86 cj7 was a great year overall, I've had mine since 1989. they had a few options but the bulk were 4.2 liter, t5 tranny, AMC 20 rear end, with the dana 300 transfer case.
The motor is super strong, low horsepower but high torque. The transfer case, dana 300 is strong and quiet. rear diff. is reasonably strong just remember to keep the nuts tight on the 2 piece axle.
In my opinion the only truly weak link was the T5 tranny, runs great for a long time then starts to have problems with the synchro. swapped mine out for a NP435 with granny low, great swap, fairly easy, I bought a swap over kit from Lloyd Novak, pretty straight forward swap and a truly tough transmission.
Last edited by bluedot; 03/23/20. Reason: typo
