Rear Axle Blown. Cost of repair?

Wrong, if oil is leaking through the seal it has washed the grease out of the bearings and they require replacement.
Glad the op got it fixed without the major expense he was expecting.

 

Depends how long the problem has been going on. Rear axle bearings are enough of a PITA i'm only going to bother replacing them if they tell me I need to. I'm not "fixing" something when there are no signs or symptoms.

 

Don't mean to revive the dead thread, but the squealing is unaffected and continues to haunt me. And idea what it could be?

 

Is the noise road speed dependent? Or engine RPM dependent?

 

Yeah they are!

 

Update. The squeal turned out to be dry u joints. They greased then no charge but it hasn't exactly remedied the situation completely. It doesn't squeal, but I can tell it's still down there just waiting. Biding its time.

While the truck was on the lift I gave her a good look see, didn't know when I'd get the chance to do it again and gave the driveshaft a good push. It has a lot of play in the carrier bearing. Is that normal? What would the symptoms of a loose carrier bearing?

 

Carrier bearing is essentially suspended inside a stiff rubber donut. Acts as a bushing to absorb vibration. First signs it's going bad tend to be vibration and/or noise. Or if it's falling the fuck out of the mount because the rubber has rotted out.

A good inch or so of slop is normal.

 

replace the u-joints, they are cheap. if problem ensues, spend the 150+ on a carrier bearing.

 

i replaced one outer seal recently and slapped everything back together to see if leak would be fixed. but what it took was replacing both outer seals and inner seals including having the bearings replaced and shoes and wheel cylinders, i did everyhting but press old bearing off and on, to get to inner seals you have to take old bearings off and requires someone with smithing experience or tools. you dont have to replace both sides i did to take care of whole rear axle so I knew it was all taken care of.but you have to replace shoes cause old ones will get soaked with oil and break down your shoes
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If the universals were squealing, then they were dry, and wearing. It would be best to go ahead and replace them now, while they are just noisy, instead of putting them off and risk breakage.