The rear axle in my 92 XJ (Chrysler 8.25) is shot (bearings & brakes). The local junk yard has one with 90,000 miles out of a 99 XJ. Will it be a direct bol in swap?

 

Yup. As long as the gear ratios are the same. Auto trans had 3.55 gears and manual trans had 3.07 gears.

 

Gears are the same, 3:55

 

Slap her in!!

 

yep, plus its a 29-spline 8.25, better than your '92 27-spline 8.25

 

Are you done yet?

 

I believe I opened a can of worms! I jacked her up under the diff and placed my jack stands just in front of the front leaf spring mounts. As I was lowering the axle down, I noticed that it was dropping pretty far. The jack went all the way down and the axle was still sitting on it!!! Both rear shackles where rusted clean in half!

So, I got the axle out from under her and started trying to take what was left of the shackle loose from the body and guess what....the nut that is inside broke loose on both sides!!! I walked away from it before I got pissed.

Any advice on how to get these bolts out?

Thanks!

 

Take off the rear bumper and cut a hole in the sheet metal that covers the end of the "frame" rail. The nut will be right there.

To repair you could just put a nut in there or the better route is to weld the nut to the inside of the frame.

 

done yet...

 

Nope I need some shackles. Where is a good place to get stock shackles?

 

The part store!? I'm sure you can find them on craigslist cheap just look for someone selling "stock suspension" or you could run to the junkyard. I know Autozone sells "drop shackles" for $40 a set but they actually lift XJs up to 2", there are 2 holes but I'm not sure where the lower hole would put you.

 

And I'm not talking about those stupid glorified perf. strap with bolts type shackles, the sell actual shackles with bushings pressed in that are roughly the same design as stock. I normally don't advise going to autozone but they're the only place I know that has them.