mosbos

I just became the proud new owner of a free 89 Cherokee Laredo 4dr free through a convoluted family car exchange. The body is amazingly straight, the interior is even in good shape. The 4.0 six is weak and of course the automatic tranny is sketchy. I want to turn it into a serious off road toy. I am contemplating 34" to 36" tires, a lot of lift and more serious power. I own a truck service and repair business, think KW and Pete and such and would like to have diesel power and use the jeep for pseudo advertising. Any experience out there with putting a Dodge Cummins with an auto trans in a Cherokee? It looks like it ought to fit. How sturdy are the stock front and rear axles? The Cummins has a ton more torque, will it just tear the axles and drive line apart? Any thoughts?

Oh, yeah, I am a very experienced businessman and pretty much a bonehead as a technician so I will be paying my techs to do the work as side jobs. All that to say, don't get to technical, I just need to know if the idea works and then will have the guys with the brainpower get the tech info.