ZFinger

99' XJ 5-speed with a D35, blown pinion.

We are swapping in a 96' 8.25, and everything I've read says the driveshaft is 1" too long, but the u-joints are the same. Well they are not the same. The u-joint in the stock 99' shaft is much larger than what the 8.25 takes. What the hell is going on here?

And on a side not, the 96' 8.25 e-brake cable are different, so we had so swap over the cables from the 99' D35.

XJ-92

Definitely the same u joint.

ZFinger

Yokes are not the same. Can't be the same joint?

md21722

From the factory later Cherokees came with only 2 kinds of u-joints: 5-760X for the front axle shaft joints and 5-1310X for front and rear driveshaft u-joints. It could be that someone changed the yoke at some point.

ZFinger

This 99' is a bone stock, one-owner with 294k, dealer maintained for everything, right down to the wiper blades.

I'm thinking the yoke on the 8.25 we got from the 96' could have possibly been changed?

md21722

A stock yoke is around 3-3/16" between the tabs for a 5-1310X u-joint.

It looks like your 8.25 donor has a stock yoke and your D35 has something else.

ZFinger

This is the shaft out of the 99', which fits the D35 correctly, but not the 8.25

md21722

Right. Which means you have a 1330/1350 u-joint in that shaft. This is NOT stock.

1310 u-joints are stock and would measure 3.219.

ZFinger

So the shaft/yoke combo on the 99' isn't stock. That's pretty confusing, would the factory town package have called for a larger yoke and u-joints on the D35? Will a 1310 fit this shaft? I assume no. Looks like we need to find a 5-speed 8.25 shaft.

This has been such a clusterf*ck. Jeep came with a blown rear. A D35 with 3:07's was impossible to find. Finally find an 8.25 with 3:07's and its far from "bolts right in".

md21722

I missed where you had a 5-speed.

The factory lists it as a 1330 u-joint.

You can get a conversion u-joint 1310 to 1330.

For example, Spicer 5-134X

You could also change the yoke, get a different driveshaft, or have your existing driveshaft modified.

ZFinger

Problem solved with that conversion u-joint, thank you!

I'd still like to get to the bottom of this. Why did this 99' XJ AX-15 D35 have a rear driveshaft in it with a 1350 joint and yoke if XJ's only came with 1310's?

ZFinger

If the factory lists it as a 1330 joint, then it cannot be said that "they all take the same u-joint"