van 8.8

my brother has an 87 ford van which we recently swapped out his 8.8 rear for a dana 70 dually. is there a difference between the explorer 8.8 and this one? they look damn near identical other than having larger drums maybe. and prolly being a little wider. i ask cause it is just sitting now and he said i could have it if i wanted. if it will work in the xj i'll take it. thanks in advance.

the length is probably different and the 96+ exploders come with disk brakes with drum parking brake from the factory other than that i would have to do some research.