Full Size Jeep Network

I agree and loosing 500# off the front end has to help the overall equation.

Fascinating swap idea. Really curious to hear how this goes. If you end up with hp/tq numbers at 5000' that fall between I6 and V8 at *sea level*, it seems to me you'd be easily in the ballpark. I had no idea a tiny little diesel stood any chance of motivating one of these heavy dinosaurs.

On a side note there is a guy in Europe that is running a ALH TDI in Cessna 172 @ 180HP so these little motors have a lot of potential.

There are a few Comanches and XJs running around with a turbo Jetta 1.9L from Canada in them..

I just picked up the rest of the drive train components from CA. a 242 TC and a Dana 30 and 35 from a Grand Cherokee so I can start the mock up in the near future......as soon as funding recovers from the holidays!
The 4BT in the '68 highboy performed flawlessly on the trip to CA.and bacl had a load of landscaping boulders on the trip there 9,900 GVW and the drive train on the way home,hit 30-40mph headwinds from Needles to Mojave over 200 miles was making 70-75 the whole way 28psi boost 2,050rpm's with 1,150* egt's needed to downshift into direct to top some of the grades at 65mph
The 4BT is ~200hp/400tf-lbs if the TDI is the same as the 4TB it's135hp/300ft-lbs should do what we need it to do.........I can't wait to find out!
I will post pics of what i have soon...
Merry Christmas and happy New Year to Y'all from N. AZ.

Nice to hear that it is moving forward. I think you will be happy with the 242. Mine was very versatile and trouble free.

Here are pics of what I have so far a dana 30/35 combo from a 98 Grand Cherokee it was a 5200# GVWR vehicle.
The np 242 was from it as well and the NSG-370 is from a 05 Wrangler the trans/TC combo doesn't weigh any more then the turbo 400 did.
The TDI is from a '01 Golf it has the ETDI pump but will be replaced with a mechanical VE pump from a Cummins 4BT with the 11mm head from the ETDI VE,I will put the 12mm head on the ETDI pump and sell it the ECU and harness to one of the TDI racers....hopefully for enough to cover the connecting rods I need to live under the torque it will be producing.
the Dana 30 WMS distance is ~2" narrower than the front under it now but the king pin spacing is within ~1/2" and the frame width and inner fenders seem to be OK I "think" I'll be better off with it in the long run plan to find a set of later Jeep 17" takeoffs to run on it.
I'm hopping to fit 285-70-17's under it to get my highway rpm's to 2,100 @ 75mph but I 'think" I could live with as high as 2300 if needed.

It looks like i didn't do something incorrectly with the pics Black smiths and computers don't mix

Interested why you are going with such light duty axles? Swapping in 70's FSJ axles would be way easier. Especially since the spring mounts would all line up (GC axles have coil buckets, no spring perches), the rear would already be offset to clear the fuel tank, and would be significantly stronger than that D30/35 setup.

And I especially would not run 33's on that D35 unless you don't value your life much. They don't hold up under TJ's with 31's, much less something that is far heavier with larger tires.

But I like your project, curious to see how it works out. I just strongly advise against using those axles.

Thanks Stuka for the input I got the axles with the 242 the deal was take all for the same price so i did,I'm leaning towards D-44's now as I don't think I can easily source gears I will need to get my final drive ratio where I need it for the TDI ~2,000/2,100@ 75mph so I'll BOLO for a parts truck.Hitting the bone yard tomorrow in Flagstaff the high temp in Flag should be in the upper 20's.....Fun..Fun..Fun!

At this stage of the game VERY little is set in stone so input from different points of view can only make the finished product better

It's easy to become myopic on a project so I'm counting on Y'all to keep me from straying too far into the weeds.

If you have SUA front already, the '74 to '79 Wagoneer or Cherokee D44 axles "should" bolt in. People have swapped out the '69-'73 D30 front with those. Which wheels will you run?


The Grand Cherokees with V8 came with D35 rear till '99 and Mopar 5.2L V8 so they aren't that weak. They're just not wide enough to work on road in an FSJ. TJs had the smaller wheel bearing and really low gearing which makes the pinion gear weaker too. I have over 130,000 miles on a used D35 in my Comanche running 2500lb+ loads of gravel and parts with 33" tires. Too much input power to load ratio is what kills them.

On the motor with NSG 370? The extra low first gear is nice, but the reverse gear is higher than first in the other Jeep std trans? That would suck if you get stuck.

http://www.wranglerforum.com/f210/ax-5- ... ost1013063

The NV242 has 23 spline input but NP242 is 21 spline (same as the one in my Comanche) and there are 2 different input gear lengths as well. They are only LH drop too unless you find the oddball Humvee one.

You would need '80+ axles for RH drop. There's an '82 Wag LTD parts rig abandoned at my place (along with 3 other cars) that a so-called friend dumped over a year ago and the county is going to haul away as soon as it thaws up there.

My ex son in law has a XJ crawler on 35's that he flogs the crap out of and the 30/35 has held up surprisingly well that was why i even thought about using the ones I have. But I want this rig to operate flawlessly.

Depending what the D30 came from, it could be high or low pinion too. The FSJ D30 fronts were only low pinion and RH drop.

I have a d30 in the front of the xj I bought to hold me over till my FSJ build is done. It is on 35's. I think that is a bit optimistic and will move it back to 33's when the tires wear out . If I remember correctly, uou are not going to wheel it hard.


Not sure if it is wide enough, but what about a corporate rear axle off a liberty or xj? The Libery one's should have disk brakes. I think it would live behind 33's.

It'll never get wheeled hard by us and they came out of a 5,200# GVWR grand cherokee the rear discs were one of the attractive things about them.
My highboy is the one that gets the harder use...but it needs a D-60 in front to reach it's full potential,that is on the shopping list as well.

The D30 up front isn't so much the issue, its the D35 in back. C-clip axle with really thin tubes. 5,200GVWR is a thousand pounds under what the majority of wagoneers were. My '75 Cherokee was 6400lbs GVWR, and weighed in at just over 5000lbs when I had it weighed. That was just with me in it.

My '67 is 5,000# and curb weight with the 327/TH400 is 4,150#

I remember one other important thing the 242 is drivers drop so that throws a wrench in the works for using stock a full size front axle.

eggman918 wrote:I remember one other important thing the 242 is drivers drop so that throws a wrench in the works for using stock a full size front axle.

So you use an 80+ front axle (driver drop), and a 74-79 rear axle (from a manual trans Waggy/cherokee NT).

Or if you are ditching the stock fuel tank anyway, you can go with a front and rear axle from an 80+.

Note that 80-85ish rear axles are M23s, and dont have as many ratios available as the D44. 86ish to 91 use a D44 rear.

Thank you, do you know if the factory tank is galvanized ?

I am actually not sure. 80+ is a poly tank. 79 and older are steel. My 75's didn't have any rust on it, but then I live on the west coast.