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I am working on my 79 Wide Track Cherokee Chief. It am swapping transfer cases. It had a Quadratrac and I am going to a transfer case with a centered output. The jeep will have a 4" lift in the end. I was thinking of going to a centered rear diff that I have in a J10, but according to my measurement the J10 rear axle is about 4" wider than the current Wide Track axle under it. By rough measurement the axle out of the J10 seems to be about the same width as the front axle. I know I would need to move the spring perches on the J10 axle, not a big deal. Has anyone else run a rear J10 axle on a wide track Cherokee and did they have any issues? How did it look?

Also, I forgot to mention that I am going with a custom rear gas tank, so the fuel tank will not be in the way. And from the pics I looked at on my old Cheif, it looks like adding 2" per side on the rear axle width will actually improve the look.

Hi interesting .I put a j20 rear axle in a narrow track Cherokee with a rear mounted gas tank . I have a set of 1979 j20 axles if you need measurements. 1979 last year for offset rear

fsj454 wrote:Hi interesting .I put a j20 rear axle in a narrow track Cherokee with a rear mounted gas tank . I have a set of 1979 j20 axles if you need measurements. 1979 last year for offset rear

Thank you, but I have all the axles laying here to take measurement from. I am just curious if anyone has done the swap before.

The rear axle of a J10 is different because of the bed configuration. The front axle is close to the same. The J-trucks are in the small minority of vehicles that have a wider rear track than front - most cars are the reverse, with the front track slightly wider.

The Wagoneer body style is really too narrow for a "full sized" pickup. The main criterion is that a 4x8 sheet of plywood will lay flat in the bed, between the wheelhouses. Jeep made the Wagoneer platform work for a pickup by widening the rear track and fitting fender flares to accommodate the wider track while retaining the Wagoneer body lines. The Utility Trucks are even worse in this respect, with their front axles being the same width as the Utility Wagons, and the rear axle track being stretched to provide a "full sized" pickup bed.

I don't know if the J-truck axle will work. I expect the spring pads are in the wrong places. The truck body comes straight back from the cab - does the Wagoneer taper to the rear? I'd think that's the only way that the fenders could be narrower.

Plenty have done it. With a WT Chero the axle width is fine. You just need to move the spring perches. Gas tank clearance should be fine.

Stuka wrote:Plenty have done it. With a WT Chero the axle width is fine. You just need to move the spring perches. Gas tank clearance should be fine.

Thanks, that is exactly what I was after.

If it's too wide you can always use some wheels with more back spacing to tuck the rear tires in a little.

And if there's a problem with too much back spacing on the front, you can throw on a set of spacers with the side benefit of getting a little protection for the hubs that stick way out.

I just went through this. front axles is the same. J10 rear axle is a little wider overall and as said above the spring perches are wider.

The only thing you may lose is a little bit of turn radius but it should be negligible.