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D-30 U-Joint troubles

M

Mbjeep91

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Arlington Ohio
First specs- 96 xj, 4.0L, Auto, D30, C8.25, No ABS

So i decided to replace the front axle joints yesterday, went to Autozone and got some Brute Force joints, proceeded to start changing them only to find out after the driver axle shaft is laying on my bench that the joints are in fact too small!!!!

Drove 30 mins back to Autozone to try and get the correct ones. spent another 30 mins pulling joints off the shelf finally finding the right ones...turns out I needed the ones for an ABS front axle, only strange thing is that my XJ does not have any ABS components on it at all?

Anyone got an explanation? Does Autozone have thier parts listed bass ackwards???? Just curious!:doh:
 
Last edited:
That's because they put the bigger joints in all front axles starting in 95.

Spicer joints are also going to save you headaches in the future...not the Vatozone specials. :)
 
It's a catalog issue. You need the 1 3/16 joint, not the 1 1/16 joint. Disregard the abs B.S. issue.
 
ia green96 said:
It's a catalog issue. You need the 1 3/16 joint, not the 1 1/16 joint. Disregard the abs B.S. issue.
Click to expand...

10 points for the correct diagnosis of the problem!

If the parts guy( or Gal) would have had a book (you know, one of those things made of pressed paper pulp with writing on it) and knew how to read, and then how to interpret the scrawlings on the paper, he(or she) would have seen that the ABS joints (Spicer 297) also fit later year ( I believe 93 on?, and for sure 96 on units). The computer catalogs most always get it wrong, and since the part people are straight out of HS and only have had the expereince of HS Auto Shop, they have not the experience to know the computer is wrong.

If you decide to take the Jeep down for the parts run, atleast install the outter stub axle as this will keep your Hub together.
 
Hey I wasn't ragging so much on the parts people. The puter & Activent were wrong. I am getting ready to do U-joints tomorrow, so I went out and measured. No ABS, but sure enough 1 3/16 on my 96. But according to any parts store they may be either according if you have ABS or not. That's why I measured.
 
As noted above, you need the 1 3/16" capped u-joints. By Spicer's naming convention, these are commonly called "297" u-joints, which is short for 5-297x. 297s can also be upgraded to a stronger cross on the 760 (5-760x) u-joint.

The smaller 1 1/16" joint is the older 260 (5-260x) which was found on non-ABS and other variations of the Cherokee until mid-MY 1995, at which time all Cherokees got the 297 joints.

Counter Monkeys...ugh.

Jim www.yuccaman.com
 
We had this all figured out on here once before and now we are revisiting it all again.
Stupid search button must be broken again!!!
 
Zuki-Ron said:
10 points for the correct diagnosis of the problem!

If the parts guy( or Gal) would have had a book (you know, one of those things made of pressed paper pulp with writing on it) and knew how to read, and then how to interpret the scrawlings on the paper, he(or she) would have seen that the ABS joints (Spicer 297) also fit later year ( I believe 93 on?, and for sure 96 on units). The computer catalogs most always get it wrong, and since the part people are straight out of HS and only have had the expereince of HS Auto Shop, they have not the experience to know the computer is wrong.

If you decide to take the Jeep down for the parts run, atleast install the outter stub axle as this will keep your Hub together.
Click to expand...

I took my uncle's Liberty to get the correct ones, all I have to say is driving that Liberty really made me appreciate my XJ!!

I will def be buying spicer joints next time!!!!
 
Just for future reference.
Before heading out to the parts store for anything, Always check the best parts reference around.... NAXJA....

Honestly, the parts store computer has alot of anomilies (in reality, Jeep has anomilies that the parts computers dont know about) but most everything here is correct if you spend some time searching and reading. Its saved me a few trips back to the parts store.
 
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