Liberty rear axle for '98 xj?

Today's objective is:
To gain rear disc brakes and TracLoc by removing the 8.25 from my XJ and installing a Liberty 8.25 (with correct ratio, of course).

The question today is:
Will the Liberty 8.25 bolt onto the XJ's leafs?  
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Honest Dave sez "Ayup, dat's her plate numbah!"

It will not. The Liberty does not have leaf springs.

I would also be concerned about the width, make sure to check that before you do anything.

A better option in my mind would be a Dana 44 with disks.  
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So it's not a Jeep... sue me... it's still faster!

Questions? Comments? Concerns? PM Me!

For sure.. If your gonna replace , replace with something stronger.  i would go with a dana 44.  

Thanks for the suggestion.

It might help if I explain this project a bit more.  We shuttle nurses through seriously-active gang-crime areas to health facilities through deep snow and over sand-pit roads along coastal areas.  I know, for most people that would seem like an unlikely combination, but there we are!  We use "generic-looking older" vehicles to avoid drawing attention.  For those who drive Jeeps with great rain/snow tires, you folks know this is almost an unstoppable vehicle in those circumstances.  This project is replacing a '91XJ that is (at 213k miles) rusting out.  The '91 will become a donor, but it has the Dana 35 with drum brakes.

Keeping the above objectives in mind, this project will not be a rock crawler.  I'm building what loosely can be described as a URS ("urban riot survivor") with LT215/75 R15 BFG A/Ts.  Torque at the rear axle won't be as serious a problem as would be if I were to run 33's or bigger.  I did elect to avoid the Dana 35 (purchasing a '98 with 8.25 rear and SelectTrac), and if somebody were to drop the appropriate rear-diskbrakes-with-parking-brake Dana 44 onto my flatbed, I would not hesitate to start swapping rears.

After-market disk swaps don't seem to come with parking brake feature, which is essential for street registration.  Also, price comparisons place after-market brake kits almost 300% more expensive than a donor axle.

I have two options:

Option 1.  Pull the disk brakes and all components incl parking cable, and TracLoc off a Liberty axle, install same onto '98 XJ (I need a parking brake to keep this vehicle registered).  I can drive 2 miles and get a choice of 5 Liberty axles, any one of which will provide the donor parts, for $250 an axle.  I now know the tube, designed for coil springs, will not merely bolt onto XJ leaf springs.  Thank you for that information.

Option 2.  Swap 8.25 with a Dana 44 that has disk brakes, parking brakes, and TracLoc, and will bolt onto XJ leaf springs.  This means hunt-hunt-hunt to find a Dana 44 with disks and TracLoc and the 3.55s I need.

Way back when I was a kid (chronologically, of course) it was hunt-n-pick with wrenches and tape measures.  I saw a lot of banjos with diff covers left on the ground, everything filling up with water and dirt.

Now I must call on the phone, specify make model and feature while the yard owner looks in his computer inventory and says yes (and how many) or no.  They won't let citizens back into their yards (they bring the salvaged part up to the front parking lot for you).  What this means is that I have no choice but to know exactly what vehicle(s), years, models, and factory features to ask for, or I have no hope in locating a Dana 44 in my area.

To greatly shorten my search for a Dana 44 (if I choose that option), I have attempted to locate a list of vehicles onto which the factory installed (or optioned to install) a Dana 44 (with TracLoc and disk brakes) the same width as XJ.

I am disappointed in that I cannot locate a list of potential donor vehicles for the appropriate Dana 44 - which seems odd, because everybody urges JP folks to "get them 44's".

Maybe my search words are incorrect.  Doing a search on this and other sites returns a whole lot of "Maybe this and maybe that", or "try this", "or I've heard that such-and-such works, but I've never tried it."

It kinda defeats my purpose to "...cut off old spring perches, weld on new ones and maybe change your driveshaft..." as one poster suggested.

Is the answer as simple as "any Dana 44 will fit - find one with disc brakes and TracLoc"?  
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Honest Dave sez "Ayup, dat's her plate numbah!"