8-3/4 open diff whining, wheels binding, pulled axle shafts, problem...gone?

Just FYI, it turned out to be nothing more than the left rear brake shoes dragging way too much. Pretty sure someone threw new pads on the car but didn't think to radius them to the drums, and the combination of surface mismatch and adjuster position made it chatter and cause the left axle to hang up and transfer the chattering to the side and pinon gears.

Drums might be the originals to the car too, but I didn't check to see if the radii matched on each; I'll probably be changing the drums anyway.

I also checked for pinion slack and rough meshing in the process; happy to report the third member had no grinding or excessive slack at all. Couldn't have been better had it been new; it spun beautifully the moment I took the drums off both sides.

For those who want to read the nitty gritty, I ran a similar thread at FBBO with a lot more commentary and details: 8-3/4 open diff whining, wheels binding, pulled axle shafts, problem...disappears?

-Kurt