What's the big difference between the Gen 2 & 2.5?

[BEG]

One thing you can do is buy a front AWD Sport housing and a rear 3rd member from another late model 98-99 with a locker and a 4.90 rear gear set. Do all the work while still driving your truck, install the 4.90 into the donor 3rd member (I recommend the late model 3rd because it's easier due to the updated shape of the air locker diaphragm) and if you want install a front locker into your donor front assembly. Once you have this done you can do the swap out swap in some afternoon.

This is something I'd like to do eventually. My biggest concern is giving up CAD with the front axle swap from the Sport. What is the actual difference, if any, between a stock CAD and a Sport front axle running manual hubs? The net result is zero, but what's still turning with each setup?

 

[jeep-N-montero]

This is something I'd like to do eventually. My biggest concern is giving up CAD with the front axle swap from the Sport. What is the actual difference, if any, between a stock CAD and a Sport front axle running manual hubs? The net result is zero, but what's still turning with each setup?

Get rid of CAD and install manual hubs is what some folks do.

 

[BEG]

Get rid of CAD and install manual hubs is what some folks do.

Which is better for reducing wear and increasing MPGs, CAD or AWD axle with manual hubs?

 

[jeep-N-montero]

Which is better for reducing wear and increasing MPGs, CAD or AWD axle with manual hubs?

Do a bit of reading for yourself and decide, there are threads explaining it.

 

[cjgolfer7]

This is the 94..

This is my 99..


Since the title as been found on the 94 I will due the required maintenance and get it up to standards. And since I'll never go above a 33 and my 99 is a daily driver. I think I'm going to swap gears from the 94 to the 99 and sell the 94 to a buddy of mine. Or whomever is interested at the time of sale. But I know he's been looking as well. Orrrrr may just keep the 94 and sell the 99 as is. But I've grown quite fond of the heated seats living in Asheville haha.

 

[Salonika]

Not big, i guess it really depends on what you get and how you get it. If you just get 4.63's from an SR you're talking about an easy afternoon of bolt out and bolt in action. If you are swapping 4.90's from an AWD Sport you will can swap the complete front housing and then do the gear change in the rear which can take some time. Lastly if you are retaining your original housings front and rear you could be looking at a couple days if you haven't done gear setups before and even if you have it would take all day.
Still it's not a bad job, One thing you can do is buy a front AWD Sport housing and a rear 3rd member from another late model 98-99 with a locker and a 4.90 rear gear set. Do all the work while still driving your truck, install the 4.90 into the donor 3rd member (I recommend the late model 3rd because it's easier due to the updated shape of the air locker diaphragm) and if you want install a front locker into your donor front assembly. Once you have this done you can do the swap out swap in some afternoon.

So with the 4.63, I only need to do the rear diff? Anything more and the front needs to be done as well?

 

[jeep-N-montero]

So with the 4.63, I only need to do the rear diff? Anything more and the front needs to be done as well?

There are threads even with pictures showing you how to do it all, look it up....

 

[Toasty]

Salonika, no you will need the front axle assembly as well but it will be a bolt in from your 4.63 donor truck.

 

[Toasty]

BEG, AWD axle with manual hubs and even the CAD axle will have reduced wear and increased efficiency with manual hubs but with manual hubs you don't need the CAD axle. The whole point of the CAD is to shift into 4WD without getting out of the vehicle or even stopping, helpful if you want to shift from 2WD to AWD on the road if conditions get slick. Your Montero will still have all of it's functions with the AWD axle except you will now have to get out of the vehicle to lock the hubs before engaging AWD or 4WD, it's a worthy trade because you gain reliability and you gain the ability to unlock a side in the case of a CV failure

 

[BEG]

BEG, AWD axle with manual hubs and even the CAD axle will have reduced wear and increased efficiency with manual hubs but with manual hubs you don't need the CAD axle. The whole point of the CAD is to shift into 4WD without getting out of the vehicle or even stopping, helpful if you want to shift from 2WD to AWD on the road if conditions get slick. Your Montero will still have all of it's functions with the AWD axle except you will now have to get out of the vehicle to lock the hubs before engaging AWD or 4WD, it's a worthy trade because you gain reliability and you gain the ability to unlock a side in the case of a CV failure

Thanks, Toasty. All of my previous 4x4s have had manual hubs and part time t-cases from the factory so I'm familiar with how they work. I just didn't know how much of a difference CAD makes with regard to mpg and wear reduction when you throw AWD into the mix. From what I understand, with CAD unlocked, the axles side gears and spider gears still turn with the front wheels so unlocked manual hubs seem like the better option regardless.

 

[Salonika]

There are threads even with pictures showing you how to do it all, look it up....

Ok, this should probably be its own thread, but I'm constantly reading replies from people telling others to look it up. I get it. I've had poor luck though searching for things here. I just tried it again though, after your reply to me, with no luck. I chose" Expedition Vehicles " for one filter and entered "Montero gear swap". I didn't find it. In fact after the first 5 returns the thread titles didn't even seem promising. Any search is only as good as the terms used so everyone will get different results. If someone knows a proven way to search here, it could be made into a sticky, "how to search the forum" or something, unless that already exists.

 

[Toasty]

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=montero+gear+swap+4.90 Decent results

 

[Salonika]

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=montero+gear+swap+4.90 Decent results

Toasty,
Do you typically search via Google, or within the Expedition Portal using its own search engine?

 

[BEG]

Ok, this should probably be its own thread, but I'm constantly reading replies from people telling others to look it up. I get it. I've had poor luck though searching for things here. I just tried it again though, after your reply to me, with no luck. I chose" Expedition Vehicles " for one filter and entered "Montero gear swap". I didn't find it. In fact after the first 5 returns the thread titles didn't even seem promising. Any search is only as good as the terms used so everyone will get different results. If someone knows a proven way to search here, it could be made into a sticky, "how to search the forum" or something, unless that already exists.

I think that's more of a jeep-N-montero thing, lol. After almost 5k posts, I can see how answering the same questions can get tiresome. It is difficult to find Montero info easily since most of the technical stuff is on 4x4wire and those threads are mostly missing pictures or difficult to navigate. The ExPo search engine seems to return too many results and not nearly specific enough. I have the best luck going through Google and searching a specific site. Just type in "search term site:website." So a gear swap would be something like "Montero gen 2.5 4.90 gear swap site:www.expeditionportal.com" Even then, it's tough. Good luck!

 

[Swank Force One]

My favorite part is getting 12 pages of threads that look promising, and all of them saying "Yeah you should do a search." It's pretty helpful.