'98 TJ with the AX15 5spd, so yes.


I appreciate that bit of insight and I'll definitely look into that. As stated before, my truck is my daily driver, so the high-risk behavior is kept at a relative minimum. The most stress I put on the drivetrain on a regular basis is accelerating onto the Long Island Expressway or Northern State Parkway.

Basically I'm trying to build it into something that's still fine for daily driving, but can go off-highway on occasion. For my year, the D44 was an option for the rear, but the D30 was the only option for the front-end (I think). For about two years now I wished that whomever originally purchased it got that option, would've saved me some of the headaches I'm going through now.

I have a 98 TJ as well except half the truck is not TJ any more.
Do you have anti lock brakes? If you do it will make your axle swap options much harder.
If you are not planning on a locker your rig will be much less capable off road but much less likely to break te rear end (on the other hand you'll end up using more throttle to get over stuff which will break other things).
If you are very lucky maybe you could find a direct swap D44 from a wrecked or rebuilt TJ. If not the 8.8 is a popular and reasonably priced option that should be fine for 33s. A lot of the expense in any swap is having axle brackets welded on the tube so if you have a buddy with a good welder it becomes cheaper.
One mistake I made was dumping money into the D35 I had which I ultimately broke, but on the other hand my Jeep evolved from a mildly built daily driver to a hard core trial rig that gets trailered everywhere.

Keep in mind if you do snap an axle shaft in the 35 (the most likely break) the whole wheel and axle shaft will walk out of the tube and there's no good way on the trail to fix it. Some people carry spare shafts but you have to open the diff up (draining all the fluid) and hope you can get the broken stub out.

I do not have ABS brakes, but lately in this snow I kinda wish I did. I would like some lockers, on the rear to start, then maybe on the front later on. I was looking into some mechanical lockers designed more towards street usage than off-highway. I'm actually starting to think that the 33s would be a bad idea, and sticking with the 31s I have now, but upgrade my drivetrain, brakes, and such.

My crazy Mustang buddy and I were planning on hopping up my truck, but now since he's stationed in New Orleans (he's in the USCG) it probably won't happen. He's a great mechanic. We've done work like headers and my suspension lift together, and does all the work on his Mustang . I know he WANTS to do more work on the truck too. Fortunately I've gotten a lot of great ideas and words of advice so far from everybody, so I'll make sure I do this right.

For what you'll be doing the only brake upgrade is probably putting disks in the rear. I ran 33s on stock brakes no problem. On 36s I'm still on the stock MC, just with brakes from a 70s K5 Blazer up front (on the D44) and from a older explorer on the rear.
With the in line 6 you're fine. You really don't need to try to pull more horsepower out of it. I would focus on keeping the crawl ratio right. If you really will be sticking with 31s I would put a terra low in the transfer case, which brings your crawl ratio down only in 4 low. You won't have to re gear and with little or no lift you won't need a new rear driveshaft and CV kit.