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Winch Bumper and WJ Swap

V

VET'S XJ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Reno
Finally finished up the conversion of my front bumper to hold a winch...Kinda like EricsXJ. And you can see in the pic I also finished my WJ knuckle/brake swap. The WJ swap went really good, I had WFO concepts make up some 1.25" x.219 wall tierod and draglink and used chevy 3/4ton tre's and DL ends...
I used the akebono calipers with out grinding them at all. I have 15x8 wheels with 4.75" bs...and the warn hubkit which really makes them about 4" bs.
The brakes are great, the pedal is not quite as stiff as I had hoped but I can lock up the 35's...so cant complain too much! here are the picks...a before pic of the bumper and steering and some afters...
HPIM0132.jpg


HPIM0220.jpg


HPIM0221.jpg


HPIM0222.jpg


HPIM0223.jpg


HPIM0224.jpg


HPIM0225.jpg


I still need to work the draglink/trackbar angle with a TJ pitman arm that has a little less drop than the stock XJ one...but I dont have any bump steer with them being a little bit off.
I got to use the winch this weekend on a long steep loose climb out of a ravine...worked great, I might have been in a bad place had I not had the winch....
Bryan
 
did you notch the grille....I cant tell
 
Does your tie rod hit the diff cover without using the WJ tie rod ends and do you get full lock-to-lock? What about the drag link does it hit the OTA bracket without the WJ rod end? Did you consider using a WJ pitman? It has less drop which gave me better alignment with my track bar.

Good looking sled.
 
Looks almost exactly like mine. Same diff cover and everything. Looks good. I used all the same rod ends as you and I don't have any problems. Mine turns about 1/4" shy of all the way in both directions. I still have great turning radius. The breaks are awesome and the steering is very strong. The MOOG rod end part numbers are ES2010L and ES2010R when it comes time to replace them.
 
Thanks for the compliments guys...lets see if I can wrap up everyones questions-

The winch is sunk into the grill, which is cut very close to the outline of the winch.

I havent really totaled the entire swap b/c I have been sourcing the parts slowly for the last year and a half....but off the top of my head ~$650

Reddogg- I am not using the WJ tres...these are the 3/4ton chevy stuff part# ES2026r, 2027L (draglink) and 2010L&R (tie rod)...and actually the TRE's on the tie rods are from Harsh Terrain...they are the equivalent of the 2010L&R...I do get full lock to lock without hitting diff cover or OAB or coil buckets...but this took some significant clearancing of the coil buckets and definetly loss of the the swaybar brackets.
 
Oh yeah! I forgot about having to hack the hell out of my coil buckets. I had to cut half of both of them off and replate the bottom. My Tierod misses my diff cover by .25".
 
Thanks for the intel, especially the cutting part.
 
So to do the WJ knucle swap out you needed new calipers? Were you able to keep the same rotors? I also have the Warn hub kit on my 30 so I'm curious what all parts will need to be changed out for the knuckle swap. If it requires a different rotor then I may look into the Teraflex knuckle since I don't want to have to turn out a new set of rotors... Where did you get your knuckle and how much did it run?
 
Part of the reason for the knuckle swap was for the calipers cause they're dual pistons and stop A LOT better.....
 
lapisxj said:
So to do the WJ knucle swap out you needed new calipers? Were you able to keep the same rotors? I also have the Warn hub kit on my 30 so I'm curious what all parts will need to be changed out for the knuckle swap. If it requires a different rotor then I may look into the Teraflex knuckle since I don't want to have to turn out a new set of rotors... Where did you get your knuckle and how much did it run?
Click to expand...

I think there is alot more involved with the swap than you are aware of.
As stated above, you definitely need new calipers.
You have to change both knuckles, not just the drivers side like the teraflex knuckle.
If you already have the hub kit, you can run explorer sport trac rotors with the wj knuckles.
The better steering and brakes make turning another set of rotors to fit your hub kit worth the swap.


look at the difference between the xj and wj calipers...
1fa4d314.jpg



This is my set up when I originally did the swap.
a1337389.jpg




lowrange2 said:
Looks almost exactly like mine. Same diff cover and everything. Looks good. I used all the same rod ends as you and I don't have any problems. Mine turns about 1/4" shy of all the way in both directions. I still have great turning radius. The breaks are awesome and the steering is very strong. The MOOG rod end part numbers are ES2010L and ES2010R when it comes time to replace them.
Click to expand...

X2......



I used the jks tie rod & drag link with wj tierod ends and goferit flip inserts.
I'm using the stock pitman arm and have absolutely no problems with bump steer.
The more I drive my jeep, the happier I am that I took on the challenge.

3d5a35a6.jpg
 
Last edited:
I forgot....

Looks really good VET8911 :cheers:
 
Thanks Vegas!
There is quite a bit involved in the swap as vegas mentioned...both knuckles, new calipers, new rotors(machined for hub kit), new steering, new axle side track bar mount, new track bar if you dont already have an adj one...I put on some new brake lines (GM truck part #38620 and 38621...b/c the banjo bolt on the new calipers is about 3" lower than stock).

Overall I am very happy with the swap, much better brakes, stronger more responsive steering that is super easy to adj.
I would do it again for sure!:thumbup:
 
Yea, the more I got to reading about this the more involved it got. I may start the lookout for the necessairy parts but right now I'm really just needing a quicker fix.

Nice job guys and thanks for the picts....
 
I bent it up just to protect winch...and maybe tie into a cage under the fenders. (with a HF kinker...and pipe! Shh...don't tell anyone) It should be good for what its meant for.
 
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