strandediniowa said:
Just could use any advice on this swap... 96 Cherokee country with a 231- wanting to switch to a 242- have a donor T-case and donor bezel/shift indicator...as long as both t-cases are 23 splines, will everything else hook up?
I did the swap in my 96 a few years ago and regret that I didn't do it earlier.
The 96 is the first year that the XJ transfer case went to the newer sealed output shaft.
It is possible that early 96s have the older style.
I used a case from a ZJ and everything worked great with one exception.
The FT green light doesn't work which is fine with me because WJ jeeps did away with it as unnecessary because it is a normal mode and no warning and annoying light is needed.
Originally I wanted to hook up the light but could not find how because the green light is wired through the transmission.
For a 96 XJ I would look for a 96-98 ZJ case because they are plenty of them around. Jeep put them in a lot of the more expensive ZJs and very few XJs.
For an XJ TC I would look for a 97-01. The 96 242 wiring is different, they are hard to find and at the time I had good reasons for not using a 96 242.
I can't remember what, but I think it had to do the wiring.
Whatever TC you buy, make sure that you get the electrical connector on the TC with enough wire on it to splice it to your system.
The shift lever attached to the TC is shorter on the 242 than the 231, so, you want the 242 to come with the little flat lever attached (most of the time it is, I have seen some that it was missing).
I also did the swap in my 99, another success story, my two XJs and WJ all have 242s and are in FT most of the winter and part of the summer.
