cleaning out water logged rear axle?

Ok so I just bought a '66 CJ-5 from a local mudder. I had some rear axle problems so I opened up the diffy and found it full of water. I mean water and very little sign of oil! There was just enough GLOP to cover the gears, etc. I've read how people say to completely clean the diffy with carburator cleaner and replace the fluid BUT I also pulled one hub and found that end of the axle also full of 90% water/10% fluid. So my question is, what do I do about that? I can pull both hubs and axles and clean all the bearings and such but there will still be GLOP in the axle tubes.

PS: The only good news in this bit is that the PO only had the Jeep for a couple of weeks and only took it mudding once. Before that it sat for 3+ years and was used for hunting buggy before that so it looks like the water contamination was recent and hasn't rusted up anything yet.

 

Mmm. I would wash it with water. It's already full of mud and water, so more water won't hurt. Rinse out the axle tubes with the hose and a high-pressure nozzle. I presume you can tilt it so that the mud/water/oil will run out. You can clean the pumpkin side with solvent as well; solvent in a pump oiler might do as well as carb cleaner. Then I'd seal it up and run a couple of changes of gear oil through it.

 

And then do the other axle. It is probably in the same condition.

Your mudder buddy obviously doesn't know about extending the vents to as high as you can get them to prevent this.

Hope you got a heck of a deal on it.

 

arent all jeeps like that when you first buy them? lol. Yea id pull the covers and hubs off and drain the knuckles. hose it all out and spray it with cleaner let it dry and fill it back up again. youll probrobly have to dissasemble the hubs and get them all fixed up again anyway. also the ends of the rear axle should have a greese fitting on either side to lube the outer bearings

 

I pulled the cover off the front diffy this afternoon and it's the same (mostly water and very little lube) But other than having water in them, the diffys look fine. No signs of rust, dirt or any trash in them. Yes, I'm sure that the knuckles and hubs are long over due to be cleaned out and relubed so I'm planning to do that too while I've at it. Is there anything that I should just go ahead and replace in the hubs? The only manuals that I have only says to change the bearings and seals when they get worn and there's no scheduled replacement interval. Everything looks fine in the one hub that I've pulled (except for a sheared key and broken hub :-(

Where's the best place to get seals, bearings, gaskets and the like for this old model?

I already bought a new grease gun and I'm tracking down all the grease fittings now. Man, these old ones had a ton of them didn't they!