Here's the parts I took off today. Passenger front spindle seems to be in great shape. Lucky me! There is an awful lot of rust everywhere though, and I guess that's to be expected. I was surprised to see rust INSIDE the axle though.
Lesson learned the hard way...
The mantra is if it's rubber, replace it. My only excuse was lack of money and time. Now I'm out of more money and time than I have. I'm neither a mechanic nor an engineer, but looking at everything all the rubber seals were shot. My theory is that when the seals went bad, the grease got dirty and/or leaked out. The only think left lubricating metal-to-metal was crud, leading to friction, heat, and parts failure.
It's been said a million times, and it still didn't sink in to me until it was too late. Let this be a lesson to any other newcomers getting into the CUCV game. Don't repeat my screw up.
Operator error sucks- there's nobody to point the finger at except for yourself.