I need some axle advice !

[beardog]

I have a 1979 wagoneer ,360 , full time 4 wheel drive . Borg warner transfer case,chevy turbo 400 trany. rear bearing went out , lost my axle while towing a trailer full of new furniture ( sweet !) Ruined the axle and housing around the brakes . Possibly ruined the rear gears in the pumkin as I had
to shove the axle back in to get towed off the road . ( bad noises )
Anyway , I also have a 1982 wagoneer I bought recently because I wanted
the motor . ( supposedly this guy dumped 4 grand into it and I paid 800 bucks for the whole jeep.) I want to know if I can swap the entire rear end and front end from the 82 to the 79.( the 82 has half the miles) I don't want to replace axles as I have not done any major mechanical work since I was in the army a decade ago , but it looks feasible to swap the entire end . The 82 jeep is 2 wheel drive , shift into 4 and has locking hubs.
I figure if I swap the front and rear end I won't get burned with different gear ratios , or will I ? I seem to remember on 2 to 4 wheel drives that the front differential spun quicker than the rear because of different gears. Thus
pulling the front end , which is why you couldn't drive it on pavement. Am I
right or will it matter since the 82 has front hubs I can unlock ? I just need
some good advice . 79 rear tag on pumkin - 5356935 , 43-14-3-07 / front tag on pumpkin reads 5357684 , 3-07-43-14 . 82 jeep no rear tag on pumpkin , front tag reads 5959666 , 3-31-43-13.
I would like to part out the 82 into the 79 anyway , because I have spent
some time and money on the 79 and the 82 ( minus the top of the motor)
is a real piece of crap , big time ! Help .......

[carnuck]

The gear ratios are different. The older one is 3.07 and the newer one is 3.31. The older one is RH offset and newer is centered. The axle will bolt in, BUT you have to change the gas tank (fill hoses were a real pain) because the newer one has an inset that allows the driveshaft to move over. I already did this in my '77 J20 (I swiped the axles from it for my J4000 and swapped the old rear axle from my '83 J10 back in to make it runnable. I also swapped my old brakes on the front to get the flat top knuckle for my J10 for SOA)

The newer front axle is driver side drop and the older one is passenger side drop UNLESS you got lucky on the '79 and really have a 727 NP219 (also called a Quadratrac but it isn't the earlier Borg Warner version) because the TH400 (internals are Chev. The case is AMC only)