Axle swap

J

jeeppowermj

NAXJA Forum User

Location

York, Pennsylvania

• Mar 16, 2005

• #1

I was doing a little mild offroading and I broke the ujoint in the drivers side axleshaft that I just put in. It was my first ujoint I ever did so I was surpried it lasted this long. Is there any reason I couldnt go to the junkyard and grab a 88 Cherokee inner axleshaft, ujoint, and outer axleshaft? Is there any differences that I would need to worry about? I can get this stuff for free so cost isnt a worry. Thanks in advance.

 

E

explorer

NAXJA Forum User

Location

rosemount,mn

• Mar 16, 2005

• #2

"mild offroading", huh. Yeah right.

Anyway, you didn't say what year you have, but anything from 84-up XJ is interchangeable. The joint size changed, and some have tone rings for ABS, but they will all interchange.

 

Lawn Cher'

NAXJA Forum User

Location

Westampton, NJ

• Mar 16, 2005

• #3

You have a disconnect D30, right? The shafts from a '95 YJ use 297 joints, which are stronger than the 260 joints in your current shafts. Or you could just collect a whole heap o' spares, complete with bearing units so you only have to remove the 3 bolts instead of the stub shaft nut. Everything should interchange as long as it is a disconnect D30, XJ, MJ, YJ. And actually, on the driver side they are the same regardless of disco or not.

 

J

jeeppowermj

NAXJA Forum User

Location

York, Pennsylvania

• Mar 16, 2005

• #4

My bad, heres some more info. Its a 88 Comanche w/ a D30 front axle. It didnt break, two of the caps fell off.(like i said, 1st time doing a ujoint) Im pretty sure that "boogered" up my axle shafts.

 

E

explorer

NAXJA Forum User

Location

rosemount,mn

• Mar 16, 2005

• #5

Sorry I forgot to point out the diconnect feature. The disconnect side obviously would need a disconnect style, but otherwise, all is interchangeable between like housings.

 

BrettM

NAXJA Forum User

Location

michifornia

• Mar 16, 2005

• #6

did you install the c-clips on the caps properly? I tack weld my caps to the shafts, but usually "mild" offroading won't eject the caps if they're installed right

the driver's side shafts are all the same, so get one with the larger 297x or 760x joint. they are much stronger. to get a disconnect shaft with those larger joints you need one from a 95 YJ wrangler.

 

J

jeeppowermj

NAXJA Forum User

Location

York, Pennsylvania

• Mar 16, 2005

• #7

No, I didn't install it right. Is there a write up that has some good instructions on how to do it. I've seen the jeepin.com writeup and I have a haynes manual but other than that I can't seem to find DETAILED instructions. Also I only have access to older cherokees(84-90) and no YJ's at all so stronger joints from them are out of the question. Again, thanks for the help.

 

J

jeeppowermj

NAXJA Forum User

Location

York, Pennsylvania

• Mar 17, 2005

• #8

My dad sells cars at a jeep dealership and one of the mechanics told him that it has to be the same transfer case and the same gear ratio. Is this true? I wouldnt see why any of that would matter.

 

E

explorer

NAXJA Forum User

Location

rosemount,mn

• Mar 17, 2005

• #9

Untrue, and you might want to make a mental note not to use that mechanic.

The gearing has nothing to do with what shafts it has, and the only influence the t-case would have is that some early selectrac models used c/v axleshafts.