i have been thinking of the same swap ( a lot actually probably for the past year or more, maybe a little too much) unfortenetly the folks in the jeep forums are in love with there 4.0l jeep engines and when you give them an idea of swaping a diesel into a jeep they think o yeah a 6 cylinder cummins would be great !!? i believe that a om617 would be a great power plant for a Cherokee mated to the proper manual transmission (hopefully the jeep stock ax-15) would produce a great jeep simallar to the loved Toyota land cruisers or expensive g wagons the idea itself is great think of a american jeep running svo or even wvo WoW!!

anyway sorry for my two cents
from my reaserche i believe there are two possibilities using the jeep manaual transmission ax-15 http://www.jeeptech.com/trans/ax15.html <- some info on it

one would be using the jeep bellhousing and making an adapter between the block and bellhousing or between the mb adapter and jeep bellhousing

or # two would be useing the bellhousing from a old 240 diesel 4 speed bellhousing and make the adapter between the jeep trany and the bellhousing of the 240 which aperently bolts on fine to the 617 engine without major problems

the two versions have there pluses and minuses ( and for the most part i don't even know if any of them would work so do not pull my tongue here ;-P )

for the first version well you dont need to buy many extra parts like the bellhousing
the adapter will be bigger then from the second version
i did not measure this because i did not have the jeep tranny side by side with the 617 engine .. yet

the second version , well you don't have to worry about the starter because that would not change but i don't know if the shaft in the tranny will have the correct length i don't know how long is the mercedes shaft manuall transmission or the jeep trann shaft

about the flywheel and clutch setup
i believe the best would be to use something available in north america, but personally i will probably order a flywheel from europe unless someone has used a different one, as for the preasure plate is concern i think that using the jeeps stock would be great since it will match the shaft from the jeeps tranny , though im not sure if it will fit with the flywheel

anyway my plan is once im done with the "wedding" of the tranny and the engine, is to use the stock tranny mounts in the jeep and modify the engine mounts (by modify i mean cut them out and install the Mercedes mounts)

from what i have heard from a man in california the main problem is that the jeeps oil pan is in the back of the engine while in the mercedes its in the front
which means that with out a suspension lift or some wacky way of modify the steering shafts or mercedes oil pan to gain more clearance .. your gonna have to give her a lift job ... which might be a good thing ... or bad... depends on how you look at it

any way i think i puked out my thoughts for now, but i believe this is a great project on which im not giving up, i just need to find a decent jeep cherokee for sale which is difficult to find in my area

i would be interested in a bellhousing which will mate a 617 though .. anyone?