XJ to MJ swap

My unibody is falling apart on my XJ and I was wondering how hard it would be to swap my axles and LCA setup into a Comanchee body. If possible I would use everything on the MJ but the axles and lift setup. I know the front axles are the same, but I want to do the swap becase I'll be putting gers and lockers into the axles soon (the unibody is cracking slowly) and the rear axle is a D44. The rear axle is my main worry, will I be able to just mount my shackles and leaves off my XJ onto the MJ?

You will have to move the spring pads in on the XJ axle (and underneath if you want to keep the MJ SUA configuration) Also would need shock mounts put on the front of the tube, or reuse the OEM MJ mounts.

The XJ leaves are bunch shorter than the MJ leaves...and the XJ shackles are as well.

MJ leafs in SOA give approx 5-7" lift.

what is the standard rear axle on mj's?

dana 35 on most

some came with the metric tonne packagw which came with teh dana 44

woody said:

You will have to move the spring pads in on the XJ axle (and underneath if you want to keep the MJ SUA configuration) Also would need shock mounts put on the front of the tube, or reuse the OEM MJ mounts.

The XJ leaves are bunch shorter than the MJ leaves...and the XJ shackles are as well.

MJ leafs in SOA give approx 5-7" lift.

Click to expand...

And if you want to go SOA the spring pads SHOULD be spaced a little wider. I know a guy that didn't space them wider and is getting away with it, but IMHO it is not the best way to go. Basically you have a diff with the right length axle tubes with brakes that require no mods and you just need to put mounts on it in the proper locations.

palmrose2 said:

And if you want to go SOA the spring pads SHOULD be spaced a little wider. I know a guy that didn't space them wider and is getting away with it, but IMHO it is not the best way to go. Basically you have a diff with the right length axle tubes with brakes that require no mods and you just need to put mounts on it in the proper locations.

Click to expand...

?????????????? the MJ is set up with about 3" narrower spring perch locations from the factory

What he was saying was to use a XJ axle in an MJ you must move the perches in to match the MJ spring width.

On my MJ i used a 96 isuzu D44 rear came with 4.27 gears and disc brakes an was 1/2" narrower than the stock axle. picked it up for 250.00