I thought the clips were there hold the caps from being thrown out due to cenrtifical force.

 

Bending the ears on your axle shafts, re-using u-bolts, and what's the best kind of oil to use all fall into the same category. They are all subjects with two or more sides that generally won't ever come to a consensus. Make a decision and move on with life.

 

Um Im pretty sure the only time those ears do move is when they break, Those c-clips just keep the ujoint caps from popping out. The older XJ axle shafts dont have c-clips on the ujoints, and they notoriously work there way out under load.

 

The c-clips are there to keep the ujoint in place when you steer your vehicle. Without them the ujoints will move. They are there to counteract the force exerted on them when you turn .

The ears are neither designed or built to flex, bend or wiggle. If that were the case no one would be able to go offroad...ever.

They are steel, not rubber. Bending steel induces stress and work-hardens it.

And last but not least, once the ears are bent the holes will never line up again the way they did when it was bored to it's current size.

Bent ears = scrap metal

 

Steel bends a little all the time. Broken yokes are just examples of the extreme movement that occurs. Small amounts of movement are normal.

Caps won't slip unless the yoke is stretched... how'd that happen

I'm not saying you should fold the ears over backwards, but its perfectly fine to spread them out by a few mm and clamp them tight again. The ball-joint press you use to get your joints out is putting the ears under the same amount of pressure

 

Gonna offer to pay for replacements?

Very bad advice.

 

If you spray penetrant on the joints they may come out a lot easier and in turn reducing the chance of bending the ears.

 

got the joints out of those with a 4lb sledge, beat the base of the ears until the joint popped up. cleaned, cut for full circle clips, pounded everything back into shape by eyeball, installed alloy x-joints and clamped it all up



still there, several thousands miles later

 

Ended up pulling the stubborn cap off and installing the u-joint again. Went on with no problem and the c-clip seated perfectly. Not sure what it was, as I didn't see any roller bearings out of place when i pulled it off but who knows. Thanks for the advice fellas!

 

Spreading the ears to factory spec will not hurt a thing. Just please don't use a hammer get some thread all, 2 nuts and some fender washers. Then you can expand them back to spec in a controlled fashion. And by the way these are forged cast iron not steel.

 

Iron?
Better check your info source.

 

Cast Iron axle shafts?

 

Sorry forged cast steel. They are cast however

 

I wouldn't trust that as far as I could throw it. That second pic looks like it has cracks all over. Several thousand miles? Ticking time bomb IMHO. Your ride though. OP I highly suggest not using this advice, my .02

 

Those look pretty sketchy.. Time for some chrome moly shafts.