Is it worth swapping the np231 for the np242

[Kejtar]

Again, *shrug*. Having grown up in 200 days of rain a year, I hear you on adjusting habits accordingly; sometimes I'm pretty convinced I'm the only one here who does it. Even in that environment, though, I still preferred my AWD vehicles to RWD/FWD ones in the wet for handling reasons. Folks can go either way on this, but I'm definitely in the AWD camp.

Not to be picky... but if you're in awd camp you should have gotten one of these:

as your jeep does not belong in the AWD category

 

[majic_tech]

I have and old 87 W/231 and I love the thing someone had replaced the console with and older one that had the select-track vacuum switch in it. I plumbed it to the front axle (never did find it to be shift on the fly in stock form as some users say) but now its true shift on the fly as long as the t/c or front axle is "switched on" first and your not spinning out already. so when I get to patchy stuff I stop and engage 4hi and use the "axle switch" accordingly. I might add If your going very fast at all and accidently flip the "switch" without first stopping and shifting the t/c theres gonna be carnage. So be weary of little kids that grab stuff or switch it while saying "whats this do"? But i use mine mostly for wheeling and winter fun in the snow.......also it allows low 2 he he he

 

[casm]

as your jeep does not belong in the AWD category

Heh, technically, it does in 4FT :laugh3:

Funny you mention the Sube - the AWD vehicles I was referring to earlier were actually Subarus, specifically a Brat and a Leone wagon. This XJ's my first 4x4 with an AWD-alike mode. If I wanted an AWD car, though, it'd have to be:

Interestingly, there was a lifted WRX in competition livery up at Gorman a couple of months ago. That thing was getting into and out of some pretty surprising places, all things considered.

 

[Kejtar]

Heh, technically, it does in 4FT :laugh3:

Actually technically an AWD vehicle is more sophisticated in the TC then a FT 4wd one.

 

[falcon556]

Not to be picky... but if you're in awd camp you should have gotten one of these: as your jeep does not belong in the AWD category

Heck no!!
If I have an XJ with a 242 I have everything when I want it.
I have PT for offroad, FT for when the ground is patchy, or it rains and it is too slippery for mediocre drivers like me (I promise to try harder), or even FT (AWD)
all the time just because I feel like and I can.

 

[majic_tech]

Heck no!!
If I have an XJ with a 242 I have everything when I want it.
I have PT for offroad, FT for when the ground is patchy, or it rains and it is too slippery for mediocre drivers like me (I promise to try harder), or even FT (AWD)
all the time just because I feel like and I can.

Ha Ha do you by any chance have a low part time? or low 2 for that matter? You awd guys should check out the awd protege transmissions on e bay 2 of em RARE RARE git em while ya can.....

 

[falcon556]

BTW I've owned a couple of soobs, CJ-7 and one AMC Eagle back in the 80s.
The little Eagle did one helluva job on and off road and I enjoyed the heck out of it.
Since the days when 4WD wasn't cool and had not been discovered by the masses and only outdoorsmen would be cought in one, I decided that it didn't make sense to have 4 tires but only two doing anything constructive.
I decided that it was even true in big cities like NYC where the plow pushes the snow to the side practically burying parked cars.

 

[falcon556]

Ha Ha do you by any chance have a low part time? or low 2 for that matter? You awd guys should check out the awd protege transmissions on e bay 2 of em RARE RARE git em while ya can.....

I do, don't use it much, last time I used it was to pull a couple of cars out of a ditch.

 

[casm]

BTW I've owned a couple of soobs, CJ-7 and one AMC Eagle back in the 80s.

You know, I forgot about the Eagle. Guess I've had three AWD cars, but that one doesn't count - I don't think I ever got the front axle to engage on it, so shot was the vacuum system.

 

[falcon556]

You know, I forgot about the Eagle. Guess I've had three AWD cars, but that one doesn't count - I don't think I ever got the front axle to engage on it, so shot was the vacuum system.

Sometimes the only way to engage the front axle was to get the RPMs up and then let go of the gas pedal to increase the vacuum.
I sold it when the tranny went bad, till then, I just loved it.

 

[casm]

Sometimes the only way to engage the front axle was to get the RPMs up and then let go of the gas pedal to increase the vacuum.
I sold it when the tranny went bad, till then, I just loved it.

Naw, this one had really rotten vacuum lines, connectors, and a wheezing vacuum motor. It was a last-legs vehicle.

 

[88XJ_FireFighter]

I meant lazy in the sense of wanting to put it into FT-4WD and then not shift into and out of 4WD as the conditions of the road dictate.

(Oh, by the way, I lived in Iowa for four years, too--the Des Moines area, Clive to be exact.)

Off Topic: I'm just 3 hours north of there. Getting pounded with a snow storm that come from you guys out west. Thanks...... On Topic:

 

[DenLip]

Not to bag on anyone, but if someone feels the need for FT for when it rains, they need to learn how to drive.

Nah. I know how to drive just fine. But I don't like going into "Granny Mode" at the first signs of wetness! I scared the hell out of a salesdroid on a test-drive of a Dakota once... it was damp... and the truck was just spinning like mad in 1st... or 2nd... and I was kinda in a hurry because traffic was coming....

I have regretted my decision for the 231 Tcase (my Jeep was ordered from the factory) from the first winter I drove it. It would be SO nice to "set it and forget it"... eliminating the guesswork in snow, adding "Subaru-like" traction in rain, sand/dirt patches, etc. Especially when hitting such a patch on a rough corner or odd slope.

Maybe in Sunny SoCal you don't run into these situations on the road.

 

[Kejtar]

Nah. I know how to drive just fine. But I don't like going into "Granny Mode" at the first signs of wetness! I scared the hell out of a salesdroid on a test-drive of a Dakota once... it was damp... and the truck was just spinning like mad in 1st... or 2nd... and I was kinda in a hurry because traffic was coming....

FT or AWD is not a license to drive fast in rainy conditions. I see too many people on the freeway thinking that cause they got awd or 4wd they can drive like nothing changed.

Maybe in Sunny SoCal you don't run into these situations on the road.

ummm sounds like you have not spent too much time in socal or haven't watched the news in recent years: mudslides resulting from too much rain, record rainfall levels, any of that ring a bell?

 

[falcon556]

I just replaced the 231 in my '96XJ with a 242 and I like it.
In fact I am starting to make plans to replace the 231 in my son's '99XJ.
I feel that I gave up nothing and gained a lot.

 

[falcon556]

I have a 242 TC on my bench right now. In FT if I turn the input shaft, both front and rear output shafts turn, if I prevent either one from turning the other continues turning.
In real life, you get all the traction you need for all kinds of weather in town.
For offroading, there are cases were the part time pays off.
The good thing about the 242 is that you loose nothing, you gain an option.
In rain you cannot use PT, in FT you cannot spin a tire.

Correction: When I prevent one shaft from turning, the other one speeds up,
just like the differential does to the wheels.