YJ front axle into xj?

Yes i know a YJ has front leaves, my question is how difficult would it be to change the axle over to be used for my xj? Reason being Ive found a good deal on a wrecked YJ to be the donor for my xj's 4wd swap. This axle is already geared to 4:10 so it will match the rear axle i have now. Any suggestions? Looking to go back to a stock, 4 link setup.. nothing fancy. Ive got a buddy who works at a machine shop so i have access to the tools to do it.. But if its alot of cutting and welding I'd hate to put that all on my buddy, as im a terrible welder. Any help is appreciated.

the YJ housing will be vaccum disconnect, so you will have to get a seal kit and swap in the shafts from your existing 30.

you would also need to do coil buckets, LCA mounts, UCA mounts, Sway bar mounts, and Track bar mount.

it would be easier and probably cheaper just to grab the gears out of the YJ housing and have them put in your existing housing

lol there lies the problem.. I dont have another D30 LOL. If i did get a second d30 would the ring and pinion be able to be take out as a whole without re-adjustment or anything and threw into the xj d30? If so may save me some money lol

No, you will have to re setup the used gears in the new housing.
What about picking up that YJ axle on the cheap, and selling it to a YJ person?

hmm. thats not a bad idea, maybe i'll be able to get enough money junking the rest of the YJ to pay to have a 3.55 axle regeared the way i like. I never would have believed it would be this hard to find a cheap used ax5!! I find aw4's all day but will rarely find an ax5 anywhere. On a side note, will the TC linkage from the wrangler work on the cherokee? If not will the linkage from any cherokee work, 4.0 or 2.5?

You will need linkage from an xj with the same trans as you, as the pivot on the body mount is different. Gave me hell when I ditched the BA-10

I doubt i'll be able to find one for a 4 banger cherokee.. May just go with what novac has and make it easy. Cant decide on their linkage or cable setup tho..

Bear in mind that low pinion and high pinion gears are different so you can't transfer one into the other type housing.

thats true.. I actually found a TJ 4.10 front axle the other day, would have been a direct bolt in.. but they were asking like $500 for it, so i was like XXXX that lol