Hey guys. I have an 88 ford ranger 2wd and I was getting a really bad vibration at 65mph. So I checked the front end and everything was fine. I went to lift up the rear and ran the truck and the noise was horrible at the rear end. I removed the gear cover and was expecting to see missing teeth on gears but everything was normal...I then pulled both axles. On the passenger side axle the end that goes into the gear housing has wear along with the pinion shaft. It looks like the axle has been moving left to right and hitting the pinion shaft. The bearing looked fine also. Checked for missing drives shaft weights and they're all there. Shook the drives shaft for pinion bearing play and it's also tight. The c clips were also in place on the shaft. The passenger side is the only side making contact with the pinion shaft also. The driver side is fine. Im a diesel tech for cummins but I have very little experience in rear end work. If anybody could give me some ideas I would appreciate it. The truck gets me back and forth to work so I need it back running asap!

If the end of the axel is hitting the spider gear pin, then the axel bearing is bad. While checking things, did you drop the drive shaft and check the U joints?