Well here goes my snap ring experiment....on my train rig, I've never had the birf's apart so the only snap rings I'm NOT running is the outer most one outside of the hub. I don't run this one on my Blazer or Jeep either. I have a "budget" 4runner I picked up and decided to go throught the front end yesterday just to check it out. It had all the snap rings in place. I figured screw it I'm going to try that pipe trick so I lit it and...oh wait, that's the wrong pipe
...just kidding-I dropped the axle into a pipe and the birfield came right off the first try. It also had both snap rings on that end. Well...I've never had anyone tell me how to get them back together. In trying to compress the inner ring and puch it back into the birf, it broke the snap ring. Looking back now, I probably could have compressed it with a hose clamp or something and got it back together sort of like a ring compressor. Anyway the drivers side is all repacked with new grease and no birfield retaining snap ring. I'll do the pass side today. I don't see a probrem as the axle would hit the cross shaft pin in the center of the diff and stop it. Now on my Jeep, I have a nine inch in the rear with a full spool made by Strange. It is open all the way through where the splines are and if it was used in a type of Birfield application the axle could travel way too far inboard and separate from the outer. I've never seen a Toyota spool in person so I would assume they are made the same way. If this is the case, a full spool in the front would require a Martack or the snap ring??? What do you think?
