Thank you all for your input and advice guys! I love my XJ but I joined to really learn everything I could about my jeep and the stuff bolted to it! When I saw DANA I got excited and though oh I'm in great shape. But I'm definitely going to take yalls advice and get new axles to just gonna start saving! I'm a 17 year old senior in high school that works a Kroger so I'm not exactly floating in dough lol but I'm gonna have this jeep for awhile as an XJ is all I have ever driven and I'm very passionate about my jeep and I want everything to be "right" and reliable on it. But I don't know as much as I thought I did so I have a lot of leArning to do as my cherokee progresses through its life with me lol again thanks guys for all of the help and advice I now have direction for my first big project for it,

 

I was 17 when I bought my cherokee also. Now I'm 20 and have learned an unbelievable amount of info here on the forums. Just keep on jeepin on man!

 

Got my XJ when I was 17 as well, 21 now and love it and also a lot more than I'll ever need to know about Jeeps now. Have fun!

 

I have a 2000 with pretty much the same axle setup as your 2001, LP D30 up front and D35 rear. I also have ABS. I'm getting rid of all of it and putting a limited slip Ford 8.8 in the rear and a high pinion D30 out of a 4WD 2.5L XJ in the front. I'll be running 31s, so I need 4.10 gears. Fingers crossed, I think I've found both my axles in the correct ratio, so I won't have to regear. Like others have said, I just couldn't see sinking any money into either the D35 or the low pinion D30.

If you want a rear axle that will bolt right up, find yourself a Chrysler 8.25. I see quite a few of them in the junk yard. They can usually be had for less than $200. Keep in mind that if you have ABS, the 8.25 is not an ABS axle, so you'll lose that. I'm pulling the ABS out of mine altogether.

If you're up for more of a challenge, you can find Ford 8.8 axles all day long at the junk yards, again for less than $200, some of them limited slip. You would want the one out of the Explorer. It has the same bolt pattern as the XJ axles, so you can use your existing rims. Since it's a bit narrower than the stock axle, people often run spacers to even it out. It takes a bit more work to set it up for the XJ, but there are kits available to make it easier.

Although it's not entirely necessary, if you want to replace the front axle, you want a 1992 through 1999 XJ Dana 30. These are all high pinion. In 2000 they went to the low pinion axle, which is what you want to get rid of. Prior to 1992, the front D30 had a vacuum disconnect that is undesirable for several reasons. The 1995 to 1999 axles had better u-joints, so I would focus there if I were you.

One thing to keep in mind is that the 2.5L 4-cylinder XJs had 4.10 gears from the factory. They don't pop up often, but IF you can find a D30 and Chrysler 8.25 from a 4WD 2.5L, you might be able to run them for a while as a compromise if you find the expense of buying axles AND regearing to be daunting on a high schooler's budget. The 4.10 gears won't take you back to stock power/mileage, but they might be a decent compromise if you find the expense of doing it all at once overwhelming.

 

I'd swap the Dana 35 for a C8.25 and run it with the stock 3.55 gears. I do on 33s. The loss of power is not enough IMO to spend that much cash I don't have on new gears.

 

x2

 

X3.

I ran my d30 c8.25 for 8 years on and off road. The lp30 finally did break but that was after my xj was dedicated off road.

 

That really helps man thank you I will probably just do the 8.25 and see what the power and fuel mileage is with 3.55's in it but the loss of abs? Not that I'm a safety freak or anything but is it just 1 line that won't have anything to hook up too and it's an oh well kinda thing?

 

To be honest I haven't done the conversion yet, so I'm not entirely sure what the pitfalls are. My understanding (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) is that you can just run the same hydraulics, which causes your ABS light to come on since there's no tone ring on the axle. You can get around that by just pulling your ABS fuse. Your ABS motor just becomes dead weight.

My plan, however, is to remove the ABS motor and replace the lines with the non-ABS lines from a donor Jeep. I find them without ABS in the junk yard all the time, so I figure I'll just pull the lines out of one there and replace mine. I have to do more research before I can be sure of all this.

Personally, I won't miss the ABS at all. When I go to bigger tires, I doubt the stock brakes would be strong enough to lock them up anyway. But that's yet another upgrade on the horizon.

 

Im not sure how to read the tag but do you happen to know what gearing it is?

 

I ran quite a few years on my welded 35 that axle never failed me with 33s my rig is 90% trail rig. I ran stock 3.55 gears.

I later did a 8.25 when i decided to go 4.88 gears with grizzly front locker. I proceded to break about 8 inner 30 front shafts and one 27 spline 8.25.

8.25 was welded. Swapped a 29 spline carrier and shafts welded again.

Running chromoly front shafts and knock on wood havent broke one yet. I push 35s farly hard chaseing buggies in 40s