Hi Guys,

What are your thoughts on leaving the clip off the axle shaft (transfer case shaft) when putting it back in?

I think the purpose of it was to hold the axel in during assembly and not needed now.

What do you think?

 

See:
Right front CV axle removal - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum

Post #2

 

Hi Bill,

Yes, I remember reading that post.

Before I removed the axle and transfer case shaft I unbolted the transfer case (as I was removing it anyway) and removed the clip before removing the shaft. I even used a rubber band in the clip slot before I pulled it out to protect the seals.

My question is must the clip be put back on before installing the shafts? Why use it? It seems the clip would only be needed to hold the shafts in during factory assembly. With no clip in place ( thinking about using an O-ring) it would make future removal much easier.

Thanks for the input

 

If the shaft were to slightly move in and out under normal driving operation and you had an O ring instead of a hard clip, wouldn't the O ring run the risk of being gradually chewed by the spline edges?
The risk being that you could have O ring debris being generated and circulated in your transmission?

 

Yes, I thought that could happen too. But on my manual transmission, it would not be as big of a problem as an automatic one. It was just a thought.

I am a bit surprised no one is running without the clip installed.