Replace or Rebuild

[Cleanster]

2000 3.0 FFV 4x4 with a #86 rear axle open 7.5 3.73 gears. 100k miles in process of replacing or rebuilding most of the truck. Am getting a bit long in the tooth to be doing a lot of the work myself. Having said that I need to fix the clunk from my rear axle. The drive line shop wants about 750 to 800.00 to rebuild and my local mechanic wants about the same to install a junk yard used axle, perhaps I could get it done for a few hundred less. I am leaning on a total rebuild, what do you guys think?

 

[Musick17]

Ide say replace with an explorer 8.8

 

[4x4junkie]

Probably should know what the intended use is here before recommending non-direct-replacement axles (is the truck all decked out for offroad use with big tires? Or it is primarily a street-driven truck and has stock-sized tires on it?).

What exactly is wrong with the old axle? What conditions is it clunking under? Have you looked inside the diff at all? (metal shavings present)? If there's no shavings in it, a rebuild might be the easiest, but if there are shavings, then replace it. At 100K there shouldn't be too much wear on anything though unless you've been hauling a lot of weight most of those miles.