ok my 4 wd stoped workin ....long story short i find out my front axle is f ed upso i decide on going to the junkyard to get a used one,its cheaper then replacing the gears....only gonna cost 250..got a question....1.would tthat cause 4 wd not to work..when i shifted into 4 hi the truck would not move.....2 how do i find the ratio...an 3 do i have to get the same ratio if i am replaceing whole axle

There is a tag on your rear axle It has the Ratio or a group of numbers you can inter into dana's web sight to find out your gear ratio... The front will match this gear ratio .....yes your ratio must match your original or it will not work with your rear end

tell us more about your jeep and probably be able to figure pretty easy what your stock gears were.

Sorry did not answer your first question .....yes this could make the truck not move if those pieces of the spider gears bound up the ring and pinion......if your XJ is an auto probably has 3.55 gears

manual with L6, probably 3.07s.

on a scale of 1 to 10 how hard is this going to be to swap it out....10 being hard

well if its costing you about 250 bucks to get used gears, for about 540 bucks you can upgrade to 4.56's and it would be cheaper if you are running a 30/35. Now for your last question on a scale of 1 to 10 if you never done gears before it would prolly be an 11 haha i say that for one reason and one reason only you need to get the blacklash and everything done correctly or you will just burn up the gears. If you have done gears you wouldnt have asked the question but would still be about a 3-5 depending on skill level. I hope this helps.

im paying 250 for the whole front axle so how hard will the the whole front axle swap be

Oh a whole front axle swap, i am going to assume dana 30. and i would say thats a 2 on the scale very simple and doesnt take much thought it like 20 bolts and it will fall out.

its a 97 xj country with abs ...dana 35 rear an 30 front...hope that helps with gear ratio

Hi, It will probably take a few hours to switch the whole rear out, Maybe a 5 IMO so just take your time and try to spray PB Buster on every bolt/nut a few days before you start...Tj

Whole axle swap is fairly straight forward. As for ratio- you opened up your old axle already, so count the teeth on the ring gear and divide by number of teeth on the pinion gear=Your Ratio

thanks i thought as much...guess this is wht i get for paying 400 bucks fer it..heres my build thread https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f46/97-chop-top-40064/

ok..next qestion...when i go to the jy...whts the checklist of things to check....1 open diff cover to check gears..wht else

heres the numbers off of plate on front...52069197 ab....second line....3 557610672-7