv8jo.jpg
The diff which I still need to clean.

http://i47.tinypic.com/2sbwdau.jpg
My work bench lol

http://i46.tinypic.com/flvc5h.jpg
Can you see a problem?

http://i48.tinypic.com/k0r1pt.jpg
Holding it upside down but same question lol

http://i50.tinypic.com/2qjd846.jpg
Don't know how well you all can see it but thats all the diff fluid (minus like a 1/3 or so of a cup) that was in the diff.

Answer #1: I didn't.

Answer #2: I don't know where they are now but they were there at one point.

Answer #3: I took it out to compare the wear marks and they are close enough.

Do you know the questions to these answers? lol

So now its on to the pinion bearing/seal because there is an awful lot of gunk on the fuel tank and its the only other spot that could be mistaken for right rear. Though I'm pretty nervous because I don't want to royally screw something up and cause catastrophic damaged after its been "fixed."

There, I've written half a book with lots of pics, enjoy and please feel free to comment.