What kind of rear axle?

[Caspar]

What kind of rear axle is this?
89 short bed 4x4 4.0 automatic 

[neohic]

Are there any common swapped rear axles for Cherokees in Norway? What does the differential cover look

like?

[Caspar]

I think the cover is some custom parts. 
The axle look bigger than the 44 I have on my XJ

[neohic]

Looks to me like a Chrysler 8.25 diff cover from RT Offroad.

 

https://www.rtoffroad.com/825-hd-differential-cover-rear.html

 

 

I’d bet the axle is from a Liberty/KJ with the four little additional castings around the pinion yoke. Can you measure the axle tube diameter and overall width from outside of hub to hub?

 

[ThatJeepGuy]

That's a Chrysler 8.25 axle. Those 4 dimples are a simple enough give away.

 

Its not from a liberty though. They have disc brakes and the casted nubs we pointed out would be drilled and tapped for the upper Ylink they have.

 

The only dispelling XJ argument is even though those perches and shock mounts look correct for the xj application, it should have opposed shock mounts and not both mounts on the rear of the tube. The XJ application would be driver side rear of tube and passenger side front of tube (US driver/passenger)

 

Unless someone customized the setup, cut and re-welded or replaced and welded the passenger side to the rear for the MJ setup?

 

Unless its kind of an optical illusion the spring perches also look like they are just a tad crooked? Like they did in fact have an XJ axle put in the rear of an MJ but didn't move the leaf spring mounts and ran them as is with a bind.

[75sv1]

Wrangler???

[ThatJeepGuy]

On 2/2/2026 at 7:11 AM, 75sv1 said:

Wrangler???

Not likely. YJ's came with the dana 35. Maybe a d44 but definitely never a c8.25.

 

TJs were either a dana 35 or dana 44 again no c8.25. They also have coil mounts and control arm mounts and those axle tubes show absolutely no signs of those multiple brackets removed

[derf]

In the US, YJs only had the Dana 35.

 

Keep in mind that outside the US, there are likely variations from what was available here.

 

Definitely looks like an 8.25 though.  Could be that it came from something that would have had a different axle in the US.  Maybe a Grand Cherokee or something like that.

[pizzaman09]

10 hours ago, derf said:

In the US, YJs only had the Dana 35.

 

Keep in mind that outside the US, there are likely variations from what was available here.

 

Definitely looks like an 8.25 though.  Could be that it came from something that would have had a different axle in the US.  Maybe a Grand Cherokee or something like that.

Grand Cherokee's were disk brake all around and all Dana axles.

[GonzoTheGreat]

13 hours ago, pizzaman09 said:

Grand Cherokee's were disk brake all around and all Dana axles.

The european market was completely different. Check out this stick shift turbodiesel zj. Who knows what else was available. And this one definitely has drums in the rear.

 

@Caspar can we get a closer photo of the passenger side shock mount? It may just be an XJ c8.25 with a shock mount swapped.

 

I don't know why it would have the 4 stanchions by the pinion, but the KJ (which is called "Cherokee" in europe) may have overlapped some parts with later XJs

[mjeff87]

First year KJ's (2002) had rear drum 8.25's.  I know because I own one