well it seems i jumped to conclusions when i thought my rear end was shot. the god awful noise coming from the rear end turned out to be a wheel bearing thats all chewed to hell. my problem is that i can't get the axles out. it's a 7 1/4" rear end and it has the retainer plate bolted to the backing plate of the brakes. therefore, according to the book, it does not have c-clip retainers in the ends of the axleshafts themselves. but when i put a slide hammer on the lug studs, i cant get the axle to budge. what should i do?

 

All's good. I put the torches to the axle housing and it let go of it enough to smack it out with a bigger slide hammer. So both axles are out and just waiting to put my new bearings on.