Dana35 vs. Corporate 8.25

Was wondering which rearend is the most popular among Jeepers and why. Is one better than the other?

8.25 is stronger and more desirable than the 35. most popular would be dana44 or better.

the dana 35 has problems with the shaft snapping and leaving while still attatched to the wheel. not a very good axle relatively speaking. the chrycho 8.25 with the 27 spline shafts isnt much better. the chrycho 8.25 with 29 splines are stronger than both of those. those came in later cherokees

Not sure if it matters in your case, but certain gear ratios are unavailable for the 8.25 that are available for the 35.

you guys got pix of that? I heard that both covers are very similar looking, can someone post a pix for a direct comparison? pretty please? :viking:

Check out this website, plenty of info here ans some pictures
http://www.off-road.com/jeep/tech/axle/

dogtired said:

you guys got pix of that? I heard that both covers are very similar looking, can someone post a pix for a direct comparison? pretty please? :viking:

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not very similar at all. 8.25 has a very distinctive flat bottom edge.

I was in my local jeep dealership and walk talking to the guy who works on my 88 XJ. He is their senior guy and understands the AMCisms of late 80s XJs. He may work at a Chrysler/Jeep dealership which also use to sell Plymouth & Eagle but he a Ford man at heart. This is one of those things you do so when your XJ needs repair they know you as a person and not just another vehicle to get moved through the garage.

I asked him about XJs and how they changed over the years. He had a 98 XJ on his lift and I own a 88 XJ. I asked him which axle he liked better, I was expecting to hear from him what so many on here that he liked the Chrysler 8.25 but to my surprise he told me of the two he would take the Dana 35 over the 8.25. I got from him that he has more 8.25's in for "warranty" service than Dana 35s.

in April 2003 I had some 19 year old slam into my XJ on the driver's side just in front of the rear wheel while I was waiting on a red stop light. She hit me and turned my XJ 90 degreees - from headed east to headed north. It was driveable and I took it to the garage to have the rim and axle checked for damage. Here Honda have to be towed away on a flat bed!!!! They found she bent my rim but my axle was still true. I have a Dana 35 under the rear of my 88 XJ and it went throught that accident without a problem so don't know how much more "axle" I need?

I have read on here peaple saying the 8.25 is stronger but I have never met someone who broke an axle. I am not a rock climber but use my XJ to ford a creek to gain access to my 80 acres in the Missouri Ozarks. I also use it to drive down the old logging trails - 3 seperate ones - to gain access to different parts of the property.

My suggestion is to keep your XJ stock on the axle until you do have problems THEN look into an upgrade. Might as well get all the service out of the axle. What are you giong to do with it if you change it out, have it lay around and junk up your garage??

One other question i asked the dealer mechanic, I asked him what was better about the 98 XJ on his lift over my 88 XJ. He told "the electrical wiring is better". I asked anything else and he told me "no". As a mechanic he personally likes the 88 XJ of all the years they built and hopes to find himself a project XJ. He also said "the 4.0 is the best engine Chrysler has" and I replied "and they had to buy AMC to get it" and she shook his head "yes".

I have no plans on changing axles but thought I'd throw in what I heard from my 25+ year mechanic.

martin said:

I have a Dana 35 under the rear of my 88 XJ and it went throught that accident without a problem so don't know how much more "axle" I need?

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My uncle with an 88 just replaced a D35 axleshaft on his stock, daily driver xj. I pulled out my driver's side axleshaft and replaced it because it had twisted at the splines, and one of the spider gears had broken a tooth. (I'm on 33's) This is my experience, I'm not saying that you're going to have a problem, but being in an accident is a bit different than trail use.

xjblaine said:

My uncle with an 88 just replaced a D35 axleshaft on his stock, daily driver xj. I pulled out my driver's side axleshaft and replaced it because it had twisted at the splines, and one of the spider gears had broken a tooth. (I'm on 33's) This is my experience, I'm not saying that you're going to have a problem, but being in an accident is a bit different than trail use.

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I agree... also the mechanic probably does not look at the axles from the perspective of bigger tires and trail use which might make his statements invalid when it comes to trail application.

you do any wheeling (Moab, Tellico, etc.) and you will soon see the inherent weakness of the D35. Anything other than putzing around the pasture will soon show it to be weak. They do well on the road and that is why the Jeep mechanic says he hasn't seen much trouble with them. The 8.25 can be a real bitch to get setup if you do any work on them. I know from personal experience!! That said ,I have never seen any problem off road with them, even running the 27 spline. The specs rival the D44. We have 3 corporate axles in the family and do on occasion wheel them quite hard. I did eventually replace one of them with a Ford 8.8 just to get the disc brake setup. That axle (8.8)has parts that are as big as, or in some cases almost as big as a D60. They are very cheap in my area so it is a common swap. I'm about to do another 8.8 swap just so my daughter can have the disc brakes and not for the strength gained.

I thought shifty was asking about "stock" XJs since he posted this question on the OEM board and not the modified board. Yes, I was talking from a non-lifted view point.

I have what I consider to be a stock 88 XJ Pioneer 4.0 NP231. The only mods I have done is go from P205/75R15 tires to LT235/75R15 tires since that the largest tire which will mount on the stock 15 x 6 steel rim.

I also read on here that you can run 235/75R15 tires with "no problems" on a stock XJ. That statement not totally true. You can if you don't mind giving up some steering. I went to the modified board and they told me about madxj's write up of installing Grand Cherokee LCA on XJs with 235/75R15 tires. I had those LCAs installed and my rubbing problem went away.

I also installed a steering box brace since rusty's offroad web site said it was msut for anyone running 31s. It fixed my steering wheel movement problem when crossing RR tracks, think every XJ should have one. I have the MORE brace installed since it did not conflict with my mopar Aux trans cooler like the Rusty's one did.

I have also had both front and rear axles gone through, even had new bearings pressed on the rear axle shafts once I had a seal blow out and slime my brake shoes. My splines were just fine, no indication of twist. I don't know what happened to your uncles spines.

I was just passing on what I had heard, thought everyone would find it interesting... hope no one took as me saying "your baby is ugly" cause that was the farthest thing from my mind.

gettinbetterXJ said:

Check out this website, plenty of info here ans some pictures
http://www.off-road.com/jeep/tech/axle/

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thanks for the URL, but I am afraid there is no way for a direct comparison between the two axles, one has no picture for the 8.25 and the Dana 35C has a very small bad picture to see clearly.

Thanks. It sound like the Dana is not a bad axle but the 8.25 is better. thanks for the great info

To all who might be interested, go to my homepage and I have a pic of the 8.25 axle in the gallery (albiet it is still on the vehicle and mostly a pic of the pumpkin itself). I took it in response to someone else's question of what exactly they look like. Sorry but I have no pics of a 35 up close for comparison. They are different if you know what to look for, but the 4 Wheel Parts store near me looked right at it and then ordered the gears for a 35 anyway. Then called me when they went to install them to tell me they made a mistake. So I guess if they can anybody can.

XJFREK said:

To all who might be interested, go to my homepage and I have a pic of the 8.25 axle in the gallery (albiet it is still on the vehicle and mostly a pic of the pumpkin itself). I took it in response to someone else's question of what exactly they look like. Sorry but I have no pics of a 35 up close for comparison. They are different if you know what to look for, but the 4 Wheel Parts store near me looked right at it and then ordered the gears for a 35 anyway. Then called me when they went to install them to tell me they made a mistake. So I guess if they can anybody can.

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Thanks XJFREK, for the photos, now I need to see a picture of a Dana 35 to compare the difference. it is too late to see my pumpkin in the middle of the night, I'll go peek at it tommorrow afternoon. Thanks again! :viking:

dogtired said:

Thanks XJFREK, for the photos, now I need to see a picture of a Dana 35 to compare the difference. it is too late to see my pumpkin in the middle of the night, I'll go peek at it tommorrow afternoon. Thanks again! :viking:

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dana 35 has round "hump" whereas the 8.25 has a hump that has a flat side on both top and bottom of the "hump" about 5" long

Here's my 8.25 - my old D35 pictures seem to have disappeared and my neighbor is out of town so his YJ D35 is inaccessible.


Note the flat 'bar' just below the diff cover. That's a cast lip that can be ground off to kep from catching obstacles on the trail. The D35 doesn't have this, and has a much more rounded shape across the bottom.

Yucca-Man said:

Here's my 8.25 - my old D35 pictures seem to have disappeared and my neighbor is out of town so his YJ D35 is inaccessible.

Note the flat 'bar' just below the diff cover. That's a cast lip that can be ground off to kep from catching obstacles on the trail. The D35 doesn't have this, and has a much more rounded shape across the bottom.

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Thanks everyone and Yucca-Man, that clears everything up. Took a good long look at my pumpkin, so it is a 8.25, that flat bottom "lip" really stand out. But if you guys still access to a D35, and a D35 c-clip that I keep reading about, please post those pictures as well. I will download the pix and keep as a reference.
So... a 8.25 is bare minimum to go trail riding? A D44 is better, then comes a D60 right? How much stronger in relation to each other?

Well, you can do trails in a D35 - it's not a purely mall-crawling axle. My 89 XJ had a D35 and 235s and still wandered all over the Arizona desert.

When I can come up with a D35 pic I'll post it in my website although I'm probably restructuring it soon so can't tell you where exactly.

Relatively speaking since I don't have torque numbers and all that the axles found behind XJs are typically in the following order although I guarantee someone else replying to this will re-sort the order to their preferences:

• Dana 35 w/c-clip
• Dana 35 w/o c-clips
• Chrysler 8.25 27-spline (91ish through 96)
• Chrysler 8.25 29-spline (96-01)
• Ford 8.8 (95 and newer use stronger 31-spline axles) Also available under Mercury Mountaineers of the same years
• Dana 44
• Ford 9"
• Dana 60 (multiple spline counts and years)