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ARE THE OLDER NON "C" (custom) D35's STRONGER?

BigDawgz

NAXJA Forum User
I've been talking alot to my buddies that work at Dodge/Jeep dealerships and they agree w/me on this. The older...say 1988 (like Mine!)...lol...XJ's had the axles that were built entirely by DANA. The newer Dana's....with the "C" designation were finished (tubes pressed in) by Chrysler. Anyways...to make a long story short...my friends were present in a meeting with Dana reps/engineers and what was said was this:

All of my buddies at the dealerships who work on these say that the D35's that were completely assembled by DANA....have much fewer instances of breakage.

The matter became such an issue and Chrysler had to re-do/warranty so many that Chrysler had some of the Tech's/Service Managers meet with some of the Engineers from Dana...to see if they could find out what the problem with these axles was.

The engineers from Dana say that Chrysler messed up by not getting the tubes as "square" (when pressed in) w/the diff's. And that Chrysler let these go out with a slight "bend"(or unsquareness) in them....and DANA'S more stringent quality control would have never allowed this to happen.

The Chrysler Tech's that I know agree w/this as well....and said that they thought this caused many of the inherent....weakness problem's with the D35c's.

The Tech's I'm talking about are very good mechanics that I've known for years...and most of them are true "gearheads"....1 has a blown alcohol-injected dragster...1 of the others has a USAR Hooters Pro Cup car...I've off-roaded w/them and truly trust them & their opinions.

My question is this....Could this be the reason for some of the D35's holding up....to say...35"s....and other D35's breaking w/30" tires and even w/stock rubber?

I know this doesn't make up for other weaknesses with this axle....but this could definitely answer why some guys can Use/Abuse their D35's...while others experience breakage rather easily.
Aron
 
Maybe a slight bit but mostly driving style. Little axle shafts and little tubes and little ring gears can only take so much fatique before blowing up. I don't really know of anyone that abuses a D35 and doesn't have to replace something. I know local guy that used to crawl one on a XJ and doesn't have any problems, but he ran 34 LTB's nothing bigger.
 
What is interesting is that I have found three different tube diameters on D35's and several different wall thicknesses. I think this may have a big impact on how long they last as well.
 
Wouldn't the fact that the older 35's were semi-float and not c-clips play a huge part in what kind of load and stress they can take before failure?
 
They dude above hit the nail on the head, at least as far as I'm concerned. Also the semi floaters had the shaft bearing actually on the shaft rather then in the housing, and with thin walled housing I could see the beariing flexing with it and binding the shaft, causing a shaft to break.
 
There may be a slight difference in axle housing flex that effects gears and lockers, and maybe slightly axle shafts, but a 27 spline axle with a 1.16" diameter is only so strong, regardless of whether it's c-clip or not or any other factors.
 
Goatman said:
There may be a slight difference in axle housing flex that effects gears and lockers, and maybe slightly axle shafts, but a 27 spline axle with a 1.16" diameter is only so strong, regardless of whether it's c-clip or not or any other factors.

I dont think anyone is saying that they are the new dana 60 or something, just that for general trail use that 90% of us do they should be OK. If your a dedicated rockcrawler you should probably look for something else.
 
Dedicated rockcrawler or not, whatever that is, for a lot of us they would be snapping left and right.
 
I have two AMC xj's(manufactured prior to the Chrysler's aquisition)an 87w/4.0 and an 86w/2.5 and they both have dana 35c non "c" clip rear axles. What years had just Dana 35's?
 
Ron Hyslop said:
I have two AMC xj's(manufactured prior to the Chrysler's aquisition)an 87w/4.0 and an 86w/2.5 and they both have dana 35c non "c" clip rear axles. What years had just Dana 35's?

They are all dana 35's. The 91'+ got c-clips along with the aw4 tranny going from 21 to 23 spline, and the 4.0L HO, the 91' was a good year and up are good years due to these improvements. I know the 35 then and before 91' were not an improvement, while the 87-89' with the stock xj 44 was a huge improvement. Like what was said, the 35 is a weak axle and needs to be babied if U wheel it, if U want big tires and hard trails swap it out.
Troy
 
Ron Hyslop said:
I have two AMC xj's(manufactured prior to the Chrysler's aquisition)an 87w/4.0 and an 86w/2.5 and they both have dana 35c non "c" clip rear axles. What years had just Dana 35's?
None. They were all 35c

The older ones aren't really any stronger. The difference is that when they break, the broken end of the shaft doesn't come out of the axle tube (at least, not until it has traveled far enough to eat up the bearing).
 
So...the "C" designation did.....or did not mean that Chrysler got the differential only and assembled the tubes themself? This is what I've always been told. Dana says that the older D35's came from them....completely assembled...tubes and all. They also said that with the "C" D35's.....that Chrysler finished the assemblies and all Dana did was send them the Diff's.. Am I wrong on this? According to all of my friends and family......(Dodge/Jeep techs, Dana Employees...Chrysler Employees.....I live w/in 15 miles of a Chrysler Plant and what was 4 seperate Dana Facilities) this is what the "C" meant....
Aron
 
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BigDawgz said:
So...the "C" designation did.....or did not mean that Chrysler got the differential only and assembled the tubes themself? This is what I've always been told. Dana says that the older D35's came from them....completely assembled...tubes and all. They also said that with the "C" D35's.....that Chrysler finished the assemblies and all Dana did was send them the Diff's.. Am I wrong on this? According to all of my friends and family......(Dodge/Jeep techs, Dana Employees...Chrysler Employees.....I live w/in 15 miles of a Chrysler Plant and what was 4 seperate Dana Facilities) this is what the "C" meant....
Aron

could be I always thought it stood for C clip or not.
 
I've always been told that the "C" stands for "custom"....or....Final assembly by Chrysler......I know that alot of times...people thought it meant "c-clip"...but I was always told that wasn't the case.
Aron
 
BigDawgz said:
So...the "C" designation did.....or did not mean that Chrysler got the differential only and assembled the tubes themself? This is what I've always been told. Dana says that the older D35's came from them....completely assembled...tubes and all. They also said that with the "C" D35's.....that Chrysler finished the assemblies and all Dana did was send them the Diff's.. Am I wrong on this? According to all of my friends and family......(Dodge/Jeep techs, Dana Employees...Chrysler Employees.....I live w/in 15 miles of a Chrysler Plant and what was 4 seperate Dana Facilities) this is what the "C" meant....
Aron
The 'C' stands for "Customer," meaning "customer completes assembly." It does not stand for "Chrysler." Every source I have seen says that both AMC AND Chrysler bought the axles that way, and that they are ALL Dana 35Cs.
 
I didn't say it stood for Chrysler...I said it stood for "Custom" ....which is what my dad always had said....he worked at DANA for 25 years. Custom...supposedly meant.....CENTER HOUSING ONLY...but I suppose..."customer"....makes since too.
Aron
 
ctavel said:
Wouldn't the fact that the older 35's were semi-float and not c-clips play a huge part in what kind of load and stress they can take before failure?

What does the axle retention system have to do with axle strength? The only difference it makes is when the axle breaks, the c-clip type axle can allow the axle and wheel to fall out of the vehicle. Bearing retention reduces the liklihood of the axle separating from the vehicle when an axle breaks.

Current Dana 35's are still semi-float. I reccomend reading this article to help explain the differences between semi-float and full-float.
http://www.off-roadweb.com/tech/0112or_axle
 
kunaji said:
What does the axle retention system have to do with axle strength? The only difference it makes is when the axle breaks, the c-clip type axle can allow the axle and wheel to fall out of the vehicle. Bearing retention reduces the liklihood of the axle separating from the vehicle when an axle breaks.

Current Dana 35's are still semi-float. I reccomend reading this article to help explain the differences between semi-float and full-float.
http://www.off-roadweb.com/tech/0112or_axle

The main difference would be on c-clip dana 35's the axle bearing is in the axle tube, on the old style dana 35's the bearing is on the shaft itself................In theroy the flexing of the housing with the bearing in it can bind the axle more, which is a good a good reason for it to break. The older style does seem to be stronger, seen far more c-clip style break.

Also I forgot to add that my father in law can break a brick with a wet noddle. Locally alot pf the guys I run with have a good success with dana 35's. I know of two YJ's that run V-8's and one guy ran it for a year before breaking a shaft and the other is just going over a year while only spinning the tubes. We run the mud and sand hard, but no rocks. I jumped my TJM 22feet across the sand with 35's more then once and never broke anything. I see a huge tendency for people to overbuild just because of the chance they may break something.
 
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