I have a 97 grand cherokee limited and will be wanting to replace the stock front drive shaft that has a cv joint in it. My question is can i just swap a XJ's drive shaft rite in??? and are there any other weak points in the drive line of the zj's ???

 

you can, as long as they are the same length both extended and compressed.
but it's only about 100 bux to rebuild the cv with new u-joints and center ball kit.

 

i replaced my cv shaft and it cost 65$ took about 30 mins. only problem you might have if you swap to xj axles is the wheel speed sensor ring for the abs. i dont know about your jeep but mines got them

 

is there any advantage to swapping to xj axles? and what did you do to swap yours to a ujoint style instead of the cv joint?

 

i didnt do the swap i just stock with the cv shafts. i think u joints are stronger and dont break as offten because theres no rubber boot. once the cv shaft boot breaks youll have to replace it or rebuild it.

 

They can be re-booted. I got mine done for about $30, without removal. I took it out and reinstalled myself.

 

I just did this... Just go get the half shafts. It is super easy to do. Mine were $49.95 (after core return) a piece. The only thing that was hard was I had to rent a 36mm drive head for the axle.

 

you guys are all talking about axle shafts.
i assumed by the original post, he was talking drive shafts.

 

i was actually talking about the drive shaft at first... i was not aware of the front cv joints on the axles till it was brought up in the post.. so whats the best solution for the front axle cv joints?

 

How did u do it?

 

Just u joint everything! the shafts swap right in and most I6 zjs came with u joint shafts and the tone rings are correct on those also the cv ds is crap get a double cardan one instead

 

I have a 99 wj

 

IIRC the front shafts are the same but im not sure

 

Sorry, I think you misread my post. What I meant was that it was $30 to get the boots replaced without having to pay someone for removal.

You will have to remove them if you need to do them. I just don't like paying for someone else to do something I can easily do myself.