Swap rear axle or not

New Jeep owner, 94 YJ, 32” tires, 6 cyl. everything else is factory. 96k miles, no rust it’s very clean for its age Not being used for rock crawling, just a driver with playing in the mud sometimes. Been doing a lot of reading on upgrades for the YJ, several are saying to do the Ford 8.8 upgrade. I’m not having any issues as of now. Advice would be greatly appreciated. If any other upgrades it could benefit from I’m willing to hear about. It’s a new area for me. I have no issues twisting a wrench. I have added wider fender flairs and changed passenger fender. And in process of changing window frame someone stripped the hinge bolts out and messed up the back nut.

 

Nice old jeep! 32" tires are a stock size on some JKs, not sure about stock sizes on a YJ, but they look good. Unless you have a specific need for clearance or larger sizes I'm a believer in keeping lifts modest. But that's subjective, I get it, 35s look good too. As far as mods are concerned, I'm also a believer in form following function. If you need to modify something, definitely do whatever it takes. But on the other hand, a vehicle can slowly lose its overall design integrity as it becomes a frankenstein. With that, you can lose reliabilty and driveability, two attributes that I place pretty high on my list of important criteria, since my Jeep is a daily driver. But having said that, I'm not an extreme off roader, and I recognize that some special demands require special builds. Its fun seeing them at SEMA etc., though.
Good luck, whatever you decide to do, having a nice rust free platform like you have is a good start!

 

IMO if the rear axle is not making noises or grinding then leave it alone as a DD. However if more challenging trails are in your future as well as interest in adding a locker or LSD then an axle swap may make sense but its a J.E.E.P.