Finally got my donor here and I'm taking it apart. Anyone know if the rear ends or transmissions are the same? The tag is still on the rear end on the four wheel drive but not the two wheel drive. Just want to know if I need to swap it all.

 

rear axles- yes
transmission- no

You need to make sure the axles has the same gearing however, which i think is what you may have been referring to. I'm not positive how to check the gearing without looking at the tab.

 

The trannys are the same its the tail housing on the tranny thats different but your best off just swapping the transmission

 

You cant changed the tail housing on these trannys because the 2wd are longer. No room for the transfercase

 

You're best bet is to just swap in a trans from a 4wd XJ. The previous posts are correct, the transmissions are the same, although the tail housings are different. the 2wd trans will not mate up to a transfer case. The tail housing on the 4wd trans is shorter than the 2wd and is what mates with the transfer case.

It is possible to swap the tail housings, but you'd need a donor 4wd trans to get the rear housing and the output shaft, and at that point, you have to pull your trans out and you'd basically be rebuilding the trans... so as said before, it's just easier to swap it out for a trans already meant for 4wd.

Also, make sure that if you're getting the trans and transfer case separately, that they will match up. The older trans' output shafts were 21 spline I believe, while the newer ones were 23 spline, same goes for the transfer cases. So, if you can get one already mated together, you're better off.

I completely a 2wd to 4wd conversion on my cherokee last winter, so if you have any other questions, feel free to ask man! It's really not that hard to do, especially if you have a donor 4wd XJ to grap all the little misc brackets and what not that you'll need.

GOOD LUCK!

 

Hey thanks man. Yeah I actually have the entire donor jeep. I'm pretty confident that the tranny is fine. It was a buddy's jeep. So tranny and tc are coming out together.