W210 E420 Differencial Leak

[sidmon]

While changing my fuel filter and adjusting my parking/hand brake today, noticed a nasty leak from the differencial on W210 '96 E420 Estate. The leak is the worst I have seen from all the rear wheel drives car ever I've had (and thats a few!!). Appears to be coming from the propshaft side and the one driveshaft side but theres that much of it it's hard to tell! The diff has never whined or clonked and I've never had any reason to suspect anythings wrong with it. I don't fancy changing the diff seals myself as I struggle to get the car underneath the car other than using my axle stands (no ramp access unfortunately). What sort of price from a Merc Indy or normal Indy should I be looking at? And would a normal non-Merc indy be up to the task or is it too much of a speciality.

 

[David Nock]

I would have thought it's an easy job for an Indie, but I'm not a merc mechanic.
Oil seals on diffs are usually easy to get out by dropping the prop shaft/drive shafts. Taking off the pinion nut alone and refitting to torque setting doesn't affect the pre-load, certainly on an ordinary car.
I've just changed the whole diff on our Mazda (live rear axle - banjo type), using a wonderful trolley jack I bought as I retired, and 4 axle stands with big baulks of timber. With a trolley you can get a car high high high, so much room underneath then, once its settled on the stands and timbers.