What are the plastic rings on the front axles on the dana 44.

These are on the axle shaft right where it goes into the housing by the C section. Are they for keeping big stuff out. On friends older wranglers they have some kind of greaseable sleave there to keep stuff out.

I'm just curious.

Thanks

 

The JK Dana 30's have the same thing. Right behind that are the axle seals I believe, if my memory serves me correctly from reading information on this site.

 

It is called an oil slinger. The axle shaft seal is quite a bit farther in the tube. I don't know the significance of having an oil slinger on the outboard end of the axle.

 

those plastic rings are just to keep large pieces of debris out of the tubes. The axle seals are on the outsides of the carrier bearings. If your buddies had "sleeves" that they grease instead of those plastic rings, then I would say those were some of the aftermarket outer axle seals you can get to keep dirt and water out of the tubes and away from your axle seals. I ordered a set of them myself.

 

I will submit a change to the publishers of the Jeep Parts book to change the name of the part from Oil Slinger to Debri Barrier.

 

I agree. If it were intended to be for debri, they should have made it out of steel. There is quite a bit of clearance around mine, though.

 

I have not crawled under to look at it. But plastic rubbing on metal is a lot beter than metal rubbing on metal. (At least for the metal) It sounds as if this is a debri shield, and has the potential to rub or act like a bushing. I am sure after market armor is available to shield this component.

 

When I re-geared my old YJ I pulled mine off and threw them in the trash. They were cracked anyway. I've heard the idea is to keep debris out of the axle tube. If you look at them there is enough space between the plastic piece and the end of the axle tube that it reall does not look like they do much good.

First time I have to pull my front axle shaft on my JK, these plastic shields will go in the trash too