Front or rear chromo axle shaft first ?

T

tom123

New member
Hi all,
I'm looking to up-grade my axles this year since the jeep is on 37's. But I wanted to know, because of my limited budget this year for the jeep, which axle shafts, the front or rear, should I change in priority. The front housing has been reinforced.

Here in Quebec we have all kind of off-road but I prefer rock crawling than anything else and we have the chance to have some pretty hard stuff.

At this time, my rear shafts are a little twisted, but it's been holding up so far.
 
Fronts with full circle clips. There is no need to upgrade your rear shafts as they will be plenty strong. I'm still running on factory rears on my 2012 with 65,000 miles on it. I would only replace the rears if the flange gets bent.
 
tom123 said:
That's what I meant by twisted, excuse my english :blush:
Click to expand...

Well, depending on how much it's bent, I suppose that'll determine what you need first :)

If it isn't too bad, I would still do your fronts first and see if you can buy a used rear factory shaft to replace what you have..
 
hoveyjk08 said:
What is the advantage of full circle clips?
Click to expand...

It's not uncommon for u-joints to start to loosen up in the yoke and start to rotate around a bit. When this happens, standard c-clips will pry themselves off. When this happens, there's nothing to hold the caps in place and once they fall out, you will have a shaft failure. This is a common problem and the main reason why a vast majority of factory shafts fail. Full circle clips cannot be pried off and will not allow the caps to fall out - they will effectively prevent the most common form of front axle shaft failure.
 
Thank you. Can you get u joints with full circle clips to help prevent this on the factory shaft or would you need to upgrade shafts to allow this?
 
hoveyjk08 said:
Thank you. Can you get u joints with full circle clips to help prevent this on the factory shaft or would you need to upgrade shafts to allow this?
Click to expand...

The factory yokes will not allow for the use of full circle clips. Most any chromoly shaft available today will.
 
noroad said:
Would a small tack weld help on the factory shafts??
Click to expand...

Yup. That's typically the trail fix I recommend if you can't afford to replace your shafts or can catch the problem before it becomes one. Chromoly shafts will still be stronger and most will have beefier yokes so it's not like the only benefit they have is the ability to accept full circle clips.
 
wayoflife said:
Yup. That's typically the trail fix I recommend if you can't afford to replace your shafts or can catch the problem before it becomes one. Chromoly shafts will still be stronger and most will have beefier yokes so it's not like the only benefit they have is the ability to accept full circle clips.
Click to expand...

Yes i figured that much, was just seeing if that was a good idea to almost prolong the life of the shaft a little long if done before it breaks!
 
As mentioned, pretty much all the chromoly shafts out there will get the job done so long as they come with full-circle clips. And to be clear, not all do.
 
Smokinjoe said:
So what chromo shaft out there has best guarantee with circle clips ?
Click to expand...

Pretty much all of them have the same guarantee which is 10 years. A couple used to have a lifetime guarantee but really, I don't know anyone who ends up keeping their factory axle long enough to have that matter. At least, in the last 7 years, everyone I know who's had a JK for that long has upgraded to something better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom