Diff Rebuild

[Highway-Star]

Hi everybody.

My parents own a Jeep Cherokee (XJ) '96 sport. I belive the rear diff is a Dana 35. Anyway the rear diff has developed a whine and some grating noise; about 90% sure that it is a pinion bearing. Do not have time to rebuild it ourselves. Couple of questions regarding this situation, any help greatly appreciated; Im only used to Jap 4wds with Banjo style diffs which we have always done ourselves.

1) Can anybody recommend a good workshop in the Brisbane area to take the car in and rebuild the rear diff for us?
2) Does anybody have an estimate what it should cost for the rear diff in the XJ to be rebuilt (parts and labour, total cost)?
3) The car has roughly 208,000km on the clock. Is this normal wear and tear on these diffs at this age?
4) This is the third thing to fail on the car in the last 2 weeks (water pump and auto trans oil lines). Is 200,000 about the lifetime of these Jeeps before they have a nervous breakdown? The car has been near flawless (mechanically) untill this last fortnight.

Any help greatly appreciated, especially on my first 2 questions. Ive posted in "gen tech" because I dont think my first 2 questions are too jeep specific.
Thanks.

[Mayhem Mat]

my one cost me about $1500 to get done a few years ago
and make sure they put the right ratio back in (long and very costly story)
but any way after I fixed all the little things that went wrong at about 200,000 kms I was very happy with it until it went up in flames at 202,500km
good times

[Highway-Star]

Thanks.

sounds like you had a pretty bad run with it :(

[CheSter]

Sumner Park .. westside 4x4 .. they specialise in jeeps and the work they've done for me in the past has been on the money and well performed.

C