I'm hearing the infamous growling coming from the back end of my daughters '06, it has 125k on it. Am I safe to assume its a typical axle shaft bearing replacement, or are these axle more complex?

 

It's never safe to assume anything on a Jeep. Make sure to diagnose and find the cause of the noise before you spend money and rip into tearing stuff apart.

 

I'm not assuming its the bearing, but I am assuming it is a conventional axle bearing job (replacement).

 

Yeah, it's pretty much the same as most rear axles. Inspect the axle shaft carefully for wear at the bearing surface. If there is any pitting or grooves at all you should replace the shaft or install an axle saver bearing. A pitted shaft will destroy the new bearing in no time.

 

I'm not sure about your WK, but the WJ's had fully enclosed cartridge bearings pressed into the shaft with a retaining collar. The earlier ZJs used the axle itself as the inner bearing race.

I just replaced both rear axle bearings in my WJ and it was pretty simple. The hardest part was seating the new retaining collars. I used a piece of pipe over the shaft and a big hammer to do it. Be careful to protect the wheel lugs when doing this. Oh! as a Duh moment, I've seen people put the bearing on and forget the seal first! People that should know better! Well, it was a long night and we had been drinking.