xj steering shaft question

i have a question about the xj steering shaft. This is not for my xj. A buddy of mine is doing rwd typhoon drag truck (gmc jimmy/s10 blazer for those of you who don't know what a typhoon is). Anyway he has a busch style 4.3 in it now and needs a xj steering shaft to clear his alternator. He was told that a he needed a 97. But after talking to him more about it i found out he is looking for xj steering shaft with a the small u joint in it. I was under the impression that the 4.0 steering shafts were all the same from 97-01. I know some of the eariler xj's had gm column's in them. My guess was that he was probably looking for a 4 cylinder 2 wheel drive steering shaft then if they were infact different. I don't truthfully know though.

So anybody know?

:doh: What is the question? If you want to know if all the shafts are the same go to an auto parts website and crossreference the part numbers. I don't mean to bash, but this is not quite OE tech. You should try off-topic or maybe your local chapter.

i'm not asking if all our the same. I'm trying to find out which one has the smallest unjoint in it. I don't think that its off topic because its referring to a stock xj part. And since the column's were gm column's in the early xj's and then later changed. I'm trying to narrow down which one would be needed. also a parts store wouldn't really help because it would just give me part numbers and a generic picture and i would still have to guess at that point to see what would be correct as they don't give any info to the size joint in the steering shaft.

I haven't had any luck with search the forums either.

I haven't looked closely, but I thought the U-joints were about the same size. The tops differ, and they aren't interchangeable, but the bottoms will fit any year steering box. The later ones differ in that they can retract without damage, where the GM type retract only on impact and can't be telescoped without damage. As far as I've seen, the 97-01 are the same. So if someone told him he needed a 97, they probably meant "the later type."

If in doubt, I'd say go to a junkyard and see if you can simply look at some.

edit to add: I did not mean to imply that the bottom of one shaft can fit the top of another. The shafts themselves are different.