New cherry XJ for the kid

Got a '97 with a blown head gasket for about $600 the other day to replace a rusted out '00 the kid bent up on a trail. 17yo, Billy Badass, etc .


'97 has the 4.0 with a 8.25 rear. It's a 2WD, with zero rust (it was some lady's mall crawler, and garage kept).


The '00 was a straight up 4WD. Both are automatics.


At some point, he's gonna convert the 2WD to 4WD, but that's tomorrow's project. (Yes, I know - 'it's easier to just buy a 4WD.' I don't care - the body is cherry. It's as close to new as I'll ever find. Plus, if I didn't like wrenching, I'd have a Corolla.)


In the interim, what parts should be retained from the '00 for installation on the '97?


Anything that can be useful in the future for the 4WD conversion? I'm a YJ guy, and as such I'm not up to date with all the different model year differences - I can confuse the hell out of myself online, with each post offering conflicting advice.


Thanks fellas!

The old


The Wreck-J by pencilrunner, on Flickr


The new


Here! by pencilrunner, on Flickr

The obvious things that come to mind...
Transfer case/shifter/mounts
Front axle
Both drive shafts
Transmission (??)
Center Console
Cross member (??)





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Looks like the doors.

(Someone needed to say it...)

Keep everything that you have room for. The days of going to the U-Pull-It junkyard and finding 6-10 donors are long gone. These days I am lucky to find 2 or 3 at the most to scavenge for parts, and they get picked over really fast.

Tim_MN said:

Keep everything that you have room for. The days of going to the U-Pull-It junkyard and finding 6-10 donors are long gone. These days I am lucky to find 2 or 3 at the most to scavenge for parts, and they get picked over really fast.

Click to expand...

Same here. About the only thing original in my MJ is the body, most of the dash, and the xfer case; and I have a 242 on the bench waiting to get rebuilt and installed.



Have a look at https://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1053970. Rumor has it that the 1997 trans computer will work with the earlier transmissions in a 2000, so it seems likely that the opposite is true - that you can transplant the 2000 transmission and the 2000 trans computer into the 1997 without issue.