I finally attempted to replace that leaky oil seal in the front axle. It actually went pretty smooth. The hardest part was getting the pinion nut off (I'm a skinny guy) so I pried the breaker bar to the leaf spring, locked the wheel hubs, and put the truck in reverse. Everything checks out ok, but do you guys think that was a good idea? Would you do the same thing?

New oil seal went in nice and tight. I also re-used the pinion nut. I couldn't get a straight answer really as to whether or not it was entirely necessary to buy a new one. The way I removed my pinion nut actually reformed the threads to their original standing points... thus allowing me to screw it right off and on and retighten it back where it originally was.

Something is still leaking under the front, don't know yet if it is my axle or the motor's usual bladder infection.

Did some light mudding mainly to check out the 4WD. All is well in the land of 4Hi and 4Lo.

Then I hit a pole. A steel pole, the kind of pole stop signs use. It grazed the driverside fender and got sucked up by my driverside tire. My truck bent the damn thing in half. The bad part is, I think it bowed in my "tierod bar" (the rod along the front of the axle) thus knocking off my alignment. That kinda sucked, but a new alignment should fix it.

As for why I hit the pole... its pretty much the same reason why the truck got flipped over last spring. Idiocy and being a "new" adult.