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Worth it to go full circle clips w/ 31s?

Y

yossarian19

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Grass Valley, CA
I've read up on the benefits of a full circle clip on the Dana 30 U-joint. It keeps the u-joint bearing caps in place even under high strain, which is crucial. Lots of failures happen because the yokes distort a small amount, the cap gets spit & kabloowey. Junk is broken.

I'm not sure it's worth finding the clips & grinding the shafts before I reassemble the shafts I've got on the bench, though, since I'm only going to run 30s or 31s.

Thoughts?
 
i have a napa part number for Cclips if you want it. i ground down a set of shafts and installed them. i wasnt very comfortable with the amount of material i had to take off to get them to fit. your better off tacking the caps (in phase, thats an important part). all of my spares are tacked.

how many shafts have you been through that makes you think you need circle clips?
 
Never broken one.
Only asking because I've already got a set of shafts apart for fresh u-joints. Currently I'm running ZJ (CV) style shafts that are getting noisey. Figured I'd ask "long as I'm in there, should I..?" but I think my answer is no.
 
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I'm a believer, it kept my stock shafts on 33s from coming apart. I had a squeaking noise in the front, discovered the caps were able to be taken out by hand, only thing keeping them in was the full clip. If I had the half clips I'm sure they would have come out and dropped a cap and then boom!

I used a cut off wheel on a grinder to clearance the shafts, got the clips from McMaster Car
 
zachandandy said:
What is the part # for the full circle snap rings? Going to 37's on my front 44 and my Yukon shafts didn't come with full circle clips.
Click to expand...

I wish I had wrote it down. but what I did was just walk into reibes or o'reilly or whatever and asked if they had a box of snap rings. I just compared the 3/4 clips with clips in the box until I found a size that matched up
 
i was originally given the idea from whitexj98... and its easy to do. and as he said... ive found ears that were stretched and i could turn the cap with my thumb.

but i dont like the idea of removing material from an already known weak spot in the shafts. making your own "almost alloy" kit strengthens the weakest part of the shaft and still positively retains the caps.
 
Yeah, but then it's a PITA to service them.
I fully expect to wear out the U-joints instead of break them. I realize that most folks on Naxja, it's the other way.
I thought about it and for the $15 that Napa charged me, it's worth it for the entertainment value alone. So I'll wind up pulling the blown-out ZJ shafts and putting in ABS shafts with 760 U-joints (well, Precision U-joints for '98 XJ. 297? 760? Dunno) and full circle clips. Won't have to think about axle shafts for a while.
 
760s are the way to go. be sure to put a bit of grease in the caps. ive seen a few of them dry up prematurely. i believe that there is enough grease in there to hold the needles, but not to be ran.

and only grind what is needed. if you have access to the tooling and can machine them. even better.

almostalloy014.jpg
 
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That looks really well done. I'd love to duplicate that but don't have the tools. I think I'll be using a a 4 1/2" grinder with either flap disc, grinding or cutting wheel. Don't know yet.
Oh, and for what it's worth : Moog, Precision and Federated all seem to be the same U-joint. I can't find a ton of corroboration on Federated being a reboxed Precision but I did find some. They also use the same part numbers which is what made me wonder in the first place. Moog bought Precision. Federated is just a distributor with it's own house brand parts.
Also... comparing pictures of the 297s to any U-joint I can find on Rock Auto for the same application, it looks like all the major makers have updated their design to mirror Spicer's 760-X. Spicer is probably still the best but I went with Federated. We'll see how that choice works out somewhere down the road.
 
Hmm. Might try a rotary burr or smallish grinding stone on 1/4 arbor, chuck it in the die grinder. Could use the dremel but that would take a while, I think
 
I'm getting it done with a rotary burr on a die grinder but a 7" grinder would be *so* much nicer. I'll have to buy one eventually.
4.5" grinder, at least mine, doesn't get in there.
 
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