I try my best to not follow most of what anyone says....I'm the kind of guy who enjoys learning what works and what doesn't by trial and error, but if something doesn't work or does fail, I try sharing my own experience with others and hopefully they take it for thought. I have broke tons of things out on the trail, most times it sucks.

 

i bet it does, i hope i never break anything crazy on the trail, unless its an easy fix and or i got spares

 

So it sounds like whatever shaft you choose the u-joint is the weak link!

 

back on point... this thread turned into a custom ds vs stock front ds argument real quick..

I just installed a rugged ridge SYE on my XJ I have 5"s of lift and a D35... My front shaft did fit however it was at the end of its slip joint in the middle. I felt that this wasn't very safe because I could potentially pull the shaft a part if I wheeled hard and bounced around.

My fix was to get a shaft out of the front of a 97-98 4.0 Grand cherokee. The shaft is 1.5" longer give or take then a stock xj front shaft. Now I dont have to worry about my driveshaft pulling apart or worse, pulling on my rear diff and my transfercase.

Since you have a 8.25, the yoke is slightly closer to the transfer case, maybe a 1/2" or so. So you may be okay with using a front XJ shaft. The only way to figure it out is to install the SYE and see how the shaft fits.

Good luck to you.

 

here you can see the front XJ shaft vs the GC shaft, the GC shaft can be extended more the rubber boot is just pulling it back together a little



and here is the Xj front shaft on my SYE, way to extended for my comfort

 

Yeah that would be out of my comfort range. I think the GC one will put you right where you need to be.

 

yup, i already installed the SYE to the transfercase, all i need to do today is to lift the tcase back up and mount it up to the tranny. iv got the c8.25 & an AW4 so im sure the stock front will fit just fine...hopefully