8.8 swap w/ ABS

I got my 8.8 under the Jeep today. The brakes are hooked up and are working well. My '99 had the Dana 35 with ABS. I simply cut the ABS lines and proceeded with my axle swap. I've read on several posts that running the ABS brake system with the ABS disconnected is highly undesirable. I'm not sure why, since my ABS light was previously on due to a bad rear sensor in the Dana 35 and my brakes continued to work just fine.

I'm not a fan of the ABS Jeep setup, however the system is there and I'm not willing to go through the hassle of swapping in a non-ABS system. I've read that people have successfully hooked up the 8.8 ABS to their XJs. A couple people claim to have successfully completed the swap by grinding off every other tooth in the 8.8 tone ring. The 8.8 uses a 108 tooth tone ring in the differential. The Dana 35 uses 54 tooth tone rings in the wheel assemblies. Has anyone successfully hooked up their ABS with an 8.8 axle by grinding the 8.8 tone ring so it has 54 teeth instead of 108? After grinding you simply splice the rear ABS wires to accept the single sensor.

Please refrain from hypothesized remarks. I would like to hear from people with actual installation success and failure. Thanks in advance!

IMO ABS is overrated. Simply pull the ABS relay(s) and you are good. The late model ABS components can be left in place like I did, or removed/replaced with non ABS parts.

jro780 said:

I simply cut the ABS lines and proceeded with my axle swap. I've read on several posts that running the ABS brake system with the ABS disconnected is highly undesirable.

Click to expand...

This is only for very early model Cherokees that it is bad to pull the fuses on the ABS. On your '99 it is fine to just pull the relays and fuses - as you saw it will still function correctly.

Yeah 91 and earlier XJs are the only ones with the bad ABS system. The rest you can just yank the fuses and relays and continue with your life.

On the other question - it's an interesting one. Can't hurt to try, if it burns out your ABS HCU you will be disabling it anyways. I don't see a way it can really damage anything but it may freak out and not work. Make sure you test the brakes well before you depend on them to stop your vehicle in traffic.

Also - you are aware you're supposed to use a special bleed procedure for ABS equipped vehicles if you let the lines run dry, right? You have to use a DRB scan tool to cycle the valves in the ABS module to bleed it as well as the lines and remainder of the system. Unless you have a couple thousand dollars sitting around to buy a DRB scan tool you will need to go to a dealer to get this done. You might get away without it, if you keep the lines clamped off while the system is open so the MC never runs dry and then bleed it normally it might keep air out of the HCU.

I'm not familiar with the bleed procedure. After I got my axle under it, I left the rear brakes disconnected and ran it down the street a couple blocks to my local muffler and brake shop. They took it from there. It stops on a dime right now so I feel like there's nothing to worry about unless you are telling my something different. Thanks.

Have had my 8.8 in for 8 years now. I just pulled the relay to kill the light. It's been fine and works awesome.