Stinky FAB VS. Rusty's Steering/WJ Conversion

What are peoples thoughts and opinions on the differences of these two kits? I am looking to upgrade to heavy X Over steering and WJ brakes. Also ears to a third option...

Included with Stinky Fab kit:

-NEW WJ steering knuckles already machined for over the top 1ton steering
-NEW Pitman arm machined for 1ton TRE
-NEW double drilled Centric brake rotors, Centric calipers, and hardware
-NEW Timken Unit bearing Hubs
-NEW Dana Spicer Ball joints
-7075 Aluminum tie rod with offset tie rod ends
-7075 Aluminum Drag link with new MOOG tie rod ends
-7075 Aluminum track bar with Cromoly heim joints (Johnny joint optional on frame end)
-SFR Lower Track bar mount
-SFR Upper Track bar mount
-SFR Over the Top Sway Bar brackets
-SFR Sway Bar Relocation Brackets
-SFR Bearing Spacers
-SFR Spring Bucket Supports
-Necessary hardware

http://www.stinkyfab.com/jeep-steering-and-brake-kit/sfr-high-roller-steering-big-brake-kit-1.html

Included with Rusty's Kit:

• Left and right steering knuckles
• Left and right brake calipers
• Drilled rotors
• Brake flange spacers
• Brake pads with hardware kit
• HD tie rod and drag link
• HD track bar
• Bolt-on track bar frame mount
• Weld-on axle mount
• Weld-on sway bar mounts

http://www.rustysoffroad.com/jeep-s...j-steering-and-brake-conversion-xj-tj-zj.html

I don't trust Rusty's offroad. A long history of poor customer service and parts that break.

Granted I am biased toward SFR, but in this particular instance, I'm more anti rusty's.

Same here, I have no experience with SFR....but only bad experiences with rustys. FWIW.

other than every facet of the SFR kit being extremely well designed and the execution well thought out.

with SFR you are guaranteed to get extremely high quality and great customer service.

Rusty's is a toss up on quality of components and service.

JohnX said:

Same here, I have no experience with SFR....but only bad experiences with rustys. FWIW.

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X2. I will never buy from them again

Plus Dallas is a regular poster here, which means you'll get support

Rusty's uses heim joints on the tie rod & drag link.....not legal everywhere. Also doesn't include as much stuff. (no bearings, ball joints, etc)

SFR uses tie rod ends on the drag link & tie rod.

IslanderOffRoad said:

Plus Dallas is a regular poster here, which means you'll get support

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I do my best. If anyone has any specific questions on SFR products I try to be pretty easy to reach. I'll refrain from commenting directly on a competitor though. Needless to say I'm a little biased.

Also will never again deal with Rusty's again after having dealt with their customer "service".

I'm starting to feel bad for rustys.

Are there any other options for full steering/braking kits other than SFR and Rustys?

I have priced out piecing together the SFR kit and I would maybe save 3-$400 and that is worth it for the piece of mind that it was all designed to work together.

Claytons use to sell a kit, but now ya got to piece it together

I'll be doing the full WJ conversion on the HP30 on my other XJ that I'm going to try and get taken care of this winter.

I'll be sourcing everything myself, as it's not a hard thing to build, for me at least.

I can pick up a set of WJ knuckles from the JY for $40, and spacers for ~ another $40 (don't care to cut/build them myself at this point). Timkens bearing I can buy myself.

Balljoints, rotors, calipers, and brake pads aren't that bad (especially if you shop around/use coupon codes at Advance Auto).

Steering links, trackbar, and trackbar bracket I can all take care of myself for the cost of steel/bungs (if I don't go with 7075 AL links from Wide Open Design). The trackbar on the SFR kit is a little short for my liking.

I plan on being into the entire thing less than $600 or so, with the only thing being "used" is the knuckles.

I used some StinkyFab parts on my WJ knuckle conversion and I could not be happier with them.

In the end, I actually could have saved quite a bit of time, money and frustration by just buying the whole StinkyFab high-steer/WJ knuckle kit instead of piecemealing everything together myself.

There's a DIY big brake kit thread on cherokeeforum using renix era knuckles. But that still leaves steering.

freerider15 said:

I plan on being into the entire thing less than $600 or so, with the only thing being "used" is the knuckles.

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For $600 you can't physically buy all the same *quality* of parts, though.

cal said:

For $600 you can't physically buy all the same *quality* of parts, though.

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This I can agree on when it comes to the following:

- Links and Trackbar - going with 1.5" x .25" DOM instead of 7075-AL.

But, after repricing everything back out...I concede...stuff isn't as cheap as when I priced it out originally (5+ years ago :laugh.

Dallas's kit it killer, but just not practical price wise for 90% of people (this coming from someone who didn't spare pennies on what some would consider trivial stuff on his buggy).

I can make all the brackets, that's not an issue.

Yes, my knuckles and pitman arm won't be "new", but I wouldn't call that a "quality" difference.

Off the top of my head:
- Loaded Calipers from NAPA (the non-teeves) - $110 at Napa
- Carquest Rotors and Gold Brake Pads - ~$70 after discount at Advance Auto
- Bearing Spacers - $40
- WJ Knuckles - $50 from the yard including fees
- Timken Bearings - $140
- Ball Joints - Spicer 707488X Suspension Ball Joint Kit - $90 for both sets
- DOM Tube, 3/4" heim joints, bungs, and jam nuts from RuffSTuff - ~$260 before shipping after one of their usual discount codes. I concede that with TRE's it would be a hair more, and I'll probably need to do offset TRE's to clear up front, but I'll use heims everywhere else. TRE's are junk IMO. I would go through spicer, moog, etc. about every 6 months on my previous setup, and all my angles, lengths, etc. were damn near perfect.

That totals to ~$760, so yup...not $600.

That doesn't come with any brackets, so for someone who needs something bolt it, yeah that starts to add up.

One thing I would note to Dallas...the steering links on his page don't look like AL to me. They very much look like painted steel (I see bungs with weld on them ). He might want to update the pictures with the shiny new AL links

I feel like you're leaving a lot of parts out, but i'm not in a place where i can bring up a list and start checking them off.

cal said:

I feel like you're leaving a lot of parts out, but i'm not in a place where i can bring up a list and start checking them off.

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I went through the list, however I'm now noticing something on Dallas's page. He states:


-7075 Aluminum tie rod with offset tie rod ends
-7075 Aluminum Drag link with new MOOG tie rod ends
-7075 Aluminum track bar with Cromoly heim joints (Johnny joint optional on frame end)

But then lower down states:

-Optional Upgrade to 7075 Aluminum steering links is available

I assumed the $1,850.00 price tag was for 7075 AL? Is 7075 more expensive?

From his list:

-NEW WJ steering knuckles already machined for over the top 1ton steering - Covered That
-NEW Pitman arm machined for 1ton TRE Covered That
-NEW double drilled Centric brake rotors, Centric calipers, and hardware - Covered That
-NEW Timken Unit bearing Hubs - Covered That
-NEW Dana Spicer Ball joints - Covered That
-7075 Aluminum tie rod with offset tie rod ends - Covered That
-7075 Aluminum Drag link with new MOOG tie rod ends - Covered That
-7075 Aluminum track bar with Cromoly heim joints (Johnny joint optional on frame end) - Covered That
-SFR Lower Track bar mount
-SFR Upper Track bar mount
-SFR Over the Top Sway Bar brackets
-SFR Sway Bar Relocation Brackets
-SFR Bearing Spacers - Covered That
-SFR Spring Bucket Supports
-Necessary hardware

So, the only things I left out are stuff that can be decently easily fabbed (for myself):
- Upper and Lower Panhard mounts
- Swar Bar Brackets and Relocation Brackets

Otherwise...hardware.

I'm not really trying to knock his kit, it's good stuff. But yes, it can be done for less than half of that with top quality parts as MANY MANY people have done. The swap is nothing remotely new, he's just one of the few who's done an "all inclusive" type package.

It's small stuff that Dallas currently just is going to compete with some of the larger guys.

For example:

7/8" x 3/4" Rod End RHT
From Dallas - $30
From Ruffstuff - $19.90, before 20% off

Small stuff like that adds up...which guys who are building a D30 and not tons really tend to notice.

At some point he changed everything to default to 7075.

Apparently he didn't adjust all the documentation though.