Please don't take this the wrong way. Everyone has limited knowledge or no knowledge about lots of things - even me /wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif, but the nature of your question indicates that you need to do a bit more home work. There are several axles that came from the factory on different Jeeps. Some of those axles had additional factory options. Just talking about these can get involved. Then lots and lots of Jeeps have standard axles that have been modified by owners. Discusing these is yet another full topic, and the last set of Jeeps have axles that came out stock on everything from Lincoln cars to one or two ton trucks and even these have been seriously modified by the Jeep owner, another full topic. And with ALL these axles and axle combinations you have choices of gear ratio, and this alone is a huge topic of conversation by itself not to mention the different lockers, LSD's, spools, and whatever else that can be installed in any of them.
If you buy a used Jeep, it can have any of the above. May have an axle that an owner put on it 3 owners ago or it may be just as stock as the day it was born.
You need to determine what kind of axles you have, their gear ratio and whether or not any traction devices have been installed. Some axles have factory installed short comings. Some axles are prone to breakage when used with traction devices (lockers), some have weaknesses that can be easily corrected and become a very good, reliable axles, others are strong and reliable from the beginning. Determine what you have. Determine what you want to do with your Jeep. After that you can ask a question as general as - "I have a Dana 20 rear axle, and I want to wheel. What do I need to do to it?" and several people will be able to give you very good information.
I appologize for not being able to direct you to other sites for axle identification, but here again, several on this list can do just that, and will be happy to, I'm sure.
Doug '97 TJ
My Web Site
