96 4.0 auto dana 30 hp front 8.25 rear . I just noticed the front axle shafts are different than my brothers 98 .The yoke on the end of shaft seems to be splinded and may a two piece shaft .Also the u joints seem smaller , my question is what do i have?. I bought the factory manuals and can not find any info , thought i would just ask . thanks

 

Should both have the same cv shaft up front with slip splines just off center to the axle side

 

u-joints did change but I thought that was after 1995.

1996 and up should have the 297x u-joints while the 1995 and older should have the 260x u-joints (which are smaller).


260 on top and the other 2 are 297s. Note however that those are NOT XJ axles.

Maybe yours is a super early 1996 that still has a leftover 1995 front axle?

No idea on the spline thing.

EDIT: MadXJ seems to be down right now but they have an article on the joint/axles HERE

 

I was thinking about drive shafts not axle shafts.. oops lol

 

Thanks evil , my shaft is the same as the top one . the yoke on the axle side ( at the dust shield ) you can see that it is two piece posibly pressed on . I just checked my build date 2-96 so you are right again evil and thanks again for the pics . Now should i change them with axles from another d30 to get the larger u joints ?