85 XJ Rear Axle in a 90 MJ

[GosaGT1988]

Apparently the previous owner slapped in the Dana 35 from a 1985 XJ into my 1990 MJ. The 1985 did not come with the c-clip but the factory 1990 MJ did. What do they mean by this and can it cause any problems?

[onebigmj]

The axles in the c clip rear slide have a bolt that threads into pin that slides through the carrier and a c shaped clip on each side that holds the shafts in. The non c clip rears axles ares bolted on. The non c clip is nice in that if you break a shaft the axle won't just slide out. Pretty much the only way to make the axle come out is if the wheel bearing goes bad. The non c clip can be easier to work on though. Personaly if I have to have a dana 35 I'd rather have a non c clip.

[Eagle]

Yeah, the non c-clip is better. The shafts are the same size and the spline count is the same, so there's no strength difference, but there's no chance of a clip breaking and spewing the axle out the side, plus the c-clip axles had the crappy 9" brakes and the early ones had 10" brakes. The D35 are 10x1-3/4 so the swept area is probably about the same, but I think the 10" brakes are easier to work on and I'm convinced they stop better than the 9".