Idiot wj brake ?

Can someone please help me out here? I have been searching all day and haven't found anything but confusion. I want to do the wj brake swap.I'm trying to figure out EXACTLY what parts I need. My jeep is a renix so i knowit might be different than the h.o. Stuff. So far I have figured out I need...
- wj knuckles
- wj calipers and brackets (akebono)
- wj lower ball joints
- jks spacers
- wj rotors ( IRO has them already drilled in slotted type)

My ? Is what hub/unit bearings do I need? And one other thing is should I take the newer wj axle shafts or do all the d30 axles stubs fit the same? I have stock renix shafts now. Will they fit for this conversion? I will upgrade to better shafts later on.

use the sport trac rotors not the WJ they are the correct diameter and have the right bolt pattern
otherwise your list looks good to me

I read that you need some sort of spacer to use sport trac rotors. Or washers. Why won't a re drilled wj rotor work? What unit bearings do I need to buy? Is it possible to just use the wj hubs and rotors and just re drill them to 4.5 to run xj lug pattern?

Yes you will need 2 each 3/16" spacers per side between the caliper and the caliper saddle.

I used the stock hubs from 97 but you will need to grind them down to fit into the Sportrac Rotors.

I did it by putting my rig on Jack stands and ran t in 4wd. My wife held the throttle while I used a 36 grit flapper on the hub.

Don't step on the brakes to stop the hub, just shut the engine down.

Do a little at a time until the rotor fits over the hub.

Ok but I still Need to know what hub I will need.

edited my post while was ah readin'.....

What part did you grind down? Any pics by chance?

After looking at this it seems the easiest way to accomplish this swap for the least amount of money would be to just drill the hub and the rotor to accept a 5 on 4.5 lug pattern and re press the lugs into the new holes. A little time with a drill press and can be done. No spacers or nothing all wj parts for replacement simplicity.

My brother is in the middle of this swap at the moment and I am going to do it soon as well. He used TJ hubs and you have to grind/lathe down the outside edge of the flange to fit in the rotor. It does look like there is some miss alignment as the inside of the rotor is VERY close to the inner edge of the caliper.

ETA the vagueness of ALL the build threads is really amazing on this topic.

Not sure the WJ hubs will work out for you - you may need to grind the heads on the studs to make them fit close enough to the center of the hub flange. Also, from what I've seen others report, the WJ hub is thicker, resulting in an XJ outer stub shaft not having quite enough length to install and still be able to use the large washer (required) and/or cotter pin.

You want XJ axleshafts, the WJ ones are crummy CV types and the WJ d30 is a wider axle anyways so the inner shafts won't be the right length to fit in an XJ d30 housing. If you can find someone selling WJ d30 sized outer shafts for 760x ujoints (I know IRO has a ujoint + chromo conversion kit for the d30, but they don't seem to sell just the outer shafts separately) the whole mess becomes irrelevant, though your spares will be more expensive than junkyard parts obviously.

Most people do -
* WJ knuckles, balljoints, TREs, calipers, caliper brackets
* 99.5+ XJ (and TJ) unit bearings
* XJ axleshafts
* JKS steering links and a track bar shortened to keep drag link + track bar roughly parallel and similar length
* JKS knuckle spacers to make unit bearings line up properly
* redrill WJ rotors, IIRC... or sportrac rotors or any of the other million and one variations.
* you could also just convert your rear axle to 5x5 and run newer wheels. IIRC a bunch of common rear 44s and whatnot are available in 5x5, or you can get aftermarket axle shafts drilled for both patterns and convert the rear to discs, or do something like stuffing an 8.8 in the back and using 5x4.5 to 5x5 spacers.

Finally a complete post. Thank you.

Why do all the threads on WJ knuckle conversion seem overly complicated? Just redrill WJ rotors. the swap was really easy, for ball joints you might as well replace them all so get these http://www.alljeep.com/oscommerce/product_info.php?cPath=24_710&products_id=167872
Try and find a whole WJ d30 from someone parting out and you can prolly save a few bucks. Then for steering be a man and convert to one ton.

cjsxj87 said:

Why do all the threads on WJ knuckle conversion seem overly complicated? Just redrill WJ rotors. the swap was really easy, for ball joints you might as well replace them all so get these http://www.alljeep.com/oscommerce/product_info.php?cPath=24_710&products_id=167872
Try and find a whole WJ d30 from someone parting out and you can prolly save a few bucks. Then for steering be a man and convert to one ton.

Click to expand...

There isn't one way to do the swap, hence the reason for different opinions.

For the OP, you didn't search very hard. There was just a post the other day with several people providing complete parts lists.

http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1078247

I saw this thread but wanted a little more complete info. I didn't want to try to decipher which info was the best or what works the best. I know there are tons of wj ?s which is why I titled mine the way I did. I went to all my local pick a parts today and I saw a 03 wj but it was a 2 wheel drive. Will the 2wd stuff work or do I have to get the 4wd parts. Since I'm changing the hubs anyway I wasn't sure. Wj's arent very plentiful in the bone yards

I run the 2000.5+ unit bearings, with redrilled WJ rotors, JKS unit bearing spacers and steering.

As far as akebono vs. Teeves, I am running the teeves. Supposedly they warp rotoers, but I hvent had any problems, they are way overkill on an XJ. My 15" steelies barely clear. Those running AL rims, or akebono calipers may have to step up to 16" wheels

Oh and 2wd stuff will work fine. They just use a dummy stub shaft in the regular unit bearing

Thanks I appreciate all the help

Maybe i haven't quite searched hard enough. Does anyone know if a 15" rim will fit over the akebono calipers?

CaliXJ said:

Maybe i haven't quite searched hard enough. Does anyone know if a 15" rim will fit over the akebono calipers?

Click to expand...

No set answer on this. It depends on the rim and the offset. My 15" steelies fit, but they were like 4" backspacing and I was running 1.5" spacers.

Mine are the D window steelies with 3.75 BS I'd really hate to gather all the parts and put them on to find i need new rims and tires. :smsoap: