We were discussing this evening in the shop if they are necessary or just to ease assembly. I've had them get fouled and next to impossible to get back out at a later date. Tomorrow I'm reinstalling a new axle in the '89 Probe GT. Input please...
We were discussing this evening in the shop if they are necessary or just to ease assembly. I've had them get fouled and next to impossible to get back out at a later date. Tomorrow I'm reinstalling a new axle in the '89 Probe GT. Input please...
They go on pretty easy on that. Figure 2-3 mins a side.
I always leave them on.
Should I fear a huge leak from the axle seal on the driver side if I take it out?
When j was into neons, it was common to remove them, since it wasn't unheard of for them to jam on removal - necessitating brute force which could actually damage the diff splines. I never had a problem on those cars with the clips removed. YMMV
I just went through that on my Neon. The new LSD didn't want to accept the axle because of the snap ring or c-clip or whatever. Leaving it off versus making it fit seemed to be quite the religious war and in the end I decided to leave them and make the axle go in. One thing that "they" say is that the factory ring/clip is a more expensive round wire type that engages more easily than the cheaper aftermarket square type. I took the clip off the axle and rounded the edges on a grinder and that made it marginally easier to get the axle to seat.
It seems to me that with the knuckle attached as it is, there really shouldn't be any way for it to fall out unless there was some sort of additional failure.
If its designed to have a snap ring to retain it, it needs a snap ring to retain it. The only vehicles I know of that don't use a snap ring either bolt (Toyota) to a flange, or have a spring inside the inner joint (K-car) to hold the joint in the diff. They WILL fall out of the side gear- I've seen it with broken or improperly installed snap rings.
dansxr2 wrote: Should I fear a huge leak from the axle seal on the driver side if I take it out?
No, the ring doesn't do anything for sealing.
But i still wouldn't remove it. 
Streetwiseguy wrote: If its designed to have a snap ring to retain it, it needs a snap ring to retain it. The only vehicles I know of that don't use a snap ring bolt (Toyota) to a flange
and if i remember right those flanges that the CV bolts to have a snap ring that hold them in the diff
Leave them!!! I had a buddy who took the ring off an axle because he was having a difficult getting it in the trans (Acura integra). The axle backed out of the splines of the diff while driving and subsequently chewed the splines of the axle as well as the splines of the diff. He had to replace the trans after that.
Streetwiseguy wrote: If its designed to have a snap ring to retain it, it needs a snap ring to retain it. The only vehicles I know of that don't use a snap ring either bolt (Toyota) to a flange, or have a spring inside the inner joint (K-car) to hold the joint in the diff. They WILL fall out of the side gear- I've seen it with broken or improperly installed snap rings.
Yup. They need EITHER the snapring or the plunge spring in the inner CV. I've tested this no-clip theory on a BP Protege i put a clutch in (boring car btw ) and the inner CV popped out of the diff and dumped all my trans oil on the road.
You'll need to log in to post.
