I used to repair 1 or 2 differentials a week at the dealership. Most times, if the ring gear and drive pinion gear look okay and it's not making noise on straight ahead driving when accelerating, coasting and decelerating, the bearings should be fine and you should be able to get away with just...
That would be the first thing I would look at. I've seen that happen on other applications. Visually inspect the tie rod ends to make sure there is an equal amount of threads showing on each side. Then with the steering wheel, count the number of turns from lock to lock then go back half way...