OwenWS

Hey Jeepers,

I recently had my first serious issue with my 5 speed, I6, 87 Jeep Cherokee.
Driving on the highway I downshifted to 4th to drive up a hill and when I let the clutch go it basically felt like the gearbox was ripped out.

Hoping it was just the ring and pinion, I took the Jeep to a shop and found out that the entire rear axle needs to be replaced. I would be happy to discuss extent of damage if necessary, but it was pretty clear that replacing the small parts would be more expensive.

I currently have the standard 3.73 posi rear axle in my Jeep and was hoping to get some thoughts from people who have done this replacement/had similar issues in the past?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

xj-gp

Do what I did, go to the JY and pull an 8.8 with 3.73's and an lsd. Im trying to track down a front axle with 3.73's now because I'm geared 3.55. Want my axles? lol

Atmos

what exactly happened? your rear end just nuked? post pics please

OwenWS

hey xj-jp,

That may be a thought. Although the Jeep is all the way on the coast in NorCal..

Did you trade b/c of interest or damage?

OwenWS

No pics at the moment. Basically the differential "grenaded" and all that was left was the keeper pin. My worry though is, if the issue was caused by something other than the differential, further work would be needed after replacing the rear-axle.

Thinking back, the gears were bumping as they were engaged and would only bump less when a higher speed was reached. Does this sound like a differential issue? Or rather, would the bumping be caused by a transfer case issue?

xjsnake

The bumping was probably wear on the ring gear. Sounds similar to when my Dana 30 in the front grenaded