Rusty axle housing - what should I do?

[Vulcan]

I tore down the front axle of my 1972 FJ40 and found clear signs of water in the axle... milky gear oil and rust on the ring and inside the diff housing. I was planning to have the axle sandblasted and painted, but I am not sure what I can do to have the inside of the axle housing cleaned out.

Any thoughts? I'm doing frame off restoration and want everything to be in good shape, serviceable, long lasting, etc. Is this one worth rebuilding for my project, or am I better off getting another axle housing?

I haven't thought about doing an axle swap, but that isn't out of the question.

More context... I am upgrading to FJ60 power steering box, and I am also about to look into what I should do to put on rear disc brakes. I'm not doing any more frame modifications, so the solution will need to work with stock frame suspension mounts and so forth. Use will be primarily road with some occasional gravel and mud trails - no hardcore stuff.

Not sure where to go from here, but maybe I'm just making a mountain out of a molehill. Pics of what I found:

 

[coonassjohn]

If it were mine that would keep me up at night. I would probably bead blast as much as I could to get rid of the rust.

 

[White Stripe]

You could try electrolysis

 

[shawnfj40]

The housing should be easy to clean, degrease it and then use ospho to dissolve the rust. The business end of the diff is the gear faces if the ring and pinion are badly pitted they are gonna need to go. Worst case you need to overhaul the diff. You need to clean it all before you really know what you have there.

 

[Vulcan]

Thanks all. Found a place that will do electrolysis at a reasonable cost, only cost a few bucks more than blasting the outside which I planned to do anyway.

If the ring has pitting, can I just get that cleaned off as well (picture above)? Or how much pitting is too much?

 

[brian]

A little pitting on front gears wouldnt bother me at all on resto.

 

[Vulcan]

Thanks @brian . Presumably no difference for the ring in the rear diff? It looked similar, though not quite as much rust and not as pitted

 

[shawnfj40]

Like Brian said a "little" pitting isn't a big deal. So long as it isn't on a bearing surface or race. If you are gonna overhaul it, you should be fine.