Thoughts on first Jeep

Hi all, i am new to the 'jeep' world, my first 4by was an 85 s10 that went around 300k with one clutch blowup in between before i had to hold the stick to keep it in gear. I am soon purchasing an '88(i think) xj 4 door with a tranny that won't stick in first, other gears ok, but rig runs fine otherwise(gonna cost me 200$). I have also sourced out a rebuilt puegot with 20k on it from a wrecked yj for 300$. don't know if i should buy the tranny for an imminent swap until i can afford to do more, or just watch the wreckers for an appropriate tran-tcase combo.
i am just happy to have my wifes blessing, i just have to expose my kids to the world of wheeling.....:yap:

I have never owned a puegot, but from what I hear you should stay completely away from it. You could replace the tranny with an AW4 (auto). It is a much more reliable transmission and you should get a longer life out of it. The only diffrence is you will have 3.07 gears from the manual and the auto 4.0 usually has 3.55 stock gears.

Find an ax-15 from a mid 89 or newer xj and it should be bolt in i think

if you want to keep the stick you could look at an AX15, I am not sure what all is required to swap them. If anything you will need an adapter for the trans to tcase.

in all honesty. keep the fluid full and change it periodicaly and don't abuse the puke-goat totally (Like powershifting up a 14% grade) and it'll last you for a while. Neither the AX-15 or BA-10/5 are heavy duty transmissions and doing stupid stuff with any transmission will kill it. The AX-15 is just a wee bit more stout than the BA-10/5. The AW-4 is one of the best auto trans's Ive ever seen in action and you can get a setup from BrettM on this board that turns your AW-4 into a electronically shifted stickshift. Its a pretty cool setup.

I had my ba10/5 re-built no problems yet....... Problems usually occur at the worst time and for that reason I'd save and research the newer NV3550 or go with the big dog NV4500, probably last longer than the Jeep itself.

thanks for the input, i'll start off with fresh fluid and be gentle. i can get the auto/tcase and bell and tconverter for about 200 or 250 at the wrecker
(kinda like driving stick tho)