01 Outback Rear Differential/CV drive axle

[cricketontherun]

On a trip home a couple days ago my drivers side rear CV drive axle blew about 30 miles from my house. I got it home; opened my Subaru bible; and proceeded to drop the rear Diff and remove both axles. I noticed immediately that the side in question's seal was all tore to $h!# as well as some marring inside of the "bearing race" maybe???(the normally smoother area just before the inner splines) I plan to replace the side seal; plate; and O-ring, but I'm not sure what to do about the inner area. I cleaned everything up good, and the good axle seems to seat in the "bad side" without any excess movement or play. So my question is; will this be OK or does this section need replaced?

Secondly; I thought about going ahead and replacing the front face plate seal while the Diff is out along with the others except there's this small gold plastic piece that won't allow me to access one bolt on the face! What is this piece, and how do I remove it in order to remove the face plate?

Thanks!

[Glennda5id]

What exactly blew?

[cricketontherun]

The DOJ Boot and joint blew; which caused a greater deal of play than I would have expected. The result was the inner axle shaft had some "wiggle" room inside the roller bearing. This marred the smooth area, but did not seem to tear up the splines inside the differential.