I have a 1988 cherokee with a stick. I found out that someone had replaced my rear end with a 3.55 rear ratio, with my front diff still a 3.07. No wonder I was all over the road last winter!! My question is, will a front diff from a automatic cherokee(3.55) bolt in? the donor cherokee is a 1994 model??

 

I don't see why not. but then again i drive a 87.

Problems i forsee but don't know if it would affect it. Low pinion/high pinion or disco and non disco.

 

Any front axle from another XJ will bolt in

 

the front end from the 94 will swap over no problems and actually will be an " upgrade " since the 94 is a high pinion with non disconect.

 

looks like everyone nailed it, also your vac lines for the disco need to be disconnected up at the firewall. I just swapped from a 3.07 disco to a 3.55 non disco, it was all very straight forward and had no hold ups

 

^^ good info
vv more info

if your XJ has ABS and the donor one doesnt...you won't have ABS, the dash light will be on. I wouldjnt worry aobut it, maybe pull the bulb.

Keep in mind your front axle will be a '94 when hunting for service parts. I would really try to get the calipers from the 94 also, and of course the rotors. There at least 3 different caliper/rotor/hub combinations over the XJ production run...I found this out the hard way when I assumed there was only 2 ('99/'99.5) , turns out there is a 3rd (late 80's maybe?)

 

^ to build on that, You can swap the knuckles from the 88 onto the 94 to keep the same calipers, rotors and brake pads. Had to do this during a 4x4 conversion on my 95 with a cheap 88 front axle and its pretty easy to do.

 

good idea, and a great time to install brand new ball joints