GM Axel swap?

I have an XJ whose transmission just died, and my friend has a Grand Cherokee whose rear end just blew on him. I want to put in a 350/t400 on mine, and my friend suggested possibly just purchasing a truck together where I take the motor/tranny and he takes the axels.

I've already done extensive research into the engine swap (I've been down for months, his just went down), what about swapping axels from a probably chevy truck or blazer into a Grand Cherokee? Plausable? Any problems we will definitely/likely run into? Has anyone done this? I've checked the forum but I can't find anything related to a GM axel at all, maybe I'm just a terrible searcher...

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

Any axle can go in any vehicle with the right amount of work.
As long as the drop matches the tcase drop, you can search all axle swaps for a Grand and they should apply. Shouldn't matter what axles.

what do you mean here by drop? The only T-case drop I know is lowering it instead of dealing with the drive shaft, but I get the feeling that that is not what you mean.

drop means which side of the vehicle the front D/S comes out on. Also, references to a side are always as your sitting in the drivers seat of a given vehicle. Left hand is drivers side, right hand is passengers side. Stock XJ's have a left hand drop.


Do the full GM drive line swap and give your friend your axles. Your either going to have to cut them down or run them full width, not to mention a 14 bolt would look really funny under a ZJ and probably hang up on everything, they hang quite low. If it's less than a 3/4 ton it should have the big 10 bolt in it. Not the best axle, and also not the worst. Should be good for a stockish ZJ. For the ZJ it would be cheaper to just buy a stock replacement. S10 axles have the wrong bolt pattern, and to the best of my knowledge you'd need some custom stuff to make it compatible with Jeep rims, and if it's a full size the cost of custom axles, cutting down, and welding bracketry onto it would be absurd.
Not much in the way of GM axles because of the pumpkin being on the right, while the Jeep (at least since the YJ) have left hand drops. So the front axles really arn't even an option unless your swapping eng/trans/t-case all at once.

Drop=side the pumpkin is on.

That is exactly what I needed to know. Thank you!

Edit: deleted, missed a comment above that answered everything :doh: