Ok guys the time has come to go one step bigger with my xj so I ordered a 4.5" lift, 33x10.50x15 bfgs, and 4.56 gears, and a spartan locker.

I have a 1999 xj, aw4, 242, 4.0

But my problem is I have a factor limited slip right now and in order to install the spartan locker I am in need of an open diff carrier to put the locker in, but finding one is proving to be hard, and expensive.

Calling around to the gear shops they are all asking $250 for a new one....not a chance

The local pick and pull has no xj's but lotsa other vehicles with the chrysler 8.25 (ie libertys, Dakota's, early rams, etc)

So my question is are the carriers in 8.25's out of other vehicles the same dimensions as I need? Are they gonna work in my axle. And are these axles 29 spline and not 27? I need 29 spline

Who knows I might "accidentally" total the gf's liberty this weekend if the carrier will work and take the discs while I'm at it haha

I would like to find one of these this weekend! I already got the bigger Dana 30 carrier for free

 

Good Questions, I'm just about at the same spot you are. LSD came stock in my 8.25, can't you just strip the spyders & "clutch" plates out to install the Spartan???

 

No.
The carriers are very different and therefore lunchbox lockers for them are different as well.

 

Yes the LSD carrier and an open nest are very different and a lunch box will not fit in an LSD carrier

But what about my original question? Are all or atleast most 8.25 open cArriers from other vehicles the same?

 

I have no idea whether or not they are the same but I promise there's at least 12 XJ's in my PaP and half of them have 8.25s with open carriers...

Go pull one at the yard. Hell, you can get an entire rear axle for 79 bucks.

 

Where r u located at? The junkyard at my area sell entire axle for 25 bucks

 

Drum to drum? Yeah,right!

It brings more than that for scrap metal.

LOL.

 

Maybe they're funding a drug addiction?

 

Oh yea! Entire axle for 25 bucks. That yard is only one I have ever seen that have the most cheapest prices.

 

When I bought my xj, it was in a front end collision, and then I went to that yard and got everything I needed for only 75 bucks.

Radiator, two fenders, hood, ac condenser, power steering pump and box, tranny cooler, cowl panel, header panel with grille, and the lights for 75 bucks.

 

So no one else on whether all Chrysler 8.25 carriers are the same?

 

What I would do is get a carrier from other vehicles and compare that to the one from xj.

 

I ll even try to put the carrier in the rear end of xj just to see if it fit

 

maybe compare part numbers for dakota rears...? pretty sure they are the same through different vehicles
this one is $160...my4by

 

Answered my own question today by doing some digging, and cross referencing of part numbers with my parts guy at work, and others may want to note this,

Dakota's and libertys that used the 8.25 had identical center sections of the diff using the same, bearings, ring and pinion, side gears, pin, and spider gears, so that's that...

AND at work we threw out a rear axle assembly out of a diesel grand Cherokee (wk) and these came with 8.25's as well but were different in how the axle shafts install and had hub bearings, but, the center sections again were identical part numbers, so I got a carrier for free =D

So to recap Dakota, liberty, and even wk 8.25's are the same center section as a xj

......and now I'm all researched out, out to the garage I go