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Wj swap

cwyman6

NAXJA Forum User
Location
socal
So I am getting the parts together for my wj swap and i had a couple questions.

I plan on running the iron rock truss with the stinky fab steering staying under the knuckle. I'm sitting at 5in of lift on 35s.

My question is will the Clayton frame side drop track bar bracket be enough with the 1.25 raised hole on the truss to keep my geometry parallel.

I understand the right way to go is a over the knuckle track bar setup but I don't like how short the track bar gets and i don't want to fab a bunch of stuff. Looks like the Clayton bracket drops down 2in but not sure.
 
Also thinking of running a tj or jk pitman arm to help with angles. Anybody have some measurements that can help?
 
Don’t do the over the axle track bar setup been there fabbed that. It caused terrible bump steer. I even had a outboard frame side track bar bracket I made and the track bar was just to short. Had perfect angles super flat but bumpsteer was a major issue. I ended up using jcr off-road 1 ton steering setup and cut ,bent, and then re-welded the tie rod on each end so that it pushed it away from the axle an extra 1 or 1.25 inches to provide the needed diff cover and spring perch clearance. I also went over the knuckle. Love the setup now and I have no regrets.

Track bar is a rubicon express HD adjustable with Johnny joint frame side. Matching track bar frame bracket and the track bar frame cross brace stiffener.

Wish you the best of luck. Sorry I couldn’t be any more help with specifics to your question and situation.
 
Also be aware that to much of a frame side drop can be bad. It causes more leverage on the unibody and if to low can contact the axle during full axle compression off-road.
 
WJ knuckle swap, or WJ axle swap?
Either way, if you can, bolt it up, measure, check angles and decide from there.
 
Gonna be the wj knuckle swap. Looks like I'm gonna do the tj pitman arm with the iro track bar frame bracket. Can anyone tell me how such the Clayton drop bracket drops the Trackbar down. I feel it may be enough to go over the knuckle
 
Gonna be the wj knuckle swap. Looks like I'm gonna do the tj pitman arm with the iro track bar frame bracket. Can anyone tell me how such the Clayton drop bracket drops the Trackbar down. I feel it may be enough to go over the knuckle

Not much help here but after spending several hundred dollars of my time and hours measuring cutting and welding 1.5 dom tubing and track bar brackets. I now have ripped everything off and went back to the stock lower setup and rubicon express brackets and trackbar. So much better and so much less bumpsteer.

OTA trackbar is just to short. I had my axle side mount shoved against the spring on once side and about 3 inches outboard of the frame on the other.

I have everything needed to bolt up except the weld on axle bracket that I scrapped torching it off. I’d love to give this all away but at the same time I’d hate for someone to go through what I did and spend all that money for nothing.

Probably isn’t what you want to hear but it’s the truth from my experience.

My track bar setup was almost exactly like the burgundy Cherokee halfway down the page below but with a beefier frame side bracket.
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f67/most-outboard-ota-trackbar-bracket-wj-swap-195117/index2/

(If I’m not allowed to make links to other forums please let me know I hate to brake forum rules I’m just trying to be helpful. I don’t know how to post images.)
 
It’s all personal preference as to how you will feel about the way the suspension and steering will now perform. I have a rubicon express hd bracket and brace with a JKS over the axle bracket and a DOM trackbar. I’m running WJ steering over the knuckle with a stock XJ pitman arm and about 5.5” of lift. Had it that way for years. It’s fine. Has been fine on the street and cruising through the open desert. I’m not saying bumpsteer is non existent but it’s not anywhere near enough of an issue to undo all that work. It’s not like if I hit a bump my jeep is going to suddenly dart to one side into a bus full of kids going to Sunday school. Lots of people do the WJ swap and have OTA trackbars. As I said, all comes down to preference
 
Radius Arc is an issue when your Track Bar is shorter than your draglink. Get them parallel and get them to as close as the same length as possible. Then you won't or should not have bumpsteer.
 
It’s all personal preference as to how you will feel about the way the suspension and steering will now perform. I have a rubicon express hd bracket and brace with a JKS over the axle bracket and a DOM trackbar. I’m running WJ steering over the knuckle with a stock XJ pitman arm and about 5.5” of lift. Had it that way for years. It’s fine. Has been fine on the street and cruising through the open desert. I’m not saying bumpsteer is non existent but it’s not anywhere near enough of an issue to undo all that work. It’s not like if I hit a bump my jeep is going to suddenly dart to one side into a bus full of kids going to Sunday school. Lots of people do the WJ swap and have OTA trackbars. As I said, all comes down to preference

my setup is about the same too, track bar is 4 " shorter then the draglink, but they are perfectly in line. i have no bump steer at all. been that way for 3 yrs. works great on & off road.
 
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