Wow! I guess theres no c-clips in these axles!!!
So these things are held into the pumkin with a large nut on the ends of the shaft? How the heck do you keep the shaft from spinning when you go to remove the nut?

 

The axle is held to the hub by the 8 bolts you see in the middle of your wheel. The nut holds the hub to the axle tube.

 

The best way to see how it works is to go pull one of your own axles. You don't even have to jack the truck up. Just take a 9/16" socket and a ratchet or impact gun, take out the 8 bolts on the hub that hold the axle in, and just pull the axle right on out. Keep an old hubcap handy to catch the 1/2 cup or so of gear oil that will come out. You will then see The Nut (not nuts) Of Jesus, for which there is a special tool made to fit. The edges of the 6 flat sides are rounded, thereby making an ordinary socket of the right size useless. You don't need to remove that nut to see what we're talking about-the little clips that serve to lock the nut in place are visible just by pulling the axle if I remember right. Incidently, that nut is how you set preload on the wheel bearings.

To the original poster-it sounds like your truck is in good hands. One thing to make sure the mechanic understands-THE WHEEL BEARINGS ARE NOT LUBED BY GREASE-THEY ARE LUBED BY GEAR OIL RUNNING DOWN THE AXLE TUBES. This means he must put some gear oil in the new bearings. I try to squirt about a quart in each end of the axle tube before putting it all back together so that the bearings won't be destroyed before the new oil has a chance to make it from the centersection to the tube ends.

Other than that, the job is fairly straightforward.

 

Just one last thought; after you adjust the bearing endplay, make very sure you tap in the locking wedge clip all the way into the locknut so that it digs well into the nylock part of the locknut. Otherwise you might repeat your experience. I wish Dodge would use two locknuts with a locking ring in the middle, like the early Fords used to, no way those would back out.

 

I’ve done several of these full-floating axles and I usually hand pack the bearings with wheel bearing grease, just like the front bearings. Even the service manual says to do so. Is it better to just oil them with gear oil instead? A long time ago, my auto shop teacher told me that the grease would just dissolve once the gear oil penetrated the hub, was he wrong?