The kit on carparts.com is junk. It uses blocks to raise the rear and will only fit the Dana 35 rear axle. I have the Chrysler 8.25, so it wouldn't work anyways for mine. Plus, read reviews on carparts.com. NOBODY has anything good to say about that site. I'll pay a bit more and have the product you order come with customer service. With the RC 3" kit that I got, you can upgrade the rear to full leaf packs later on if your rear starts to sag.

I'd just get this kit.

http://roughcountry.com/jeep_xj_3.html

That's the one I have and its done well for me so far. Like i said earlier, you can join jeepforum.com and get a 10% discount by PMing "Rough Country" on there.

31x10.50 tires will get you through just about anything a 3" lift will. No reason really to run bigger than that on that height.

PM me if you have any other questions, or i'll check back on this thread.

How exactly do you gasket match? Can you just get them from a stealership or what.

How do you fig out which rear axle you have?

I'll take a photo of my jeep in a minute to post up here to show how it sits currently.

OK so here is a view of the side of my car, drivers side rear tire and height, drivers side front tire and height, rear axle (not sure what the drippage is from, any thoughts?) and driver's side rear leafs. Both tires are about 4" from fender since it's hard to see in that compressed file size. Anyone see anything suspicious?

so the general rule of thumb for axle identification is abs or no abs.... no abs is usually the 8.25..

and for the gasket matching... any gasket will work (aftermarket or mopar) I've learned to stay away from victor reins for this job... they tend to be poorly cut.

That's the chrysler 8.25, you can recognize it from the sharp edges of the housing that don't match with the cover.

oh I see. What do the forum members prefer for rear axle type? One better than the other?

the 8.25 is a better rear. it is stronger than the turdy5. more splines on the axle. plus i was never really a fan of abs

oh well good for me :-). Is there a common trend with when the 8.25 was put into production? My jeep is a 96..

Is that oil/grease whatever is coming out of the rear diff in the photo a sign of concern?

bad picture but this is my rc 3", couldn't be happier.
also got a tc drop from rc and a steering stablizer