Front Drive Shaft differences - Manual vs Auto

[Liketosmash]

Ran into an issue installing a front driveshaft on my Comanche last night.    A bit of history, the 1987 Comanche started as a 2wd and I converted it over to 4wd using a 1988 donor Cherokee.  The donor Cherokee was missing the front driveshaft but I found one from a 1989 Cherokee and figured problem solved.  Went to install the front driveshaft last night and ....  its too long.  I have now learned that the front driveshaft on an automatic Cherokee is longer than the driveshaft on a manual Cherokee.  

 

So I'm in search of a front driveshaft for a manual transmission Cherokee or I might get it cut down when I get the rear driveshaft cut down. 

 

As I have run into so many small differences on the various years just checking in here to see if there are any other driveshaft variances I need to look out for.  Is the manual front driveshaft the same for all manual transmissions or are there several options?

 

Quick specs on what I have:

 

1987 Comanche

1988 Cherokee 

4.0L engine  from 1988 Cherokee

BA10 manual 5 speed transmission from 88 Cherokee

1989 Cherokee front driveshaft

[derf]

I can't say for sure but it seems like there are a lot of Ba10 specific things.  A driveshaft may be one of those things.

 

Driveshafts are easy to shorten.  It may be cheap to just take the shaft to a shop and have them do that for you and balance it again.  That is, if there's a shop anywhere near you that can do it.

[87MJTIM]

An auto trans (AW4) is longer by about 1" than a BA10 and AX15.  The front drive shaft for an auto is longer than a manual trans DS.