my buddy has a girlfriend with a 89 xj that she is trying to sell but she told me that it was missing the front driveline since the previous owner so i had to take a look and this is what i found

so what i wanna know is if the pinion gear is missing you would have to remove the ring gear and carrier right ??would it be possible to run the axle shafts in without the guts in the axle ??i didnt look to see if there were shafts it was just a quick look or would it be possible to just bolt the hubs on an empty housing and run with no guts at all ?? ive only pulled front shafts once and for the life of me cant remember how it went together

any good ideas why some one might do such a thing??

 

to put a pinion in, you would need to gut the axle, then re-setup the gears. you cant run the inner shafts with nothing in the housing, you would have to seperate the outers from the inners and just run the outer shafts (which you HAVE to do because the outer shaft is a form of support for the wheel bearing)

 

Axle is probably gutted. Only running on the stub axles. You will need axles, carrier, ring and pinion and bearings.

 

It really makes you wonder why would someone do that........................

 

Could poss still have the carrier and axles but would need new ring and pinion at least. Prob cheaper to replace with a whole junkyard axle than piece that one together.

 

thanks all im not planning on buying her jeep i too was wondering why anyone would do that

and i was also curious how in the world the wheels are still on! she said shes been driving it like that for years

 

The carrier might still be in it just to hold the shafts in but all the gears are probably gone. I would err on the side of caution... there is probably a reason the front drive line was mangled... transfer case? That could start to get into expensive repairs.