Unless you want to spend hours slapping on navel jelly and scraping it offblasting is the way to go. And sand will get everywhere there is no way around it.
Tmr Customs Shaving A Gm Corporate 14 Bolt Differential
Best way to clean axle housing. Best way to cleandegrease old axle housings. Shipping was 450 to massena ny. A basic degreaser or just a series of shop towels is all thats necessary to clean out the housing cover. First remove the axle bolts then attach axle puller foot to lug nuts then slide hammer that axle out. I got the order correct here 50 of the time. It seemed to do an okay job.
Once the cover is shiny run a magnet around the. Naxja forums north american xj association naxja unibody jeep technical forums jeep cherokee xj 1984 2001 modified tech discussion. Just did thisspray with degreaser rent borrow or steal a power sprayer i used a 2200 psi sprayer. Remove all the bolts on the differential cover. Take a look at his site and you will see that he has many many options from just the axles all the way up to the complete kit. Sand blasting will most certainly clean the housing.
Autozone had the slide hammer and the axle puller for rent. Remove the cover first allowing all the oil to drain out. I started cleaning the rear axle housing to prepare it for paint i was using a wire brush and a plastic scrubber both attached to a drill. Remove your tie rod or loosen one side and get it out of the way. Touch up as needed these are offroad vehicles no need to show and shine. A slide hammer kit like the one shown is used to pull the axles out of the housing.
Clean the axles let dry then paint with 299 per can flat or semi gloss black paint. Use gloves you wont mind throwing away.