79 CHEROKEE AND 79 J-10

[Simontrips]

I JUST TRADED MY 83 J-10 FOR A 79 GOLDEN EAGLE,AND AN HOUR LATER BOUGHT A 79 CHEROKEE WIDE TRACK.THE J-10 HAS A 360THAT HAS BEEN REBUILT BUT NEEDS A CARB THE CHEROKEE CAME WITH 2 360s AND AN EXTRA SET OF 44 AXLES FRONT AND REAR.AND THE J-10 CAME WITH DANA 44sAND AN EXTRA REAR 60. BOTH HAVE AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSIONS,BUT I HAVE AN 18 I WANT TO PUT IN THE CHEROKEE,IS THIS A SIMPLE CHANGE OVER AND WHAT IS THIS QUADRATRAC THAT EVERYBODY HAS PROBLEMS WITH .NEITHER JEEP HAS BEEN RUNNING FOR SEVERAL YEARS

[joe]

Assuming by "BUT I HAVE AN 18" you mean T-18 trans and not D18 x-case?
The T-18 can't be used with the QT x-case which both your rigs have if they run AT's. QT's can't be used with any manual tranny unless you want to spend some serious shop time engineering an adapter.
Not everyone is having troubles with the QT either. Keep in mind the "last new" QT was built 23 years ago and if it's shot it shot...everything wears out in time. They've gotten a bad rep from folks who would buy a 25 year old worn out Jeep(and QT) then flog it to death because "it's a Jeep" and it blows up. Then they bad mouth QT's as a POS forgetting the thing had a 150,000 miles of multi-owner use on it with whatever if any maint done.
I don't care much for any full-time x-case but the QT is the toughest one ever used in Jeeps and far superior to what any of the NP219/228/229's ever were. Glitch is though since they haven't been in production for so long some of the major hard parts are getting hard if not impossible to find.

[Simontrips]

The tranny is the t-18 ,it has a 20 transfer case, I have heard the 20 is a weak link as well. I am confused on which one to try and build first the cherokee or the J-10.This will not be a daily driver.I just want to do it right the first time with the best of what I can get.Any suggestions would be appreciated as far as what my best options would be, to have a durable and strong trailworthy rig.I have no idea what would be the best ammount of lift,what size tires,what gears,what carb,there are so many options and I need help .Where do I start,

[Jeep Jeep]

Well it sounds like you have some decission making to do. Depending on what type of trail driving you are talking about should detrimine if you should change out the tranny and transfer. Like Joe said. There is nothing wrong with QT as long as you take care of it as with any transfer. Sure the gear driven transfers have a better rep and in some cases are better than chain driven but I run the QT in all three of my rig's and have had no problems at all. As far as the swap goes, if you can locate a FSJ that came factory with the manual tranny. That would be your best bet. Just one question. What did the t-18 come out of?

[joe]

If you have a D20 x-case not too worry. It's a good tough gear driven case(assuming it's in good shape). As Jeepjeep mentioned you'll need to know what the T-18 came out of so you can determine if you need to swap it's input shaft.

[jeepgods]

QTs are almost indestructable. ever had one break??? that doesnt happen too often. you can usually repair/rebuild one right in the truck in less than two hours (try that with any other transfer case)