Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I remember reading something on here a while ago & had a quick search but couldnt come up with anything...

Just pulled the rear end apart to replace, the brakes, brake cylinders, bearings and seals (yes all gone at the same time or will need to be replaced shortly so thought id do it all while I had it apart).

The oil in the axle housing is gritty.
Apart from stuffing a rag in there to clean it out, whats my best option to clean them out along with the diff?
Could i put it all back together and put a bit of diesel in the diff and take it for a drive around the block, drain it then repeat the proccess one more time? As diesel has a bit of oil in it...?
Would the diesel stuff my new seals, or anything else?
Anyone have any recomendations on wether or not this is a good idea? If not what do you suggest?

Cheers Bozz.

just use degreaser or some turps, probably not a good idea to run it around the block with diesel in it. For cleaning the housing right out ive found the cans of degreaser from super cheap work well, and spray it out with a gernie, if you have compressed air blow it out straight after spraying it or leave it in the sun for a while or use rags to soak up the water inside to make sure you get rid of the water as fast as possible.

Do all this with a bare housing. If your going the whole hog take the whole diff housing out of your rig to do it properly.

I did the diesel in the axle thing a while ago. Driven slowly, and for only about 1km, it does a good job of flushing old oil and water, ect out of the diff, however, it didnt loosen up the sandy sludge caught in the crevices or axle tubing. I found I had to clean these out manually, using rags pulled through the tubes, to get it all out.

Thanks for the advice.
Cleaned out the axle housing with a rag, plugged the ends with a rag. Put some diesel in the diff (while on jack stand with no load obviously) run for abouty 30 seconds. Drained the diff which the diesel was dirty as. Repeated the process only this time when I drained it the diesel wasnt any where near as dirty.
Put it all back together and all is good.

Cheers Bozz.