ZJ to XJ, disk brake swap?

so, i have an xj d44 and i want to do some work to it before i swap it in. i plan on doing a truss and locker and i want to upgrade the brakes as well. i was wondering if a zj d44a disk brake set up would swap over onto my xj d44? if it will, is it pretty straight forward? i am pretty mechanically inclined so im not afraid of getting my hands dirty lol

also, i have an 89 4.0 np231 aw4 and NO ABS system. thanks

Theres alot of info here on this subject. I believe yes pretty straight forwarded.

Couldn't find the ZJ 44 stuff when I did my 87,went with crown vic discs. Not bad just took longer. You have to machine the backing plates ,rotors ,and get new bearing retainers.

Love my rear discs.

Nick

awesome thanx for the info

These links helped me through mine

http://www.madxj.com/MADXJ/technical/technicalfiles/BAzjRearDiscsOnXJ/ZJrearDiscsOnXJ.htm

http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoRearDiscs1.htm

Good Luck

Nick

hanaxj87 said:

These links helped me through mine

http://www.madxj.com/MADXJ/technical/technicalfiles/BAzjRearDiscsOnXJ/ZJrearDiscsOnXJ.htm

http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoRearDiscs1.htm

Good Luck

Nick

Click to expand...

thank you for your help

Some additional info for you on the 44 disc brake upgrade. Might be self explanatory but I will let you know anyhow. My rear disc hardware came from a 95' with a 35.

After you remove all the drum hardware, save the retaining plate that bolts to the drum backing plate and axle to use as a template for drilling the new holes in the dust shield, caliper mounting bracket, and the Rubicon retaining plate.

You will have to enlarge the center hole for the caliper mounting bracket and dust shield. I hated this part, I tried with several types of abrasive products and the one that worked the best was a rasp attachment for the drill was the quickest and then cleaned up with a drum sander in the drill. Make sure the hole is large enough to allow the seal to pass through easily.

When putting everything back together make sure the axle seal is seated correctly. A little bit of lube on the seal helps greatly with this. Tap it home with a little piece of wood. Remember the seal also keeps the bearing in place. Ask me how I know.

I did not have mess with the wheel studs. My black D opening steel rims must have made the difference. I have plenty of thread sticking out of the rim.

One last thing when I had to remove my rotors the first time they were a bitch to get off. I have yet to put them back on, so I am going to do 3 things 1. Take the crud off the axle hub 2. Take the drum sander to the center hole of the rotor in the attempt to give me some room. 3. Use anti seize where ever the rotor touches the hub.


The Rubicon part #1-05083678AA
Timken Seal 4811837
Timken Bearing SET10

I mounted Ford Explorer 8.8 discs onto my XJ D44. Had to fill and redrill the new pattern on the caliper brackets (the center holes on the brackets were already large enough so, those didn't need to be enlarged), make spacers for the bearings/seals (IIRC, I used a couple of .230" thick pieces of 3" schedule 40 pipe) opened up the center holes on the rotors (couple of minutes with a drum sander on a drill press), modified the e-brake cables and all is good. Don't forget to swap prop valves so you'll get proper pressure to the rear I have less than $100 in the swap using all j/u parts----------Hans

ive done 2 crown vic d44 setups, both were/are awesome....

where i come from, i can DEFINATELY find 20-30 crown victoria's at the junkyard for parts...

maybe 2 or 5 explorers... which usually are missing the rear axle or brakes....
IF IM LUCKY maybe 1 or 2 grand's.... which are ALLWAYS empty.. every noob with a d35 is looking for the grands, and they dont last.....

the crown vic's are abundant, and easy to get. it might not be the easiest of the three swaps, but it is by no means difficult... the cv calipers are even significantly bigger than the explorer calipers... which just shouldnt make sense.

heres the writeup i used...
http://www.jeepin.com/features/cvdiscs/


if you wanted, you could combine methods from the differant swaps... for example using the teraflex spacer as per markw's writeup, instead of the rubicon retainer plates mentioned in the jeepin.com article. saving you from having to re-do the axle shaft retainer plates.... which was the biggest hastle imho.


so to sum it up... go crown vic, but do not use junkyard calipers, pads, or rotors... buy the calipers at the jy for core's, remanufactured ones at autozone run like twenty bucks if you got the cores.... theres even a performance rotor/pad market on the cv stuff

this mod is best done in the build-up stage, on the bench, you will need new hardlines... etc

xcm said:

ive done 2 crown vic d44 setups, both were/are awesome....

where i come from, i can DEFINATELY find 20-30 crown victoria's at the junkyard for parts...

maybe 2 or 5 explorers... which usually are missing the rear axle or brakes....
IF IM LUCKY maybe 1 or 2 grand's.... which are ALLWAYS empty.. every noob with a d35 is looking for the grands, and they dont last.....

the crown vic's are abundant, and easy to get. it might not be the easiest of the three swaps, but it is by no means difficult... the cv calipers are even significantly bigger than the explorer calipers... which just shouldnt make sense.

Click to expand...

The only thing I didn't like about the Crown Victoria swap (it is nice that you don't have to change the bolt pattern on the caliper brackets, though) is how one caliper is facing forward and the other is facing backward (makes for some weird e-brake cable routing) and if you flip the bracket over, you end up with one e-brake cable lever above and one below the axle tube........bugs me. I like symmetry.......I'm kinda weird that way:dunno: I also used the Explorer's flex lines (which are a lot longer than the D44's....better for wheel travel) and welded a couple of bolts to the housing so they bolt on for a really clean, factory look Are you sure about the CV's calipers being bigger? They looked the same to me (?)----------Hans

100 per cent about caliper size, held a junkyard explorer caliper next to a friends cv equiped d44.

i didnt get the symetry thing untill you mention the ebrake cable routing, i thought it was a ocd thing. i dont run an ebrake, but i guess that would be an issue.