lil01cherokee

not sure if this is the right area to put this post but i have a few questions about ax 15 5 speed. i have a 1999 cherokee i picked up for 1000 with just over 100k its a 2 dr 5 speed just like ive wanted for awhile. problem is its 2wd now i knew this going into it so it wasnt a surprise to me. my questions are how i go about making it a 4x4 ax 15 now from what ive read you can take off the tail cone and replace the main shaft with the what im led to beileve is a shorter one for 4x4 and then use a 4x4 ax 15 tail cone. my questions are how hard as is and is it cost efficient or would i be better off buying an ax 15 thats already 4x4.
next i was wondering if the ax 15's out of the wranglers use the same bell housing and such or if you have to get an adapter. and if you can use a wrangler ax 15 what year does it have to be. if anyone could lead me in the right direction im trying to do this as much as possible on my own as possible but being an 18 year old Marine with not to much experience besides just lifting gearing and putting on yse's on my previous cherokee's and not much spare time, im not to knowledgeable about trannys and how hard they are to work on if hard at all. if you could help and send some links the 4x4 shaft i would need or if you have a ax 15 tranny your wanting to get rid of thats 4x4. im currently stationed in Southern California and am willing to drive a little ways but im moving to North carolina in may and if you are located over there and have parts i can give a down payment and then pay the rest when i pick up the tranny. looking for the tranny, np231 t case, and dana 30 front axle. or just advise on rebuilding the tranny into a 4x4 one. you can either post back on here or private message me if you have and of the parts i could use for this build. greatly appreciated. thanks austin

salad

Yeah the difference is the entire output shaft, you need to basically rebuild the entire transmission to do this. I have no idea if it's splined the whole length under that extension housing, so I don't know if it can be trimmed.

Generally it'd be simplest to grab another one, although they are in short supply since automatics are so common. Any AX-15 with external slave (94+) or NV3550 from any 4.0L will be a straight swap bolt-in swap. Same bell housing, etc. Good time to do your clutch of course

lil01cherokee

so any ax 15 out of a 94 or new wrangler or cherokee will fit, thats good news from what i had read i was led to believe they where vehical specific which didnt make sense to me because i didnt think they would have made a different mounting pattern from the wrangler 4.0 to cherokee hopefully that will make my search a little easier thanks again for the help!

TheJerm

I did the 2wd to 4x4 change with the ax15 and have rebuilt an AX15. Making a 2wd AX15 to a 4x4 is just too much money unless you have a junk 4x4 AX15 laying around. Changing the main shaft and rear housing is a whole trans rebuild because power for ever gear (but reverse?? or 5th?) goes through the main shaft. I still have my 2wd laying around for spare parts like shift forks/collars and gears. Rebuilding an ax15 is not hard if you have a stand up press to remove/install bearings and gears. I just followed step by step from the FSM and it tells you everything, just watch how you install the 1st/2nd gear shift collar cause i messed that up once and had to tear it down again (directional collar).

lil01cherokee

What year ax 15 did you use and what year did you put it in. Im trying to find out what possible year cherokees and what year wranglers i can look for that will bolt up.

salad

1994 - 2006

TheJerm

Rear of AX15's are different between cherokees and wranglers, wranglers clock the tcase down more due to using a front DS with only 2 ujoints, XJs have the double cardigan joint.

I forget what years were what cause i traded around a few AX15's with a buddy but all were external slaves (read up on novak adapters site about the various changes). The XJ AX15 would make love to the YJ floor pan under hard throttle. But any AX15 with bolt up to an AMC motor (4.2, 4.0, 318, 360, 401 but has to be AMC not dodge, chrylser or jeep), my DD AX15 was being a healthy amc 360 in a 79 J10 on 38's but i rebuilt it due to a worn input bearing