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crawling with a AX15...

morenmoretoys

NAXJA Forum User
i'm thinking about building a new cherokee, the problem is that 91+ two door 4.0L autos are hard to come buy, i was curious how well a 5 speed would crawl.
the specs would be...
4.0L HO
AX-15 (at least i think that would be the tranny in a 91-95ish 4.0L)
NP231
D30/D44 with 4.88s and lockers
35" MT/Rs
6" with Longarms

has anyone ran a similar setup? how well does it work on trails such as the rubicon? my 1990 4.0L AW4 NP242 with the same axles and suspension and tires i plan on using works pretty darn good, but its time to build a new XJ.

also, how hard is it to put a transfercase behind a 2WD AW4 or AX15? asuming i already have the t-case and everything.

thanks
Jeff
 
my friend has a 4.0/ax15/atlas 4.3 in his YJ with 5.13 gears and 38.5 SXs in his YJ. he lives near Sacramento and has been on the Rubicon a number of times. He REALLY wants more gearing and is looking into swapping an 700r4 auto tranny to get it. sure his tires are larger than the 35s you're looking at, but he's got 4.3:1 in the t-case and 5.13s in the diffs...

check out my thread on the Sierra Chapter board about gearing, I say find an AW4 or get some sort of Klune or other means of major reduction.
 
Jes has 4.0/AX-15/4.3 Altas/4.56 and 33's, and wishes for more when we hit the extreme trails.

With a manual trans, the fun begins at about 85 to 1. Auto, you can get away with 65/70 to 1.

Trails like the 'Con you can lower the ratios a bit and be just fine. Heck I wheeled the 'Con for years with 3.73's, 31's, and Peugot tranny.

Places like JV and AZ are a whole 'nother ball of wax, though.

CRASH
 
thats what i was thinking...
back to looking for a XJ with an AW4

if i get a 2wd XJ with an AW4, will my aw4 out of my 90 work in a 91+?

thanks again,
Jeff
 
Last edited:
morenmoretoys said:
i'm thinking about building a new cherokee, the problem is that 91+ two door 4.0L autos are hard to come buy, i was curious how well a 5 speed would crawl.
the specs would be...
4.0L HO
AX-15 (at least i think that would be the tranny in a 91-95ish 4.0L)
NP231
D30/D44 with 4.88s and lockers
35" MT/Rs
6" with Longarms

has anyone ran a similar setup? how well does it work on trails such as the rubicon? my 1990 4.0L AW4 NP242 with the same axles and suspension and tires i plan on using works pretty darn good, but its time to build a new XJ.

also, how hard is it to put a transfercase behind a 2WD AW4 or AX15? asuming i already have the t-case and everything.

thanks
Jeff

The AX15 should work fine and it has a 3.83:1 ratio 1st gear. You could install the 4:1 Tera-Low kit in your TC instead of swapping in an Atlas if money's an issue. Since you already have 4.88 gears, that would give you a 75:1 crawl ratio which is pretty good (stock crawl ratio on an AX15 equipped XJ is 32:1 and it's only 27:1 if it has the AW4).
 
I ran the 'con with AX15, stock t-case and 4.10 gears with 33s and it was too fast, i kept riding the bumper of the guy in front of me. It did fairly well, but I wasn't very happy with my crawl speed. I swapped in NVG241 with 4:1 gears and went from 42.7:1 ratio to 62.8 and it made huge difference. I will be able to tell the difference next summer whan I run the Rubicon again, but so far I am very happy with this set-up. I might go with 4.56 or 4.88 gears once I go up to 35" tires though.
 
"Auto, you can get away with 65/70 to 1."

More spobi from the master? With a first range of 2.804 in the AW4 auto even with a 4:1 t-case & 5:13 gears you're only pushing 57.53:1 crawl ratio which is much more than needed for an auto to work well in the rocks although it's nice. Currantly I'm at 37.21:1 with my stock t-case & 4:88's which I feel is adequate, but would like more. Around 40:1 is a good place to be with an auto to keep it happy & not melt down the tranny in big rocks. Now the spobi master is right on with what's needed for a stick.

Matt
 
Okay here is some info for you that you may or may not like ;)

The AX15 is a Toyota transmission.
It is possible to stack Toyota t-cases behind it.
Add Toyota axles for pass. side drop.

You can get gearing as low as anyone would possibly want (below 200:1 is a waste IMHO)
This setup can be done for much less than an Atlas alone if you have some fab skills.
 
CRASH said:
Places like JV and AZ are a whole 'nother ball of wax, though.
CRASH

Yea I have the crappy 5sp, np231, 4.10 gears and 37s and it sucks. Swapping to 5.13 gears arent gonna cut it either, and Im not gonna throw a 4:1 in a NP231 $$$,and dont want to keep my tranny...

If I keep the 4.0L I should do a aw4 swap and get the atlas with 5:1 and later re-gear to 5.13s when I get 40s.

But really it wouldent be much more work to just toss a small bock in and get a turbo 350 tranny and an atlas... much more power, stronger...

Talk about coin..

It never ends.... :soapbox:

Realistically Ill probibly do the 5.13s for now and live with the tranny and case till one brakes. I wont have enough gearing but i wont be polishing any tirds.
 
OILBURNER said:
Okay here is some info for you that you may or may not like ;)

The AX15 is a Toyota transmission.
It is possible to stack Toyota t-cases behind it.
Add Toyota axles for pass. side drop.


WOW?!?! so how exactly do you plan to bolt this
0459.jpg


to this
D300Inst-18.jpg
 
You replace that rear section of the tranny (pic #2) with the housing from a Toyota. Marlin (as in Marlin Crawler) told me himself that he has done this with great success - just not 'Jeep' parts :anon:
 
OILBURNER said:
Okay here is some info for you that you may or may not like ;)

The AX15 is a Toyota transmission.
It is possible to stack Toyota t-cases behind it.
Add Toyota axles for pass. side drop.

You can get gearing as low as anyone would possibly want (below 200:1 is a waste IMHO)
This setup can be done for much less than an Atlas alone if you have some fab skills.
There was a thread awhile back to swap in a 4.14 first gear. Otherwise if you want a dual tcase, get a Klune with a Dana 300 behind it. You'll have more gearing than you'll ever know what to do with. 203 to 1!
 
currently running the Ax-15 with 4:56 gears and stock t-case on 35's. Too high! going with an unflipped 300 with 4:1 and 36's should help a lot. dave
 
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