my jeep has the 8.25 on it. its a 98 sport. it has some sort of locker installed. well to make a long story short i was leaving work today and went to take a corner and bam i wasn't moving anymore. got out... drive shaft still spinning. threw it in 4wd and pulled back into the lot. the shaft spins freely when in 2wd even when the trucks off but when in 4wd and its off i can roll the jeep by turning the driveshaft by hand but once its on and running only the front tires are pulling it. popped the little diff. filler tab out and theres all sorts of metal shavings in the fluid. just trying to narrow what all could be messed up and figure if theres a way i can drive it home with just front wheel drive... not really trying to pay for a tow on top of everything. any help is apperiated... i'm sort on cash at the moment.

 

Cross pin or spiders could be done for.

 

Open it up and take a pic.

 

guess i'm just going to have to open it up and see... any advice as to a way to drive it home in 2wd (probably a dumb question)? maybe pull the drive shaft? or is just going to cause more damage?

 

maybe my freshly installed cherokeeforum.com stickers where just to much for it to handle

 

any advice if i need new gears what to upgrade to? i'm running 32's possibly upgrading to 33s

 

If you have an AW4:
4.10 for 32
4.56 for 33

Manual:
3.73 for 32
4.10 for 33

Let's see what you find before you start spending any money.
Fair enough?

 

should there be spiders or a crosspin with a locker? sorry for the random posts i'm ask asking questions as i gather info. this is all new to me but i've got a guy with an open carrier with 3.55 gears and he also has a posi carrier with a ring gear that i can possibly buy off him. just trying to weigh my options. pic will be posted upon opening my halloween present just to see what kind of locker or welded gears or timebomb the previous owner left me.

 

If it's a lunchbox locker...No.

Full case locker...Yes.

I'd suspect a stripped pinion or ring gear.

You cannot replace just the ring gear. You must replace both the ring and pinion.

 

Another question.... its probably a dumb one but I'
m a noob please forgive me haha. I found a 8.25 from a 96 cherokee. Would that be a direct swap for mine? I'm thinking I could pull the damaged one swap this one in temporarily and rebuild the damaged one.

 

It may be a 27 spline axle.

 

Ya, it'll bolt in, but keep in mind that in 96 the 8.25 switched from 27 spline to 29 spline. So, you might be getting a weaker axle. If you're going to rebuild the original axle and you've never set up ring and pinion gears, just be aware that it's a complicated process and requires specialty tools.

^^^ Ooops, too slow i guess...

 

Yes it is a direct swap as long as the gears are the same. If your '98 had a stock rear it likely had the factory LSD. If you can drive it in 2wd and your rear diff doesn't sound like something awful, you should be ok driving it slowly home. If you can pickup that '96 8.25 for a good price it would be easier and cheaper just to swap the axle out.

 

Pull the rear ds and you can drive it home in 4wd without doing more damage. Pop off the cover when you get home.

I cant remember if the 98 will spill fluiid from the xfer case after you take the ds out, but to solve that just stuff a rag in the tail cone of the xfer case.

Swap the other axle in, its a bit weaker but will get you by no problems while you rebuild the other.

Also, i have a stock ring gear and pinion gear for a 29 spline 8.25 if you wanted to buy them=D 3.55

 

thanks for the help guys. got it home today by pulling the rear ds out and crawling home. pics will be following the packer game when i pull the diff cover off. quick question is there a reason why it will only turn the tires in part time and lo 4wd?