Front Brake Price Quotes

[kastein]

I usually use a can or two of brake cleaner on the rotors and pads before assembly, helps speed up breakin to remove the packing grease before using them.

Also I am :gee: and use a pair of wrenches as levers to push the caliper piston back in.

Out of curiosity how bad were the notches ground into your caliper mounts on the steering knuckle?

 

[98NWCherokee]

I did soak the whole assembly with brake cleaner before putting the tires back on. I think they were broken in with 3 good stops from 30mph. They felt solid after that.

I thought about using a wrench but I didn't want to score or damage the piston in the caliper. I used a flat piece of metal to cover the piston and then put my c-clamp on it.

I didn't observe notching on the knuckle. To be honest, I wasn't really looking for it. Everything seemed pretty straight forward and as it should be. My 98 is a 2wd so it's a pavement princess that hasn't ever been abused.

 

[austinaubinoe]

while you were down there you should have thrown on a d30

nice job doing it yourself, and you made a smart decision spending some of your savings on upgraded pads.

 

[98NWCherokee]

Thanks austinaubinoe. To be honest, I've gone back and forth about converting to 4wd. I really want to keep this XJ for at least the next 2 years. I've done some reading and replacing the AW4, TC, front and rear DS, linkage AND d30 just adds up to so much work. I know I could hunt down a wrecked XJ and just yank the parts off but it would be a slow process for me. This is my daily driver, plus its nice to get 22mpg on the freeway and 18 in town. If the perfect rolled XJ came along for $500 I might bite but until then....pavement it is.

 

[kastein]

I get 23mpg on the freeway in my '91 MJ with a d30 under the front (but no driveshaft or transfer case yet, though it won't affect the mileage materially.) That's driving like a granny at 55-65mph with 1400lbs of junk in the back. I get around 16-17 mixed highway/city driving 80mph with a heavy hammer foot and anywhere from 0 to 900lbs in the back.

It's really not that bad. The d30 swap took me 10 hours alone doing it the first time, it took me and a friend 3-4 hours the second time, and that was with no power tools. I threw the d30 in the front of my MJ intending to 4wd swap it at some point, but my immediate need was for a front axle that wasn't so severely rusted I was afraid to put new shocks on it for fear of the mounts breaking off on the first pothole.

The AW4 swap on the other hand took me... 6-7 hours last night working alone, pulled the entire drivetrain to do it, swapped the transmission, stuck the whole drivetrain back in. That was in a parking lot, in the dark, working alone in a thunderstorm though. I still have to connect up a bunch of hoses and wires and crap so figure another 3 hours and it's done.

Given the choice I would do it again in a heartbeat, even in the same weather.

 

[joe_peters]

Kastein, any developments on getting a house? Parking lot in a thunderstorm--that sucks!

 

[kastein]

not really.

Actually it wasn't bad... or I'm getting used to it.

98NWCherokee - if you can find the parts, do it. Hell if you were any closer I'd sell you most of the parts for what they cost me and help install em, I have almost everything I need to do the swap sitting in my storage unit. Shipping ~500lbs of car parts cross country would be a little silly though.