At the junk yard today I pulled the entire axle out of the trans-axle, was it just in the right position for some clip to fall out or is that normal? I am replacing my rear hub and carrier, can I just slide the axle in and out of the trans-axle or is there a clip? Or should I buy the big socket and use my current axle?

Thanks for any advice or tips.

 

I dont know whether this is any help at all as my car is obviously very different but Jaguar tend to use the same technique with other things across models.

My axles are held in place by what looks like a circlip in a groove about an inch or so from the end of the splined end.

The "circlips" are simply circular sprung wire clips. Perfectly round cross section throughout.

The axles on my car do not require too much force to pull out.

If you have a groove around the circumference of the axle near the end and no clip it has come off somewhere.

 

It does have the groove, so I will play it safe. Thanks

 

It does have a ring, it was still attached to the junk yard part. Playing it safe became an issue, so I swapped the axle also. It pulled right out of the final drive, and it went back in with a very pleasing, perfect feel. I do believe I am good.
My hub carrier was in 2 pieces, car still drove ok 25mph with mind to bumps.

 

Been around town and a couple 70+mph highway trips and all seems well.

Broke this part fixing a miss, replaced fuel filter. I fixed the miss, but before I could enjoy the fix the miss came back prior to the suspension repair, bummer. Might have a head gasket issue causing the reoccurring miss issue.