OffRoadOhio.com

need to dump my dana 35 thinking about a 8.25 swap any ideas are welcome

Not a jeep guy myself, but if your going to upgrade the rear axle I would say you should go the ford 8.8 route. Lots more available and lots of aftermarket support now.

They game in all kinds of Ford Explorers and can be somewhat easy to find, and I'm pretty certain the leaf perches line up on some models.....I'm sure some one has a nice writeup on the net. Some ppl on this forum have done this swap also.

Best of luck. And if it happens, lets see some pics.

im pretty sure donnie put the 8.8 in hes white rusty yj and the leafs bolted up with a little persuasion.

and if you get the 8.8 from an exlpoder with the tow package they came stock with 4.10 gears and a limited slip diff.

perches are 5/8 inch narrower on the ford. but if you are still spring under, you can bolt on sid eup and then ratchet strap the other over to get it lined up. Some people say the slight pressure it adds to the bushings will wear it out faster but lets be real, we put those rubber leaf spring bushing through hell flexing them out in the woods. I doubt it has much effect.

If you cna get the ford spring plates you can simply bolt your shocks on aswell by using them in place of the stock ones.

Also is a factory ford driveshaft flange you can buy for like $30 to botl your existing dshaft in.

take a cordless sawzall with ya and just cut the driveshaft off above the flange, all u need to do is just swap ur driveshaft onto the 8.8 flange cause ujoints are the same and save ya 30 bucks, hope i explained it right

Certain year rangers came with the right size flange, but ford made 2 diff ones. I can find the thread on jeepforum if you decide thats what you want to do. Bolt that flange to the explorer axle, (or pocket it) save ya 30 bucks too