Has Anyone installed an Atlas 2 in there Cherokee?

I was wondering about the Atlas 2. It sounds like the king of t-cases. Just wondering how it bolts up? and what kind of changes need to be done. How about the shifters? Can it still look good and work good? My Cherokee is a 98 with the 4.0L and the AW-4 Auto Trans.

When you buy them, you can specify your make and model and they will set it up to fit your application... When it comes to a HD TC like that, looks don't matter..

I saw a pic today of Cable shifters for the Atlas 2 and it fit in the factory location, didn't have to do any cuting inside, it looked real sharp. would look good in a xj.

I just finished installing Atlas 2 (4.3), replacing a broke NP242.
The people at Advanced Adaptors were very helpful, shipped with everything needed including a 1" spacer I needed, I had to enlarge the hole where the original shifter was as instructed in the instrution manual to make room for shifters (2 of them) and modified the boot. I am not a mechanic did evrything myself except I needed help to lift it in place to bolt it on.

a couple of quick notes. my rig is a 91 so i think the floor area is different,slightly. with my aw4 i needed the 1" spacer (or you can cut off the tail shaft a bit) because the tranny tail shaft is longer. this slid the whole unit back an inch, after i cut up the floor for the shifters so at this point i cannot put the stock units back in. there is just a big chunk of floor missing. you may need to wack the tunnel out with a bfh a bit depending on how you want to clock the unit up. they shift a bit rough at first,be prepared, they can/will get stuck in neutral when first breaking in, plan your shifts!
but they will shift if you are in neutral and can put the tranny into park, not how atlas recomends but it does work. the twin stick is nice, you can run rear low or front only low, great for drag pivots around trees/rocks. upgrade the front shaft to the larger one when you order, go for the strength. i didn't catch where you are from. i run the 3.8:1 unit with my aw4 and 4:56 gears/35"tires. it is really nice when crawling in the rocks but on the faster trails the low is a bit too low. desert season is coming up and i am sure the sand and if we had gumbo mud here ,the low will dig down . you may find yourself in 4 hi more often if your trails are open. if i had it to do again i think i might have run the stak ,or the new 4 speed atlas so there is a hi-med-lo. mind you no real complaints about the gearing playing in the hammers or stair steps but on the more open trails, forget staying in low. and when new, slapping two sticks in and out of lo-hi can be a challenge. but these are just my experiences, and i'm not the smootest guy out there. that said i really like the atlas and am glad i picked one up. oh ya, and at over a 100lbs it was a bit of a bear to install

I'm from Saskatchewan Canada. Thanks for the info, really helpful. Well I hope to eventually run Dana 60's front and rear, full width. with the Atlas 2 and Chrome Moly driveshafts. I drive my jeep hard and overkill is not a bad thing.

sounds like a great plan! when i started to reply it didn't show your location as i was typping, now i can see it! (plus you mentioned it!) i know a bunch of the hard core guys here run the high nines and other modified ford 9" diffs because they are lighter than the 60's and you can get some pretty stout axels for them. my d44 and 30 are holding up with the alloy usa axels and 35"s (knock on my wooden head). good luck on the atlas although you could build up a 4:1 hd 231 case. i couldn't becuase i had the 242 and the mod to that case body made it weak, a few guys here have done the 231 mod and had good results. just another choice

yes, I have heard good things about the 9" and the Dana 44, I know a guy here that is currently puting in a full width 44 in the front and a 9" in the rear. They are good diffs, I haven't worked with them to much, I have worked with the Dana 60's a fair bit and they are very good for running 40's from what I'm told. I'd like to run 35's on the street and 40's with bead locks for stricktly trail. I have 33's rite now with factory open diffs and I go places that other guys with lockers and stuff go. I've been lucky by not breaking things so far. surprised the Jeep keeps on working. The Atlas is gear to gear, rather than chain, and it has the option of front wheels only. always thaought that was the cats meow.

Google Thread diving... I know this is an old thread. but I am planning my atlas install..

Any chance anyone can tell me how much drive-shaft modification is going to happen going to the 2speed ATLAS?

And any one put one on a AX-15?

Thanks to anyone who can be of assistance..:wave:

I installed one in my 88. I had to clearance the floor on the driver’s side with a BFH. The stock hole for the shifter had to be enlarged, and then I built a box to cover the hole. The Atlas Cherokee shifters did not work for me at all. I cut them and welded to fit. I gave up trying to find a spot for the cable shifter for the planetary and went with the electric shifter.
The guys at Advance Adapter were very helpful and shipped the odds and ends I need quickly

Cool, Thanks man! I am gearing up for some custom shifting linkage, the Atlas I got came with a YJ Shift Kit, So some Cussing timization is going to happen for sure on that. And my floor isn't stock anyway so clearance might not be an issue.

How much of a difference did the case make for the drive shafts? did you have to get new on both front and rear?

I did not install the Atlas II, but the Atlas 4speed. In my case the tranny was moved 4" forward which allowed me to do this. But if it was the stock position, it would bolt to the back of the tranny no problem. It will shift a little stiff at first, but I am finding that it shifts easier all the time. I did not like the linkage supplied, so I modified it and came out clean. One thing I did not like about the supplied linkage was it was really designed for a TJ or YJ. It was just too tall. Second, it just was not console friendly. I like my interior clean. So I modified the linkage. Here is a pic of what I ended up with for a shifter.



I made this from some 2X4X3/16" tubing left over from my cross member. I used the lower part of the shifter levers AA supplied and welded new levers on them so they were straight and side by side where they came up through the floor instead of forward and back. There is a shoulder bolt and teflon washers inside it so the shifter levers will not bind. I welded a piece of the flange from the old tcase shifter to the outside to bolt it to the floor with.



This is what I ended up with for shift rails. As you can see there is some off set there. I used some parts supplied by AA and some scrap steel.



Here is the finished installation with both shifters. You would not have the rear shifter. But you would end up with a shifter in the forward position regardless of whether you had a 2 or 4 speed.



Another thing I did was use a parking brake from Parts Mike since I will be changing axles this winter and did not want to have the hassle of adapting parking brake cables.