- Location
- Rainy side of Washington
Sorry ehall, pretty sure you are wrong, there is going to be angular velocity change as a ujoint turns, fortunately an open diff makes up for it somewhat.
Also the inner shaft will only plunge in and out of the differential if the center point of the ujoint trunnion is not properly aligned with the axis of the balljoints. If it is, there is zero side to side motion and zero plunge, if it isn't, there will be both. Factory axles are set up properly with either no offset or very very little. This, by the way, is the reason spacers and 99.5+ unit bearings are required to do a WJ knuckle swap.
OP - I would leave it in RWD and get snow tires. I never used to think snows were all that big a deal until I bought some. Even a set of bargain basement firestone winterforces with studs for like 350 bucks on tirerack.com are a huge, huge improvement. I went from being able to do crazy donuts in 4x4 in my stock XJ to having so much traction I could barely break loose and just lazily went in circles. I had to put it back in RWD to have any fun.
Also the inner shaft will only plunge in and out of the differential if the center point of the ujoint trunnion is not properly aligned with the axis of the balljoints. If it is, there is zero side to side motion and zero plunge, if it isn't, there will be both. Factory axles are set up properly with either no offset or very very little. This, by the way, is the reason spacers and 99.5+ unit bearings are required to do a WJ knuckle swap.
OP - I would leave it in RWD and get snow tires. I never used to think snows were all that big a deal until I bought some. Even a set of bargain basement firestone winterforces with studs for like 350 bucks on tirerack.com are a huge, huge improvement. I went from being able to do crazy donuts in 4x4 in my stock XJ to having so much traction I could barely break loose and just lazily went in circles. I had to put it back in RWD to have any fun.
