97 ZJ orvis rear differential retainer clips
 

Hello everyone, I have been reading this and other jeep forums for a while but decided to join this one today to hopefully get some stuff figured out that neither my father nor I know enough about.

I recently acquired this jeep and have been working on getting it up to par. One issue I noticed right off was a 'clunking' sound from the back. After replacing the emergency brakes I noticed the noise was loader (this was probably do to the fact I had not correctly adjusted one of the emergency brakes to be completely off of the drum. I decided to open up the back of the differential since I assumed the noise was associated with this (plus I wanted to change the oil in it) and the oil came out with a lot of metal (graphite looking) and a couple of small chunks. I looked for quiet a while to try to find the spot that was broken but couldn't find it at first even with someone else helping. All the gears look to be in perfectly fine shape. After a bit I came back and took another look and saw the first major issue, but I don't really know what I was looking at. Behind the side gear for the drivers side axle there is a plate with ears on it which appears to be retained in the spot by 2 clips. The same for the passenger side gear. The problem is that one drivers side clip is broken, and the other is completely missing.

Here are a couple of photos on photobucket
http://s1265.photobucket.com/albums/...vis%20repairs/

Am I right to assume that these are in some way holding the clutch plates in for the limited slip? or is it just for the shims?

I realize to do this repair I will need to be taking the differentials components out, it also feels the bearing for the drivers side needs replaced. Will more than just these clips and possibly a clutch plate or two need replaced? As in with the clips missing, is there probably major damage to other parts because of the moving of the clutch/shim plates?

Lastly I was curious if I could leave it go for a while, this isn't the only project I have going and even though I planned this to be my daily driver for a while I do have another car I use more often, specially for long trips. Could I easily let this issue go till I get a chance to repair it without having it tear up more of the differential? I wouldn't be driving it much (maybe 100 or less miles over the winter).

Thanks for any advice you guys can dish out.

it would probably be easier just to swap a rear end out of a salvage yard. With all the fragments that came out when you drained it. You would think the bearings would have to be pretty jacked up. The rear ends in those are not exactly a highly sought after piece of hardware theyre pretty weak and are a dime a dozen. Just look it over good and get the same ratio.