Need urgent help with front axle!

My 2000 XJ Sport is in the shop. I thought it was the brakes and it turns out a bearing has been bad and it ate up the hub and damaged the caliper and rotor.

Here's the problem: The mechanic has ordered the hub parts and they keep showing up wrong. He says the hub on mine is longer by a half inch than what his parts supplier is sending. It was bought used and I know it was a rebuild, so someone probably changed the whole axle with something else. The FWD was working, so it's gotta be a jeep axle I assume.

Anyone know what the possibilities are? How can we tell what axle it is?

Thanks for any help, audnorge at Yahoo dot com.

Audnorge

Do you have any pictures of it? I assume its still a dana 30 if the jeep is on 33's or less. Otherwise it could really be anything, just because the front wheel drive is working doesnt mean its a jeep axle, alot of axles will fit under a jeep with a little welding work. Perhaps they swapped out the dana 30 low pinion with a high pinion? Shouldnt your mechanic be able to ID and axle?

-Alex

There are THREE different hubs for the XJ/YJ/TJ Dana 30s. They all will fit, but they take different rotors. Back in the 80s there was one hub, the 90s used another and the newer 2000-2001 ones were different also. They all fit, and vice versa... but different slightly in width.

Somebody could have swapped an axle shaft in the past, and put a different hub on one side or the other on your Jeep.
I've run into this problem before. You might have mismatched hubs to begin with when you got it.

Best bet: buy TWO NEW HUBS that match, and TWO NEW ROTORS THAT MATCH THE YEAR OF THE HUBS. That way everything is the same.
Compare part numbers on the hubs/different years... and take your hubs into the PARTS STORE and lay them side by side
and measure to make sure they are the same.

He needs to compare the new hub ($75) to the other side, and make sure they are the same if you don't want to buy all new hubs/rotors.

Remember, there are THREE HUB styles, and at least TWO rotor styles used from 84-2001 on the XJ front Dana 30s.
You can tell the rotor styles by feeling the THICKNESS of the center mounting surface.
The older rotor style is thicker, mabye 1/4". The newer rotors are thinner.

barillms said:

He needs to compare the new hub ($75) to the other side, and make sure they are the same. If he told them the year of the Jeep, there should be no problem.

Click to expand...

$75? Where at, they are $100 and $150 at Advance Auto Parts here in Northern, NY. Of course, if you like changing hubs every year, get the $100, but I get the better ones. I used to work at a parts store and warrantied way too many of the cheap ones. Sorry, a little off topic.

Excellent info thanks

Audnorge