I just purchased this car and it appears the axle seals are fried and the front of the diff is also leaking. I wanted to know if this was too much play in the axle if so I hope it can be solved with new bearings. The video is of the drum cover.

 

Here is a pic of the drum

 

If the seals are leaking, odds are somewhere close to 99.99% that it's because the axle bearings are bad. And, since the axle itself IS the inner race of the bearing, odds are about the same that if the bearings are bad, so are the axles.

Best way to see what's going on, is to pop the axles out. Which since you're changing the fluid this weekend ANYWAY, only takes about another 30 seconds. Then you'll know FOR SURE what's used up.

 

Turns out the axles were fine and the bearing seals were just leaking. I'm surprised that the bearings and axle weren't more worn out. This might be the first time in my life that something wasn't worse than I thought. Although, before the LS diff additive trick I thought my gears were grinding into pieces.