I have bought a wrecked 96 cherokee that the right front knuckle is broken on is it possilble to swap one from an 86. I already have the 86 but its a vacum disconnect. Not sure if there was any difference. Any help would be appreciated thanks.
the main difference I can think of right of hand is the brake caliper mounts. Your 96 stuff will not bolt up to the 86. The 86 has a bolt on caliper bracket, and the 96 is build into the knuckle. The caliper bolt spacing is also different. For what it's worth, the brake rotor from the 86 will not fit over the unit bearing of the 96 either- the newer one has a larger diamater surface- if that makes any sense.
if the gears are the same just swap the whole axle. it will take lots less time. your 96 won't have the vacuum disco setup so you can use a hand vacuum pump (i used the mityvac that i also use to bleed brakes and hydraulic line) to pull the axle into engaged and just leave it that way.
later if you feel like it you can get a vacuum switch that functions like a dpdt (but with vacuum instead of power) and set it up so you can switch the axle manually. I used one out of a quadratrac equipped FScherokee in the junkyard and about ten feet of vacuum line. cost about 12 bucks all up. or you could buy a posilock.
i just left it engaged for about a year and a half before i did the switch thing. I always told myself i'd replace it with the newer axleshafts when i broke it but i never did. I still have that xj but it is so cancerous that it just sees plow duty here now.
If the accident was hard enough to break the knuckle, then most likley it did some damage to the inner "C". Even though you may not see it. I know this from my axle. My inner "C" was bent upward and it wasn't found until the axle had the gears installed. That really sucked.
