97 chey rear end

one of my carrier bearings expolded and broke my shim, the inner race of the bearing spun on the carrier and groved it, it's shot, i'm no mechcanic so I won't even try to shim to get .006 -.012 backlash, so I'm calling around for a used rear end and I hear prices from $400 used to $850 for a rebuild, I'm wonding what years fit 97 chev 1500 4x4 10 bolt 3.73 gears, I'm hoping a older rear end will be cheaper because no one has bailed me out....how do I get the smell off my hands dish soap don't work....thank you for looking

Welcome to AF, joined ther diff fluid party, huh. An orange based hand soap or straight lemon juice works. Any salvage yard can give you interchange info for a complete axle assy., which you may need if the housing is damaged where the shims are adjacent to.

update it's been done for 600 mi or so and no problem, I did rebuild, called around and found a used rear end for $175 missing one axel shaft just used one of my old ones, got it home ripped it apart, got a bearing puller from o'rileys auto parts store and the kit did not have the right size but i tried it anyway, when i slid the hammer back it pulled the guts right out, so i brought the rear end to a shop, the rear end was bear bones with just the bearings in it, they pulled the 6 bearings and replaced them along with the 3 seals and tightend the crush sleve for $100, all in all i spent $667.73 plus my time out of work i figure it cost me more than $1000.00, would have been cheaper to buy a rebuilt for $800.00, but man did i rack up the man points.