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Posted by Keith in Washington on Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 12:47:19 :
In Reply to: Do old Jeep CJ and Wagoneer have this issue? posted by Ken Dunnington on Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 10:00:18 :
I am rebuilding a Willys at this time. The offset is not a great with the Jeeps as it is in the PW so the axles are more equal but there still is a short one. Also in the Willys the enging is offset a little to the driver's side this reduces the off set in the rear axle to some degree.
The short/long axle problem is not as troublesome in the Willys. The weak point was that the axle shaft and drive flange on the rear axle were a two piece unit. The end of the axle was tapered and had a keyway. The drive flange was held in place by a large nut on the end of the axle and the key stopped any rotation between the axle shaft and flange. This was the weak point of these axles. With a 4 cylinder you were fine in general. However, any V8 engine swap or hard use with the original engine resulted in the key shearing. Also if the nut ever loosened again there were problems (Yes the nuts did loosen). It required a puller to get the drive flange off some of them were really wedged on. This is why there are aftermarket one piece axles available it solved this issue.