Axle fell out, help

My neighbor has a 88 XJ with a Dana rearend. I have a Chrysler 8.25 rearend so I am not familiar with the woes of the Dana. (Except the front 30's) His passenger side axle and tire has since removed itself from the vehicle during some doughnut showboating. He said the shaft is fine and I haven't looked at it yet but, I thought I heard that these rearends are known for c-clip failure. What usually causes this and what should I look for tomorrow when I tear into this thing?

(He also said it was making a grinding noise shortly before he noticed the axle. It maybe the axle and the housing making contact after the clip broke loose but anyway.............)

pop the pumpking cover off and look for any pieces that fall out.... I thought that his vintage axle would be non c-clip anyways. Which dana does he have? D35?( more likely) D44? (less likely)

He (the neighbor) said it was a dana 35 and he pulled the cover and the only loose piece was a half a clip. I will look at it more tomorrow but is it possible that the clip just broke or is usually someting else?

well if you had only a loose half clip and you heard griding prior to that, inspect the gears visually... lift the rear end and rotate the tires to see at least the ring hear from all over, and also look at all the rest to see if there was any damage.... I'm not sure what the cclip is made out of but when it broke off it might have done some damage if it enetered the gears....

I think it will be most important to find the other piece. Hopefully for him it's sitting in the bottomwaving at us . :wave: I will check all the gears and will make a diagnosis. aperwork Appreciate the help. We'll keep you posted...................

The '89 that I just had apart did not have c-clips. I believe those came later but maybe his isn't original.

A broken c-clip? Wow...that seems rather bad. Is he lifted with larger tires?