So what are the best years for XJ's
just saw this on CL
https://chattanooga.craigslist.org/cto/5712107087.html
The '99 is regarded by most as THE best year model.But any '91up, if aquired cheap enough, will do.
Reason being, in '91 they came out with the HO. You can swap out the older CAD (central axle disconnect) axle or just replace BOTH shafts with '96+ XJ shafts, they have larger joints. The rears of older XJs are usually the craptastic Dana 35. You can easily swap it out for a 8.25 from a '97 - '01 XJ, they have the largest spline count (29).
As far as transmissions go, any automatic is the bullet proof AW4. The older manual transmissions were the crappie BA10. Later in production they replaced them with the internal slave cylinder AX15. The later years got the external slave cylinder AX15- best manual transmission offered in the XJ or TJ.
The 91 pictured has a HO 4.0, if NP231 CAD Dana 30 & Dana 35. Plan on working on the axles.
If it has a NP242 it will hack a NON CAD axle. This is the best frobt axle offered in the XJ.