I will start off by saying that I have had seven Cherokees in the past 15 years. None of them have ever been built and I have always been able to maintain and work on them no problems. Six months ago I bought a 96XJ with a 4.7 stroker motor. It has a 5 1/2 inch long alarm lift, SYE custom driveshaft. It came with the Ford 9 inch LSD 4:10 gears in the rear end. Disc brake conversion kit everything already done to it. Stock front end 33 inch tires. We are our first snowfall and I was excited to go play. I noticed right away when I got in the 4 x 4 that everything was off. Feels jumpy in grabby I can accelerate and you can hear it and feel it pulling really hard I let off the throttle and it kicks me sideways. This leads me to believe my gear ratio is off but I really don’t have any clue. Any help would be very grateful.

 

If the front axle is stock then it does not have the same gear ratio as the 4:10 rear. Factory gear ratios(with a 4.0L) are 3.07 for manual transmission and 3:55 for automatic.

That is a huge problem and you should not put it in 4hi or 4lo until the axles match

 

IIRC 3.07:1 was standard ratio for stick shifts and 3.54:1 for automatics.

3.07, 3.54, 3.70, 4.10 and 4.56 were all factory available options.

I recommend checking both ends to know for sure what you've got.