Well, it's probably a bad sign that I can put the car on jackstands and have the rear end out and sitting in the bed of my truck in 2 and a half hours.  It means I've officially put that suspension together too many times. 

On the other hand, the rear is definitely toast.  I don't know how I could have missed it when I put the car back together.  In January, I posted about the driveline binding when the car was in the air...  I think I have the smoking gun.  It's clunking and binding when I turn it by hand.  Ugh.

So it's off to the machine shop this afternoon.  $700 and a few weeks from now, I'll have it back with 3.08 gears in it which should drastically improve highway cruising. 

Wish me luck.  Not so much with the car, but when I tell the wife that I'm spending another $700 on it...

So the machinist called me today. 

The gears are fine, most likely.  When I changed the pinion seal, I didn't fully tighten the yoke retaining nut...  Must have seen something shiny when I was working and never fully ran the nut down. 

I'm having him open them up and inspect them anyway, just to make sure I didn't tear anything up.

Of all the idiot things I've done with a wrench (and there are plenty), this has to take the cake.