who said the c clips cant fall out ?

[bigtow]

i just picked my car up after having my new eton diff fitted and some other work done while i was a way on vacation in fla (more of that later) and my mechanic budy that done the work showed me the old diff. opps when he removed the rear calipers some body walked into the car while it was on the lift and the axle shaft fell out. when he removed the rear cover he found that the old carrier was that worne that the c clips had fell out one was laying in the axle housing the other one had gone thru the sun gears and was deposited around the axle in very small parts. so a word of warning the carrier can and does wear out enough to let the c clips fall out

[Rhode Island Red]

wow

[Kevin - Blown 95 TA]

No one ever said that c-clips don't fall out. They can also wear funny grooves in the axle & diff too, and one side of the clip has a rough sharp edge. If a guy works on a diff and puts them back in the opposite way they came out, it can cause a lot of wear. It's also why the performance rear ends don't use c-clips - they usually put big bearings on the axles and they are held in at the ends of the axle tubes by retainers. C-clips are a weak design.