Which Dana 30 to buy?

I belive mid 96 on up come with the 297 joints and up till 99 or 00 they were HP

Can anyone nail down the dates?

csudman said:

Can anyone nail down the dates?

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You need to look for one of two things: 4 wheel anti lock brakes- all had 297 joints- I scored these from both a 91 XJ and a 94 ZJ (shafts only) or any 96 and newer XJ

if it is just shafts and u joints you are concerned with, that is pretty much all the information you need. FWIW- 91+ have better brakes than 90 back.
I believe, but have no first hand experience, that the XJ front brakes "may" have recieved another upgrade in the mid to late 90's, but I may be dreaming.
hope this helps
Rich

Will the breaks work the same w/out antilock brakes on my vehicle? I can get a low pinion TJ axle too. It has the 297's also, correct? The ball joints and all will interchange, but I'm not sure if I wanna waste all day changing things out.

bttt

Red's correct. After '96 was all 297x ujoints, and before 2000 was HP.
I swapped in a '95 HP axle into my 2001, and all of my axles, bearings, hubs, rotors, etc. swapped over to it. I had to change gears as my new axle is a HP, hence reverse-cut gears.

Stay away fro the low pinion TJ axle. you want the HP one. other than that as they said anti locks came with 297s (why I realy have no clue yet) There realy isn't an isue putting a antilock axle in a non antilock jeep ya just have nothing to hook up the sensors to.