Hello, i own a 1993 jeep cherokee.
My front axle's coil spring support was rusted, but was still holding. I went off roading, and the axle's sway bar holding bracket got ripped off the axle. As the coil spring plate is attached to the swaybar's holding bracket and badly rusted... The part that supports the spring completly broke, but was retained by the tie-rod.
Here was the result.

I went to a machining shop, and had a part made to fit there. I did some measuring errors when designing the part, but i couldnt realize until it was welded in place. A local mechanics done the best he could to fit it, and it worked. But now my coil spring is slightly rubbing on the inner part of the frame wich causes some big noises an vibrations when taking bumps.

The coil spring support was rusted, but the shock absorber holding part is also rusted and may break easily (hopefully my shocks are busted so no force is really applied on suspension rebound). Rewelding and fitting new shocks mounts would be a lot of hassles and i'd rather change the axle to get a clear mind.

I'm considering an axle Swap or upgrade. If i decide to change the axle, i'd rather change both front and rear axles for new ones. I've been looking on the internet and the only brand new cherokee axle i found were for the rear. I suspect them to be Dana 30's (correct me if i'm wrong), as i don't have abs and i have the command-trac T.C.

Can i find whole aftermarket axle kits for front and rear ?? What would be the upgrades i could get ? What would you recommenc me to do and is ther anything else that must be changed when swaping axles ?

 

My 93's front axle did the same thing.....except i was doing 45mph when it let go

I didnt have the time to do the swap myself so i ended up paying my mechanic 700 bucks to put a new axle in thats out of a 98 and had less than 20k miles on it.

BTW: the Dana 30 is your front axle not your rear. Your rear could be a Dana 35 or a Chrysler 8.25"

If you have ABS brakes then your have the "turdy-five" if you don't have ABS then you most likely have the 8.25" axle.

I would suggest swapping in a junkyard Dana 30. If you want to upgrade and have some decent fab skills you could try swapping in a front Dana 44. For the rear you could upgrade to a Ford 8.8 out of an explorer but this also will require some fab work.

 

As i'm not doing some extreme rock crawling action... i may just replace it for a stock dana 30 for less problems. I may try to find a dana 30 in good shape that's not rusted. I use that vehicule everyday, and the spring rub i really bothering me. I'd change the shocks, but i know it would put more stress on the mountain plate, and probably brake it. Thats why i want a non-rusted axle.
Any how you knows the price of a new Dana 30 from chrysler ???

 

no clue on the new price but 3-500 in a JY up by me, pretty easy to swap it. if you get one of of a 96 plus it will have larger u-joints which will mean its stronger. stay 99 and below though cause 2000 gets low pinion which is weaker.

at 3-500 it might be cheaper to just pick up another cherokee with a decent axle and have a bunch of spares if you have a place to stash it. there seem to be quite a few cheap on craigslist. good luck

 

Check at the PnPs in your area. I can pick up an entire axle assy out here for around $100.00, and that would be the easiest fix, IMHO. BTW, I can tel you that your rear axle is an 8.25, and all XJs came with a D30 in the front. You will have to make sure that it is the same gear ration that you have currently. Other than that, it is a straight forward process. HTH!!