What holds the front drive axle dust & dust seal to the hub assembly? Obviously the snap ring & shim don't have anything to hold it out that far? I can't go playing in the mud until I figure this out -help.

Ye old hardware store & ~$2:

3/4" flat steel washer & (unknown size) snap ring.

Before:


After:


Just test-drove it and no more front end rattle. I have been beating my head on the wall for 3 months for ~$2 in parts form ace hardware. Crap.

Um, buddy, you need to go back to the hardware store and get a 26mm external snap ring. The one you have is an internal ring. It is meant to be put inside of something. It will probably not work for long how you have it. There is too little contact area to keep it in place.

The better (and easiest) thing to do is to call St. Charles Isuzu and order a few. They are cheap.

Good Luck,
Michael

Michael,
You have me nervous now. Because both of my isuzu's have the same style snap rings. My '88 trooper I figure could have had someone else change them. However my '95 I know all the history, I bought it from a family friend (85 year old lady)which purchased it new, and she kept all service records. The truck before me never was in 4 wheel drive. So...
Mark

Mark-

Are you sure your clip does not just look similar? The one above is only engaging the groove at the two points where the holes are and on the bottom of the curve. It is designed to engage a groove entirely along its circumference. I bet yours look like the one above, but actually are correct.

Michael

Michael is right on this one. Look at the picture. When you use that snap ring on the outside of a shaft, only a small portion of the ring is acually is contact with the shaft - the two "ears" and a bit of the circumference on the side opposite the "ears". That ring is designed for internal use so that the entire circumference is in contact with the a shaft.

On an external snap ring, the ears are on the opposite side so that the circumference of the ring is in contact with the groove all the way around.

It could be that when the previous owner had routine maintence done that the mechanic used the wrong part.

Yeah, they look like this:



You will need the 26mm external snap rings. For lack of finding individual metric snap rings at the parts store, I just ran to the nearest Isuzu dealership and got mine there. At only $.40 apiece, its worth the cost to have the correct ones. HTH