Front or rear chromo axle shaft first ?

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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.
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
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.
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
tom123 said:
That's what I meant by twisted, excuse my english :blush:
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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..
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
hoveyjk08 said:
What is the advantage of full circle clips?
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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.
 
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hoveyjk08

New member
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?
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
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?
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The factory yokes will not allow for the use of full circle clips. Most any chromoly shaft available today will.
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
noroad said:
Would a small tack weld help on the factory shafts??
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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.
 
noroad

noroad

New member
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.
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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!
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
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.
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Smokinjoe said:
So what chromo shaft out there has best guarantee with circle clips ?
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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.
 
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