Almost one year ago, I purchased an 1986 cherokee (2.8L) from an old man who bought the jeep brand new. I found the jeep via craigs list and thought it was a steal for $1000 with 89k miles on it. Well, to say the least this was before i really knew anything about jeeps and thought itd be fun to take wheeling. Since buying the jeep Ive done tons of upgrades that can easily be transfered to a different jeep cherokee.

But today reality has sunk in, that its maybe time to give up on this particular jeep. Today I realized that I have a serious problem with the front drive shaft. Due to the shorter distance between the front axle and transfer case with a 6.5" lift, I need to buy a tim woods driveshaft for extreme driveshaft angles. I priced one of these axles out for around $600 with shipping that will only be necessary with this jeep .

I'm pretty sure I can find a whole newer jeep with the more reliable 4.0L for around $1000 and Im my own mechanic so no cost to swap everything over.

let me know what your thoughts are before I buy another wrong model.

 

no sir. I'm pretty sure you can snag a v8 zj front driveshaft because its longer. search it!
not positive it will work on the 86 I havent researched it. but its worth looking into yeah?
90-99 are the best ones man I say you should 86 the 86
well, actually 95-99 are arguably the best years. but 90-99 will work great

 

Sweet thanks, I'll be sure to post pics of the transformation from the 86 to the 91-99

 

Don't give up on it, man...I'm sure you can figure something out. If nothing else, you may be able to have a driveshaft shop to build you one.

 

A v8 zj front shaft is longer than a xj front shaft. Confirmed. (I don't have the pic on my phone otherwise ide post it as there both sitting next to each other on my bedroom floor lol)

 

That is correct. However that's not the problem. The angle that this driveshaft needs to be at to stretch from the tc to the front axle is not acceptable. This is due to the short distance btw the tc and front axle cuz of the POS 2.8l v6. Thanks for the info tho. I just picked up a sweet 1991 xj laredo thats gonna work perfect !!!!!!!!!