Anyone look at an XJ cherokee rear end for a BBP conversion?

michiganpat said
back in the day I ran continental 255/50R17's on my 5th ave, looks like those are discontinued now. the 205/70R14's on the front are 25.25" tall and they are pretty tight to the leading edge of the front fender when turning. especially if I go with an XJ 8.25" rear to get the BBP out back, I'll want a taller tire, something 27-28" since I'll be going from my current 3.23 to a 3.55, unless I can find a 3.07 out of a manual jeep.

The backspace in the front has a lot to do with that front corner clearance, a 25.25" tall tire should easily clear the front corner with decent backspace. I would wager your current 14's have very little backspace. I ran 275/35/18's on my Duster on 18x9's up front with about 6.1" of backspace, and those cleared the front corner. They're 25.6" tall. Front corner clearance is a bit of a dance between height and width too, the 275/35/18's were close to the corner more because of their width than their height.

With an OD transmission I don't think I'd worry nearly as much about that rear tire/ratio change. 3.55's with a .73:1 4th like that 833 OD should have would make freeway cruising a piece of cake even with a 25.7" tall tire. That's 70 mph at 2,400 rpm.

At any rate, you won't find much in a 27-28" tall performance street car tire for a 17" rim in a decently wide width. Really the only option is a Nitto NT555 G2, maybe an Invo depending on the size. Even the tire selection for 17" rims has dropped off quite a bit.