New (to me) XJ

I just bought a 89 2 door XJ from a friend of mine for $800. It's got a 4.5" lift, 31" MT's or rock crawler style wheels, cross-over steering, etc. Problem is it has the BA10/5 and it's in bad shape. I was planning on going to the local Pic-a-Part to try and get an AX-15 from another XJ. My question is what should I be looking for? Any tips on how to tell if a trans is any good? I will be taking the transfer case as well if I can find one attached to the AX-15.

I'm a Jeep newb, so please be kind, lol. :cheers:

"ON" rock crawler style wheels. Sorry if this is posted in the wrong forum. New here and figured swapping a trans might fall under O.E.M.

The yard should have a warranty on the trans.

If not then dont buy it there. You can find them in yards that have a warrany, lots of times its not much more to buy a trans already pulled from a yard, at least around me.

Thanks for the reply Stockli. I guess I will find out this weekend. Not sure why I didn't get more responses. I have been wheeling for 20 years or so, just new to Jeeps. A friend of mine recommended the forum, so I hope it gets better from here.

AX 15's are pretty robust and last a long time, but there can be problems with the bronze snychronizers if they've been filled with the wrong oil. The one thing I'd do if possible is to open up the drain plug and let some oil out. Look for large amounts of bronze dust in the oil, which could signal synchro damage. Otherwise, though, I'd just go for what you can find at a reputable yard.

I just replaced the AX 15 in my 99, which I damaged trying to shift into reverse in traffic after the clutch blew up. That one was still good except for noisy reverse at 258 thousand miles. I replaced it with the one out of my 95 with 263K miles, and have no worries.

As for what to look for, the AX 15's case is not bolted together down the center like yours is.

Thanks Matthew, I appreciate all the great info. I'll be pulling the drain plug for sure now. Might just save me a lot of work. Blue; I know the differences between the two trans. Just wanted to know if there were specific things I could check for in a non-running vehicle to see if the trans was good or not. Thank you for your reply though. (no disrespect meant)

Were good, You can grab the input shaft and check for play, rotate it and feel if it's shifting or binding while moving the shifter through the gears. Also check the end of it, I've seen them messed up from bad pilot bearings on other vehicles. Buy rotating back and forth you can feel for slop or play between gear sets.

Stockli and I were talking about your thread the other day and he brought up a great point that I thought I'd share with you. If you get a tranny from the yard if it is still in the vehicle chances are pretty good that its shot. Yards usually pull all the good motors, transmissions and transfer cases. Also check for any writing on the truck, usually somewhere on the hood it will have something saying "motor good" or "motor NG(no good)". I have seen this type of writing referring to the transmissions as well but not as often. If it is already pulled and sitting in their giant pile of trannys chances are that its good because they wouldn't go through the trouble of pulling a bad trans.

Thanks guys. My friend flaked on me today, so I'm going to hit some yards Monday and see what I can find. I'll update if I have any luck.