Fbi, Rfi

My 96XJ manual calls my front a 30 axle and the rear a 35 axle.
My 99 calls the front a 181 FBI and the rear 194 RBI.
To me they still look like a Dana30 and Dana35.
Have they changed anything else besides the name?
Is the 181 FBI exactly the same as the D30?
How about the 194 RBI, is it identical to the D35?

The best way to answer your question is to crawl under there and read the tag on the cover and look for other identifying marks on the cover and axle housing.

I hate to get on your case but a simple search on this site for rbi yielded the following thread

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=40867&highlight=rbi

old_man said:

I hate to get on your case but a simple search on this site for rbi yielded the following thread

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=40867&highlight=rbi

Click to expand...

Lets just say that I needed a little reassurance, to hear the latest opinions..
I called the local 4X4 place and talked to a guy that seems to be very knowledgeable.
He told me that he thought that they were a 30 and a 35, but he could not find the axle seal numbers and he was not sure that they were completely identical.
The local dealer couldn't tell me anything without a VIN. Even with a VIN he wasn't sure that nothing but the name had been changed. The tools for seal replacement look the same but have a different part number in the manual.
I plan to buy the seal tool and I want one tool to handle both vehicles.
I need to be 100% sure before I pay the big bux.
So at this point I am pretty sure that they are identical in every way.
Unless I missed something.
Thanks.

Yes they are identical. My 00 FSM calls my front axle the same thing (I have an 8.25 rear so I'm not sure what the number is without looking it up) but I had to get an Inner axle seal and just told them Dana 30 and the seals are exactly the same. I'm not sure why they did this name change I guess some guy higher up the chain just decided that they needed to be diffrent or it could be in them getting ready to dump dana axles and start using AAM axles like dodge is starting to do. Who knows for sure? I don't.

devildog0 said:

Yes they are identical. My 00 FSM calls my front axle the same thing (I have an 8.25 rear so I'm not sure what the number is without looking it up) but I had to get an Inner axle seal and just told them Dana 30 and the seals are exactly the same. I'm not sure why they did this name change I guess some guy higher up the chain just decided that they needed to be diffrent or it could be in them getting ready to dump dana axles and start using AAM axles like dodge is starting to do. Who knows for sure? I don't.

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot.