Telling the condition of an axle outside of a rig?

I've been out of the Jeep game for a couple years now. But I've been thinking about fooling around with something cheap. I found a XJ that seems to be a decent deal that the rear axle is broke, and there is a little bit of damage to the brake. Well, I just so happen to have a Dana 35 that is sitting out behind my garage that I never got around to getting rid of. I got it for free when I picked up a set of geared axles 4 or 5 years ago. I only intended on keeping it around for parts, and I was never told the condition of it. The jeep is a few hours away. I'm half tempted to run up there with a buddy and throw in my axle and drive it home. But I'm not really sure if I should risk it. I can't imagine there being anything too wrong with it. I figure I'll pull the cover off tomorrow and see if there is anything obvious. But my luck with jeeps never was that good, so I'd prefer not to be stranded somewhere, and really don't have a tow capable set up at this point, so I don't want to spend a big chunk of cash to get it home if I don't need to.

Any idea of how I can tell if this thing will be worthy of a 200 mile trip?

Pull the cover, look for broken teeth/unevenly worn teeth. Fill it with fluid and go for it. It the bearings are smooth when you turn it all should be fine. I would pull the brakes from the other axle before you pull it. Leave them connected. Then when you put the "new" axle in you shouldn't have to mess with bleeding the brakes and things will be less messy. Also to make the job nicer, power wash the "new" axle before going.

X2.

Also check for rust on the ring gear and pinion head. You can simply spin the pinion a half dozen times or so with the cover open to check for this, if it binds up at any point, something is stuck in the gear teeth or they are rusted. I picked up a free d35 from a friend's wrecked rig a few months ago, it'd been sitting for a year or two and condensation in the diff had heavily rusted the ring gear, it wouldn't turn past that point. Fortunately I only wanted it for the spare yoke, shafts, and carrier anyways.

old_man said:

I would pull the brakes from the other axle before you pull it. Leave them connected. Then when you put the "new" axle in you shouldn't have to mess with bleeding the brakes and things will be less messy. Also to make the job nicer, power wash the "new" axle before going.

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Were you thinking a D30 front and just leaving the calipers hanging?

For a rear D35 swap you have to unhook at least the diff-body brake line right. The rear doesn't do much anyway, so I'd probably skip the bleeding until I got it home.

Looks like everything is good. Although, apparently I stole the brake lines off of it for my past jeep, and a drum is missing. But I'd assume it's the same, as this is a non-c-clip axle and the Jeep is a 88. I guess I'll have to go get a piece of tubing and bend up a pair of lines.

lawsoncl said:

Were you thinking a D30 front and just leaving the calipers hanging?

For a rear D35 swap you have to unhook at least the diff-body brake line right. The rear doesn't do much anyway, so I'd probably skip the bleeding until I got it home.

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you can pull the retainer and line off the existing axle and unbolt the backing plates and pull the shafts to avoid bleeding-- not as easy on a c-clip rear, but possible on the older ones fairly easily.

redsand187 said:

Looks like everything is good. Although, apparently I stole the brake lines off of it for my past jeep, and a drum is missing. But I'd assume it's the same, as this is a non-c-clip axle and the Jeep is a 88. I guess I'll have to go get a piece of tubing and bend up a pair of lines.

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since both should be D35 non c-clip rears, you can leave the existing brakes attached and pull the backing plates.

I'd prefer to bring it home as quickly as possible and do as much repair in the comfort of home as I could. I hate wrenching at a stranger's house- you never know what you'll need or where to find it.