mnkyboy

Thing is the OP is asking about offroad use not pavement. For his purpose he should just leave the 231 in there,its a little stronger and can be upgraded if he wishes. I don't see the point in going to the 242 if he doesn't need the full time 4wd

Stock for stock the 231 is stronger,not by much but it is stronger. We have established that it would not be a strength upgrade question is does the OP plan to keep it stock and would he benefit from the full time 4wd on the road.

I guess it depends what you plan to do with your jeep. For offroad I would stick with the 231,stock its stronger built its much stronger and has aftermarket support,its also more common if you do need to replace it. If you use your jeep on wet or icy pavement alot then I would get a 242

How is buildable is the 242? I know there is tons you can do to the 231.

My 231 seems more trouble free,It shifts in and out flawlessly. I have to play with the 242 to get it to shift correctly. I think if you have a 231 and it works I wouldn't go out of my way to put in a 242.

I helped a guy put one on a zj,quality was good and it worked well. Its basically just a radius arm set up with only one y link

Its a trade off 242 has full time but the 231 is stronger. I have both but I prefer my 231

XJ was high pinion until 84-99. Only the 2000 and 2001 XJs are low pinion. All ZJs and TJs are low pinion, however. correct Juan would be correct if we were talking wranglers

His 89 d30 should be 3.55 so the carrier shouldn't accept the 4.10 gears

I have a 94 abs axle in mine and it works fine, you may have to use the 96 brake hoses though.

Just make sure its from an MJ or XJ I would also prefer the non cad

Only big difference between the 2.5l and 4.0l conversion is you will need a 4cyl trans and transfer case. If you already have an AX4 you should have 3.55s so finding a front axle will be easy,although if you decide to put on big tires you might want to regear.

My xj rides pretty good with the OME934's

Here is my XJ with OME934 coils,originally I had them in the MJ with 2" pucks for a 5" lift .

http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/cto/2118121595.html

I went to 3 yards today and found 2 MJs and a bunch of XJs

isnt the head porting different between the 97 head and 87 manifolds. That would make it gutless

The 88 was gutted inside,the 86 was pretty much intact and had a black bench seat. The 86 looked like it hadn't been there long,other then the front carrier being gone every thing else was pretty much there.

Pick and pull in sherwood is partially under water. I found what I was after but I had to swim to get it.

Vancouver pick and pull has a 86 v6 5spd 4x4 long box,body decent .its got a straight rear bumper.

Wife ran into her xj with her focus so today I'm out looking for focus parts and cam across some MJs. North portland pick and pull 88 4.0l 5spd 4x4 long bed,pretty much gutted. Trans,tcase and axles still there It has a non disco d30 w/3.55 and a decent looking eaz-lift tow bar. It also has an aftermarket sun roof

Make sure you head over to NAXJA and check out the nw chapter.

It suprises me how many owners of nice MJs have no interest in CC. The guy I got my axle from was driving a nice Eliminator pre runner with a ton of mods(no pics it was too dark),I tried talking to him about the club but he couldn't care less. I've ran into other MJ owners with the same additude. :nuts:

I wouldn't worry to much about it,the 2.5l is a tough engine. Besides the 2.5l isn't all that hard to find if you need to replace it,you can usually find someone doing a 4.0l swap and pick the engine up cheap or get one from the wrecking yard

I would disable the disconnect, that way as soon as you pull the lever it engages the four wheel drive and the second you put the lever down it will disengage. No more waiting for it,it will also make the system more reliable since all the vacuum crap will be gone.