ABS shafts stronger than non ABS?

on a recent wheeling trip, a bad Ujoint made me put a buddies spare shaft into my '97 XJ (which has 297s stock). the shaft was from an ABS equipped XJ of an unknown year, with 297s installed. the length of the stub shaft and inner shaft appeared to be the same, and have been working properly ever since, but i instantly noticed a couple differences in the two shafts.

*** the diameter of the shaft itself was noticably bigger, then necked down at the seal area.

*** the ears on the ABS shaft were CONSIDERABLY bigger, and beefier looking.

stock shaft in my '97 cherokee, with 297 joints:


ABS shaft from unknown year with 297s:





thinking outloud here...

im not saying it cant happen, but most shaft failures ive seen on stock shafts are at the ears, not the shaft itself. this usually leads to or was caused by Ujoint failure, and can lead to BJ failure. these ABS shafts appear to be an upgrade to me. the are much bigger and beefier all around. am i wrong? why have i not found ANY info on this? i feel like someone would have noticed this a long time ago.

NO opinions on this at all?

Old news?
Not a big difference?
My jeep will explode and no one is telling me?

i think what you have figured and posted is pretty much all there is to say about it. yes the ABS ones are a little bigger, and they do come stock with 297s, and yes they are a good replacement for a stock shaft. my 89 waggy with the bendix anti lock system (ABS) came with the same axle shafts and a HP non disco housing. to me it is probably one of if not the best factory front D30 available. i wouldnt be swapping out the rest of yours yet if your other is still fine. but when and if you will ever need to replace the other side, it is a good idea to search for the ABS versions at the junk yard.

Old news. Yes the ABS shafts are massive in comparrison to the older 297 non abs and the 260 shafts too. thats why most guys running 35-39"+ tires on a dana 30 run them. grind out and use 760s with full circle clips. weld tubes. make a truss, knuckle gussets, call the 30 good. carry spares regardless of front axle build.

For the Disco D30, the ABS version of 94 (I think that's the year) is how I got the bigger u-joints on my disco axles. just had to knock the tone rings off.

Then I deleted the disco and went Chomo.

HAHA i have used the abs axles as spares, didnt really notice that until you pointed it out but it works with no problems...