I think it's time to lose the 242, and go with the 231, I have a 1994, what years will work with this jeep as far as the connections/sensors etc? The 242 I have now has the long tailcone, will the shorter tailcones from the newer ones bolt in? I'm planning on doing a sye and the 4:1 gear reduction anyway.

I know I'll have to have the shifter gate and bezel, what else?

 

The 96 and newer have the sealed rear output but they will work with your 94 driveshafts. I swapped from a 242 to a 231 and all I had to do was change the shift bezel and splice the wires on connector for the part time light to come on, the np242 shift gate works fine with my np231.

 

will the 96+ be easier to do a sye on? Granted I'm still goin to tear it down when I get it, rebuild it, with the stronger chain and the 4:1 low range. Would the hack and taps perform just as good as the internal ones, or should I go ahead and get an internal one since I'll have it torn down anyway?

 

I've found them online for a decent price, but what would my setup be being a 94 with the aw4? short or long input, 23 spline input?

 

The Hack n Tap works fine but if your tearing it down to begin with then it would make more sense to get the full SYE kit. Also you may want do some research on the 4:1 low range kits, I have heard of many people having failures with those.

 

I think the 4:1 kits aren't available any more. They had too many problems and discontinued them.

A TJ Rubicon 241OR would work. A JK transfer case doesn't have a speed sensor so that's not a good choice.

 

I think I may have found a cheaper route for a sye, get the rubicon express hack and tap sye kit thats 200, junkyard front shaft, and get the $40 spicer u joint flange that will fit the sye kit. maybe $300 in the whole thing. I just need to call RE tomorrow and see what the bolt hole diameter of the flange on their kit is.

 

The Iron Rock off-road kit is a better deal.

 

How weak is the 242, or is it? I've been reading and reading, Getting conflicting answers everywhere. People say they break easy, people say they're strong. Is it worth dumping the $ into it doing a rebuild with sye and a hd chain? I like the thought of having awd, but here in south arkansas we very rarely get snow, and the only other time I may use it is if I get on a sloppy dirt backroad right after it rains.

 

The 242 and 231 are similar in strength the main reason I swapped mine out was I didn't like how the 242 takes some time to get in and out of 4x4 where as the 231 will shift as soon as you pull the lever.

 

I have read that the 231 is a little better for thrashing around out there. Operative word being read.
I want to do the reverse. Go from a 231 to a 242. But my XJ is just a DD and think it would be better
for the reason I own a Jeep these days. Get around when it snows.

 

Mare you referring to their hack and tap or the whole shaft kit?

 

The full shaft kit is $450 and the hnt with bearing cap and jig/bit and tap is about 220 or so

 

I was referring to the hack n tap. The RE kit has come down in price, last time I checked it was close to $200, the advantage to the IRO one is you can use a factory front driveshaft, you have to use a custom driveshaft with the RE kit since the flange is different.

 

I was reading the instructions and it said to cut the shaft 33.75" from the center of the diff flange, but that would put the cut only 1/2" or so into the oem tailcone, So if the tailcone gets removed, and the short seal flange is there, I dont know if there's gonna be enough of the yoke of the sye to engage the seal. I wonder if the sye kit can be used just as a tap kit instead of a hack and tap. Just tap the existing end of the output shaft and use the tailcone.