I have a 1993 cherokee for OFFROAD purposes only. I was wondering if it is absolutely necessary to have the axle stub nut on there. I've changed my wheel joint universals numerous times and my axle stub threads on both sides are like 80% gone now. I was just wondering that since it sees no on road service if it will hurt it to leave that nut off there. The only thing that i can see that the nut does is hold the axle tight against the bearings. Any input would be helpful. Thanks.

 

It keeps the bearing seated together as well. It would go through bearing much faster if it was gone. It will also keep you entire wheel from coming off. When you say the threads are 80% gone, are you talking about at the end near where the cotter pin goes. They are lower there than on the rest of the thread surface, but IDK why. I have noticed that they are lower there on all of the OEM shafts that I have seen. HTH!!

 

As all ready posted it holds your bearing together. Without the nut.. your bearing will come apart, and you will lose your wheel. My question to you is why are you breaking u-joints?

Also according to the shop manual it takes 175Ft/Lbs for the proper torque setting

 

PingPong ... I goes through lots of u-joints because im really hard on my cherokee. Its almost all stock except for a small lift and slightly bigger tires and I get it into some pretty amazing places, plus it sees ALOT of sandy type mud. Also if i need the nut on there is there a place that I can get just axle stubs without buying the whole axle ?

 

buy some good u-joints, theres no reason to be breaking joints all the time on slightly larger than stock tires

 

you can always go to your local jy and get axle for very little $

 

this ^

and this ^

 

i mean i dont break them all the time .. but i break them more than normal people .. i do alot of muddin .. and i constantly have the wheels turning back and forth lock to lock and the gas to the floor, u-joints dont like that to much. I do this almost on a daily basis ( i play in my jeep alot ). I use brute force u-joints and in the 3 years i've had my cherokee i've prolly changed them ... oh ... prolly 8 times or so.

 

buy good ujoints and you will not have this problem

 

You might try 95-newer axle shafts - they use bigger, stronger U-joints...

 

what year is you jeep? get yourself some 297 shafts and some spicer 760s. brute force joints are awful.

 

OK.. I truly abuse my rigs. All you have to do is check my webshots page to see how I beat on my stuff. Spend the money on a decent set of axle shafts and U-joints. If you cant do that.. go to PNP and get some newer style shafts and as posted earlier get SPICER 760 joints. Or you can do like I plan on doing and upgrade a second time to RCV's. I am currently running Alloy USA's w/760's