has anyone modified a 2-wheel drive to a 4?

What's involved in changing the shifter housing on the ax-15 transmission?

There has been a couple threads at least on here but I can tell you look up a member named Vetteboy. I know for sure he has. Honestly, it would be alot easier to just get a 4wd model though.

-b

I've done it, took about 2 days from start to finish with the help of . Like GirlScout1 said, there has been many threads. In order to do the swap you have to aquire a front differential, front driveshaft, transmission and transfercase as well as a rear driveshaft. As well as the transfercase shift linkage. It is all pretty much unbolt everything and bolt up the 4wd stuff. Not that bad of a job just time consuming. What i've told you is pretty much an outline of what you have to do, a search will yield a more clearer understanding of the swap.

4WD and Sport Utility magazine had an article outlining the swap a few years back...it was pretty much a bolt up deal. Maybe you could get a copy from their back issues department.........Hans

GirlScout1 said:

There has been a couple threads at least on here but I can tell you look up a member named Vetteboy. I know for sure he has. Honestly, it would be alot easier to just get a 4wd model though.

-b

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Wait...who are you? Do I know you from somewhere? I ain't been on here that long and I did the swap back in september of '03... :wierd: :laugh3:

Yes, I'm guilty as charged. Started with a 2WD, 5-speed, '94 XJ and made it 4wd.

You're asking specifically about changing the AX15 you've got...you mean the tailhousing, to make it mount up to a transfer case? Well, you need the whole new tailhousing, and also the mainshaft for the transmission. Provided you know how to service and rebuild a manual. You'll also need a 23-spline input transfer case with a medium-length input gear.

See, I didn't do that. I had a free Peugeot BA10/5 with transfer case sitting around, so I just used that at first. It worked great for the first 3000 miles and then the transmission exploded and the transfer case chain started dragging on the inside of the case. After one wheeling trip.

So I went and got a transmission and transfer case combo from the nice folks at www.mantrans.com for like $1450 or so, with a one year warranty, and it's been nice ever since.

If you go to jeepin.com and talk to a user there named Mudstuck, he actually went through the trouble of rebuilding an AX-5 to mate to a transfer case, and he might be able to tell you some more info about the shift rails and stuff. All I know from when I looked into it is that you need the tailhousing and mainshaft, and at the time I did the swap that was more than I wanted to deal with.

Barring that, the D30 is a direct bolt-in, as long as you find one with 3.07 gearing. The crossmember is in the exact spot, and you'll find a convenient hole under the carpet where the 4wd shifter linkage comes through. You'll need the correct linkage for your trans to make it work. This was by far the most annoying thing ever for me, because I didn't have the right one and the dealer couldn't order me the part, so I ended up going with the universal transfer case linkage from Novak Conversions. More info on that if you want it, BUT the factory stuff will bolt up and work fine if you have all of it.

The factory rear driveshaft will also be too short once you have a transfer case involved, so make a note of the fact that you'll need to address that. Also keep in mind that depending on what year transfer case you end up with, you might not have 4wd indicator lights. I don't and I don't care. My rig is such a clusterfawk now that as long as it goes into 4-lo and stays there it's fine by me.

For your own sake, find a front axle that's not a disconnect one, because that's one less thing you have to hook up.

Also, if you plan on doing a lift, do it now, because you might as well while everything else is out. I went from a stock 2wd to a 4wd with 3" rustys lift and 31s and it was like .02% more effort.

Anything else you can think of, just ask...again, the economics of the swap largely depend on what you can get the pieces for, how much effort you want to put into it, how much time you have, and also how much sentimental value your rig has. At this point I love the thing too damn much to get rid of it so I'm just about ready to do a 1ton fullwidth swap on it. Go figure. Here's it now, an innocent factory 2WD'er thrown into a life on the trail:



*Nevermind the trail welding, shit happens when you're having fun.

Lemme know what else you wanna know.

Yeah Vette you know of me i'm sure (I go by Bryans98xj on Jeepin) and I remember hearing and reading about your plight way back when you did yours.

-b

GirlScout1 said:

Yeah Vette you know of me i'm sure (I go by Bryans98xj on Jeepin) and I remember hearing and reading about your plight way back when you did yours.

-b

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Oh. Yeah.

:wave: