Gears from a D35 will fit an AMC 15 -- except for maybe yours (naturally!!). The torque tube axles (and American "big nut" driveshaft axles, through 65 with 196/199 powered Americans) have a different pinion shaft than the open drive axles. Now comes the tricky part! I haven't actually measured the shafts. I THINK the torque tube splined part of the AMC 15 pinion shaft is a little smaller in diameter and longer than the open drive type. You'd have to pull the u-joint yoke off a D35 on an XJ Cherokee and see if it fits the AMC15 TT axle, and if it does measure the distance from the end of the shaft to the seal. Length can be +/- about 1/4" and still fit, I think. There's some room in the slip joint for the TT driveshaft. As I stated before, you could have a Spicer axle, but I'm not certain. Pull the bearings and use the numbers. Any shop/parts store should be able to get the bearings in a couple days for the Spicer or AMC axles. I replaced AMC15 outer bearings and races just a couple years ago and they were still being made and easy to get. If the parts store can't get them, a bearing and drive supply can. They will need the number to cross reference. The 196 used a lower gear ratio way back then because there really weren't any roads to cruise at high speeds on. Grades were steeper too, and the lower gears helped the small engine (by today's standards, it was only adequate back then!) move the big car well. The 196 isn't a high speed engine design. It doesn't do well at high speeds, and will use a bit of oil when pushed a lot. I ran one for 14 years as a daily driver in an American. 800 miles on a quart of oil is typical when driving at 65-75 mph for long trips. You would be better off with a 3.31 or 3.55 axle. 3.78 gears were generally used with OD trannys in later years. My 63 American with auto trans had 3.31 gears, but they were the optional "performance" gears. Shouldn't be to hard to find a used set of gears if not a complete axle. Your TSM should state what stock and optional gears were in the rear axle section (last few pages of the section IIRC). ----------------- Date: Monday, November 27, 2006 12:11 AM From: d stohler <das24rules@xxxxxxxxx> at the carquest i go to, they actually have OLD books they look in. no it was not under jeep. i was looking at the book with her. dona is very good at gettin me the hard to find parts. it says spicer 53, and 27A. thats all. for gaskets, and bearings. they had the gasket in stock that looks like it is the right one. i have yet to put the diff cover gasket on to find out for sure. 10 bolts on the cover and kinda oval looking if this helps in id any. oval as in left right oblong instead of up and down oblong. even www.partsamerica.com says the spicer axles. parts america is who advance auto and autozone, schucks, kragar and checker auto parts all go thru. says the 53 has a 9.25" ring gear, and the 27A has a 7.2" ring gear. would i be safe maybe to guess it is the 27A? i have yet to find anything in parts that says "amc model 15". grr, this is getting confusing. am i safe to guess that the 27A with the smaller gear, might be the littler axle used in the 6 cyl? its a 6cyl manual. no od. also, frank said that the 35 grew from the amc 15. would it be possible that 35 gears might be able to be adapted into the 15, if thats even what i have? im coming out with the gears being 9/34 turning into 3.77 g.r. wouldnt mind getting like a 3.50 or so. just a little more highway friendly. maybe not even worry about it now if im going to be swapping it out any time soon. _______________________________________________ AMC-List mailing list AMC-List@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.amc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/amc-list or go to http://www.amc-list.com