1987 XJ- Which Tranny?

[Adventure IQ]

That would be cool....tub jeeps never make it to the bone yard around here....xj models are even hard to find

[Adventure IQ]

Is the ax15 the same in a 4 cyl as in my 6?

[jeepdreamer]

I so understand the lack of tub Jeeps...And if one does show up it is either an old mail/postal AM General or a left over mass of Car-B-que! Kinda hard to salvage an aluminum tranny from a melted vehicle.
I'd suspect the AX15 is the same either way. Novak doesn't go into particulars there so maybe try an end run. Look up part numbers for both engines with that tranny. Pilot bearing, throw out bearing, maybe input seals for the t-case...? There will (very likely anyway)be a difference between an auto t-case and a manual one. And Jeep, as far as I know, used 4 different configurations for the NP231. 21 and 23 spline inputs as well as a "short" or "long" input. And maybe a combination there in?

[88Xj]

Is the ax15 the same in a 4 cyl as in my 6?

NO, the 4cly have a Ax5. The 4.0's have a ax15, or Nv3550 if its a 98+. Both are great. The Nv3550 was a upgrade version...nothing really better.
You can also check in the dodge Dakotas..they will have a Ax15 also. You can just reuse your cuurent Tcase. The only difference with the dakotas is you will need a AMC/eep bell housing which cost about 80-120 pending where you get one..as the Dodge to Amc/Jeep pattern is different..otherwise its the same trans

A locally actually pulls the Dak's trans, swap bell housing & gets a tcase and sells em for 500+ makig oney often cause everyones looking for a ax15 lol.