I figured I should share some knowledge that I learned the hard way about. To make a long story short, I ended up trashing some bearings in my dana 30 because of some water contamination that was more like a lot of water contamination. To stop my ring and pinion form making horrible missalignment noises while up at school, I pulled the axle shafts and plugged the tubes. I took a two hour highway trip back home the other week, only to find my right wheel locking up and running me off the highway. Had to get towed the rest of the way home. So sapposedly your axle shafts hold your wheel bearings together, which I did not know before. So if you have to take out an axle shaft, be sure to have stub ends to stick in your wheel bearings, or don't do this at all. Here are some carnage pics:
My break disk ended up being the only thing holding the wheel on, and it ruined the caliper when it locked up.