just a thought

[Fordmandan87]

for all of u guys that are putting money into the whole solid axle swap thing i was wondering if you could theoreticly put a solid jeep cherokee front axle on the front. to my knowlagethe track widths are close enough. i was also thinkin that with the front axle being a full time axle the whole thing with going outside to lock the manual hubs in order to attain 4wd would be eliminated. also seing as the two axles are dana 35' you could swap your gears from axle to axle without a problem. and finally the bolt pattern is the same on both axles so no new wheels would be necessary please leave me feed back

 

[sn0border88]

yes, you can do it, it has already been done. Widths are close, BP are the same, gears wont interchange, and the full time 4wd system with vacuum disconnect wont work with your explorer without a bit of work as far as I know. Plus real men get out and lock their hubs, its not a problem.

And its a fairly weak axle, IMO its dumb to use a d30, just get a 44.

 

[Fordmandan87]

i am not saying getting out to lock the hubs is a bad thing i personally dont mind it but it gets harder to do so when ur in bumper high whatever

 

[Fordmandan87]

how much wider is the grand cherokee?

 

[sn0border88]

probably the same, maybe an inch or so difference.

 

[Fordmandan87]

then again this idea is for those who cant afford to go balls to the wall with a fullsize axle swap. is there anybody with pic of a cherokee axle on an explorer?

 

[410Fortune]

search

Dana 30 and dana 35's have been done btoh with leafs, coils and long arm Jeep kits

James Marcy recently posted a thread on here where he and his son put a dana 30 under a BII using leaf springs, great article

The problem with putting a Jeep axle under a Gen I explorer is this:
a early bronco solid axle will almost BOLT IN to your truck, keeping the steering box, coil buckets, shock mounts, etc The EB axle can be done over a weekend easily

HVAC man had a dana 30 under the front of his Explorer sport with coils for a bit
There are others
Search around a bit

 

[Fordmandan87]

thnx 410

 

[sn0border88]

the axle you use wont really make a difference in price, its what you decide to put into the swap.