Ujoint/axle question

Up until now I've always just used c-clip 297 ujoints on my stock Dana 30 axle shafts running 31 inch tires, open differential, and 3.55 gears (AW4 transmission). Never had problems with ujoint failure...just normal wear and tear and periodic replacement. Fast forward to the here and now and my jeep is being regeared this week to a 4.56 ratio with a detroit truetrac replacing the open diff. I will probably be going to slightly larger tires, 32's, when my current 31's have worn out.

My question is: do these moderate modifications point to the use of ujoints with full circle clips? Or, keeping in mind I have no plans to go to bigger tires than 32s or 33s or to a full locker, am I OK continuing with c-clip ujoints?

the problem with the Cclips is that as the shaft is fatigued, the ears get egged out and allow to cap to rotate, spitting off the Cclip. once this happens, the cap is able to slip out and can cause a lot of colateral damage. there are a lot of factors... but for the most part, deeper gearing and big tires are the main cause.

your going to be putting a lot more torque down to the ground with deeper gears. you should address the caps before it becomes an issue... there are a lot of options.

- grind stock shafts for full circle clips
- weld the Ujoint cap
- make/buy an "almost alloy" kit
- buy chromos ready to accept full circles

You will be fine, unless you are a really hard wheeler. As the prev post hit at, it is more about the shafts. The 297 joint with c-clips will have no trouble holding up to 32-33 and a locker, but if the shafts eyes are deformed, they'll get eaten up quick.

I've run c-clip joints locked on 35s for many years, and have only lost one joint so far -and that was very unrelated to the joint clips. I like to think I put a lot of load on them, but there are a lot of harder wheelers than me out there.