Rudy

Well having no luck finding any info about the nuts and bolts of doing this swap(my search skills are less than stellar, coupled with the fact that all my searches have to be done on my iPhone), I decided not to let fear and common sense hold me back. I decided that the only way to get 'er done is to dive right in and start pulling wrenches.
Now before anyone has the chance to jump all over me about what i need and dont need, I think I'd best begin at the beginning. Last fall I came across what I thought was a great deal on an '88 xj and having never before driven, much less paid any attention to jeeps, I'm sure I don't have to tell you just how many surprises I discovered once I got into my new jeep and started driving her.
Working in a mine from sunup to sundown makes for lots of money but no time so I found a really good shop with an awesome mechanic to sort out all the problems. About 5k later I discovered what lots of you have known for years...this thing is awesome!!!
This spring I stumbled on another great deal. This time I found a "90 xj in amazing shape body wise but mechanically it's been rather badly neglected so I came up with the idea to transfer all the new parts from the old xj to the new one. About half way through swapping parts I decided that I wanted to swap the 5speed tranny from the "88 into the "90 which has an auto tranny.
The ultimate goal is to end up with both xj's in running condition so I'm not just doing a swap; I'm doing a double swap.
I started doing what I thought was the easiest job first and then progressing to the hardest ones. First thing I did was swap rear ends from one to the other and it never occurred to me to take pics but it was pretty straight forward, I hit a few snags but it was not too difficult. About half way through changing over the rear ends I had a heart attack so that slowed things down a bit but it's done now.
Next I took out both front ends and this is when I figured that its a good idea to do the tranny swap since I have tons of room to work on things with the front axles out of the way(again I forgot to take any pics)
So this is where I start taking pics of the process and telling you what I'm doing. I don't feel like getting into the heavy work today (heart attack was a month ago and Dr. just adjusted my meds yesterday) but there's a ton of other things that need to be done so I'm starting with the easy stuff.
All these little things have to be done anyway and there's not really any order to them so I'm starting with the inside of the cab by removing the gear shifters for both the transmission and transfer case

Rudy

Ok, the first thing you need to do is pry out the plates around the shifters: the first two pics are from the 5 speed. You just need to use a small pick or screwdriver and pry them up. The third pic is from the auto and again, you just have to pry them up. Next I'll take off the **** from the manual and the handle from the auto.
The manual **** usually has a nut just below the ****, just loosen that nut and you should be able to unscrew the ****.
The auto is a bit more difficult, you have to grab the "T" part of the handle and pull up really hard.
You might want to keep the more sensitive bits of your body out of the way when pulling the handle off. ( Noone will believe that you punched yourself in the face, or...so just be careful. ) an easy way to get the auto handle off is to get a 6 inch chunk of 2x4 and pry it off with a pry bar or big screwdriver.
The last two pics are the 5 speed **** and the auto "T" handle removed.
It's suppertime now and it's my job to dig potatoes, pick beans, carrots and peas. First veggies of the season from the garden.

Rudy

Next I'm taking the consoles out of both jeeps. In my case it's not really necessary because both of mine are identical but I want to remove the heater tube that blows into the back seat. I took the one out of my '88 and it's long gone so I'm going to take the tube from the '90 and put it back into the '88. I've removed the back seat from the '90, replaced the carpet with plywood and installed 2 doors over the seat/footwell area and now I have a semi-hidden place to put my tools. The back seat from the '90 also went into the '88.
Anyway, back to it. Once the consoles are removed, it's time to remove both shifters( tranny and tcase) make sure to put everything some place safe where you can keep the parts in order. As I'm doing this job I'm going to reinstall things whenever I can because I don't have much room to lay out parts. I'm doing this whole job in the driveway and with 2 clumsy dogs and 3 nosey cats things can disappear quickly only to be found after new parts have been bought and installed. Also, as I'm doing for this write up, make notes and take pics of everything as you do it. It'll help you immensely and who knows, maybe it'll help others more than mine does.
The center part of the console is held in with 2 screws, 1 on either side of the shifter and 2 under the console lid. The bottom part of the console is held in by 1 screw in the light holder for the tcase, 2 screws just in front of the ebrake handle and 2 more at the back inside of the console
So the consoles are out now and I'm taking out the shifters(still).
The manual shifter is held in with 3-10 mm bolts. Once you have the bolts out the shifter will lift straight up and out.

The auto shifter is a bit more involved. If you're following this to find out how an auto tranny is removed and reinstalled you can skip this part as it's not necessary to remove the shifter. I'm changing an auto to a manual so I need to move the shifter from the donor to the other vehicle.
First thing to do is disconnect the two cables from the shift lever. The one on the right is for the shifter lock and the left one is what puts the tranny into gear. You can just pry the connectors off the pins. Once you have the cables disconnected go ahead and remove the 4-13 mm bolts and pry up the shifter plate. Now you can unclip the cables from the bracket and you're done.
You will notice that there's a gasket between the shifter plate and the transmission hump. If you haven't damaged it too much you can stick it back with some rtv.
Now I've wandered into seriously unfamiliar territory. I've discovered that the shifter plate is attached to another cover that's screwed to the hump with 9 mm sheet metal screws so I'm gonna quit for today

NorCalJeep

want to do this when my transmission goes out. Thanks for showing us the procedure. DON'T OVER WORK YOURSELF

dpace7XJ

Nice writeup!! I'm due for a tranny soon, and this just might happen