ford 8.8 on the way..few questions

hey everybody

well ive got a buddy and we pretty much do everything jeep wise together. we installed out lifts together, lockers, everything, and now we just bought a couple 8.8s together. this is probably one of our biggest all around projects all around, as far as research, fab, and ability goes..maybe

anyways, i do the research, and find the parts, and he gives me the money to order his..lol. so heres the deal. ive found the best deal on perches, gears, and lockers.

but heres the part im not quite getting. brakes. neither one of us have e-brakes right now, so were not going to worry about hooking up those for a while, as weve been without them for months. just the normal brakes. how do we go about hooking those up...do we need custom lines

anything else i could be missing

thanks

http://www.jedi.com/obiwan/jeep/ford88.html

here is a link that I used when I installed my 8.8 into my XJ. Now I know it says it is for a YJ installation, but if you have installed your own lifts etc, you should be able to adapt this to your XJ. It is really not overly difficult. We did everything from pulling my 8.8 to having the old mounts cut off and the new mounts welded up and installed and installing the unit under my XJ in a weekend. Now granted my good rined runs the local welding and fab shop, it was still a very do-able swap. I outfitted my 8.8 w/ gers, a mini spool and a Warn diff guard and have been very happy with its performance. My next upgrade will be to put a newer brake booster on it when I go up to 36's!! Hope this link will help ya.

Later.....

whos had problems with the pumpkin being offset, and vibes???thats kind of worrysome. i dont want to do this whole project, and then have to tackle vibes again

It's only offset a couple inches. You may have not gotten you pinion set. I know I've read ways to set it but this is how I do it. Bolt it up befor you weld the perches. Cut a 2x4 30 inches long and make sure the cuts are square. Put one end sqare on you pinion yoke and rotate the axel untill it points right at the center of the transfer yoke. Rotate it down a tad and weld it. You could point it right at the t-case yoke and put your angle finder on it. Take a reading and then rotate you pinion down 2 degrees. I like the tad method. Technically for the least vibs with a CV shaft the yokes should be aligned straight but the pinion rotates up when you mash the gas. You cannot eyball it ,measure it, or do jack with CV shaft installed.
Re read last sentence.

I am not sure how much this will help since it was on a TJ, but, I put mine at 19*. I have a six inch lift on it and it worked out perfectly. Like was said by stumpalump, the best way is the 2X4 way. Good luck. You will not regret having done this!!!