Anyone have any insight on this? I've been trying to get the rear diff axles back into the diff, and the passenger's side is fighting me. The driver's side has gone in with a relative ease a couple of times now, the passenger's side axle is not fully getting in there. Given how the driver's side goes in, I'm strongly suspecting the clip.

I ordered new clips (MB160387) but they are the same oversized clip as the one on the passenger's side. It is visibly larger than the clip on the driver's side, which you can see light through. I don't know if these clips are for the trans/t-case, but they are slightly different from the c-clips on the rear axle. I've pushed with all my might, used hammer, etc, and the passenger's side is not moving. It really sould not be this difficult, as evidenced by the driver's side. the only difference is the clip. Any input here? Is there a different part number with a slightly smaller clip?

I've also removed the clip, and "smushed" it with a brake pad compressor. It always reforms back to the original shape

Drivers:



Passengers:

 

I had the front axles in and out of my DSM many times, that car liked attention. And I noticed after a couple of axle removals, to some extent, your problem. I had extra circle clips, they come in axle boot kits, and these aftermarket clips weren't quite as stout. But I still had to exercise care when putting them on to avoid deforming them or arriving at the same problem.

Circle clip orientation seems to make a difference. It odd, but some of this stuff only comes back to me when I'm on a creeper under the car but I think having the circle clip gap at the bottom works best.

 

thanks. what's odd is i've ordered new clips, and they seem the same, slightly oversized clip. I couldn't get the driver's side clip off if i tried. The clips, they'er visibly oversized by i'd guess at least 2mm.

 

FWIW, the current part # superceded a part # that came before it - MB526340

I'm willing to bet that this snap ring is 1-2mm smaller than the current part listed for the axle.

I found a company that makes these clips in various sizes, so I'm going to reach out and get one a couple mm smaller

https://www.rotorclip.com/cat_pdfs/crh.pdf

 

When I reinstalled my rear diff a month ago I was having problems putting it back in. I jacked up the rotor on the side the axle needed to go in. I then just kicked the rotor and it pushed into the axle.

 

I had the same problem at the rear diff driver side. I even test tried it without the clip and it didn't slide in as it should. I had to remove the joint rubber and then I managed to hammer it quite easily in without breaking the rubber. If you do this, check the grease and if it looks bad, clean the joint and put new good quality grease in there. I used Redline cv moly grease.