- Location
- Rainy side of Washington
X2, the torque converter gives you a decent amount of help.Automatics are a lot more forgiving, generally unless it's geared low with low transfer case gearing I prefer automatics off road, especially in rocks. On the street I prefer manuals.
Both of my current Jeeps have automatics.
I'm a little confused, how did you find a donor with an AX15 and 4.10s? Far as I know 4.10s only came with the AX5 and the 4cyl motor. Someone must have swapped them in afterwards, or a wacky dealer option? Was it a modified vehicle or bone stock?
Either way, I am quite jealous, that's the kind of donor I've been looking for for quite a while.
d30 shafts will swap lp to hp just fine but you may have to use different unit bearings (i.e. the ones off the donor), or swap the brake rotors and/or calipers as well as the axle. If you upgrade the 8.25 to 29 spline in the future, you have to swap carriers, loaded carriers (swap your ring gear over onto the new carrier, but leave the side/spider gears inside it), and shafts. Fortunately the 8.25 is a side adjuster axle instead of using carrier bearing shims, and the pinion will already be at the right depth, so you just have to set backlash and carrier bearing preload back to the right values.