I just looked at the price of a hub conversion for my 99 and it took my breath away. Can I swap the axles, gears Ad hubs out of a Dana 30 on a YJ?

What are you hoping to gain with this? The YJ uses a center axle disconnect and has the same kind of hubs as the XJ.

That would be nothing but a downgrade, you would get the small u joint axles and a two piece CAD axle on the passenger side and the hubs are the same. In fact a common upgrade for YJ owners is to put 97+ XJ shafts in.

This YJ has manual locking hubs. By swapping the hubs I would be able to stop driving the front gear when in 2h with hopefully a small improvement in gas mileage. I'm just not a big fan of self locking hubs.

The hubs on your XJ are not self locking. They are fixed. No locking or unlocking.

When you are in 2Hi the engine is not driving the front driveshaft/axle/tires.

The cost and effort to swap to manual hubs is not worth it in a stock axled XJ

YJs didn't come with manual hubs so If that one has locking hubs then it's had a conversion kit done, if it is cheap it would be a good deal since the conversion kit costs $1500.

Don’t the tires drive the axles, spinn the differential and front drive shaft when the hubs are engaged? This vehicle will be flat towed behind my Class A so just another reason I don’t want to turn anymore driveline components than I have to.

Yes, and it doesn't hurt anything, just put the transfer case in neutral and the transmission in park or in gear if manual to flat tow.

Yes, manual hubs will prevent all but the wheel from turning. Otherwise the axles turn, along with the diff and drive shaft. if you have the stock disconnect, if you disconnect it will still turn axles, and driverside will turn the diff, but the drive shaft wont spin. Manual hubs will save wear, good idea for much flat towing.

I have them, but I dont tow, but the hubs are turned to off except for wheeling.

Heck if you swap axles, put a D40 in there! 🤔

Yeah I’m still figuring out what I am going to do with this new 2 me XJ. It’s a 99 4door 4.0 auto with 127K on the clock. It will be my new DD, current DD is a 99 2.5 5spd that I bought with a blown head gasket. Its a GA vehicle, very clean with no rust except for the deer mod I did to it last year. Now it has a rebuilt motor, green grille and hood. Will swap my tow bar over at a minimum so I can drag it behind the Class A..

The po threw in a bunch of new parts, hi flow cat, CA kit, large bore throttle body, exhaust, rear springs and a header.

I'd sell that hub kit and spend the money on other stuff.

dang. you xj is a 5 speed four cylinder? i had one once and that was a great truck. they are so hard to find but i wish i still had one like that. it got way better mileage then our current xj and was still fun to drive.


i did find a 94 zj with five speed for sale but it already has 300k miles on it so no point in looking at that. i would rather have a four cylinder standard trans xj

I get around 20-22 mpg, being 2WD helps alot. It will go up for sale after I get the new 2 me one sorted out. The wife is frowning on the fact that my vehicle collection seems to be reproducing on its own.