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So I noticed moisture inside of my rear end while changing pinion seal, so drained it...a freaking QUART of water came out, followed by some lovely sludge...pulled the absolutely monstrous centre section out, (used trans jack, saved back!) and there's some pitting on a few of the crown and pinion teeth, from rust. Would it be a bad idea to clean it all up, put new bearings in, and run it that way? Will rear end self destruct? This car may see 3000 miles a year if she's lucky.

It should be fine.
I had a '65 wildcat rear end that had excessive pitting. The rear end was rebuilt and the gears polished, but it still produced a very loud whine at speed. Mechanic said it was just annoying, not dangerous or going to fail.

I ultimately swapped it out for a posi just to get rid of the whine. (Both the cars and mine.)

Thanks, I ended up putting it back in, bearings were in great shape...go figure.

Just wanted to update this thread, you'd never know my gears were pitted, now that I've driven her, the car is nice and quiet, no noise from that area.