WJ knuckle swap question

Rmart30 · Nov 17, 2011

Found me a 00 WJ today at the pullapart while there pulling some other parts for a porject. Came home with complete knuckles with rotors and calipers. $70 for everything otd.

After reading a ton of different posts I haven't found my answer.

Every write up I found was changed to OTK and most mentioned the track bar bracket had to be relocated and the sway bar mounts also.
Im after improved braking, not interested in doing anything additional for more ground clearance if it adds much more in cost or work to this swap.

My question is has anyone done this swap and not gone OTK ? If so, does the track bar bracket or sway bar mounts have to be moved if you do not go OTK with this setup?

92xjunk · Nov 17, 2011

If you are planning on running stock steering under the knuckle on the lower steering arm, and 4ish inches of lift or less, or a drop pitman arm, you should be ok.

Destroyer · Nov 17, 2011

If you aren't having any issues with your stock steering now, you should be fine to run it with the WJ knuckles setup the same way.

Lowrange2 · Nov 17, 2011

I think it needs to be a lil bit shorter... Not 100% sure on that.

Are aware that a dual diphram booster from the same vehicle would be more of a braking improvement than the dual piston calipers? If you're doing the calipers you might as well grab the booster and master and do it too. WELL worth it if you haven't already. I have an upgraded booster on all 3 of my XJs.

Rmart30 · Nov 17, 2011

Lowrange2 said:
I think it needs to be a lil bit shorter... Not 100% sure on that.

Are aware that a dual diphram booster from the same vehicle would be more of a braking improvement than the dual piston calipers? If you're doing the calipers you might as well grab the booster and master and do it too. WELL worth it if you haven't already. I have an upgraded booster on all 3 of my XJs.

its a 01 so it already has the dual diaphragm and its not a issue of longer/shorter track bar. Its the location of them that hits the OTK steering.

What I need to know is if with the WJ knuckles and WJ steering components installed in the factory WJ location on the XJ will the factory XJ sway bar mounts (on diff) and the track bar mount (on diff) have to be relocated if I run it that way. Or, will they have to be moved regardless of wether I go in factory WJ location, or moved to OTK.

MoparManiac · Nov 17, 2011

I can't answer that for you, but I can say that if you run the WJ steering UTK, it hangs down WAY low. Lower than XJ steering.

I would absolutely not want to run WJ steering UTK.

Lowrange2 · Nov 17, 2011

It SHOULD work with all factory WJ components.

I can't vouch for that simply because built mine OTK with all custom steering and tracbar.

If the sway bar mounts and tracbar mounts are in the same location on a WJ as they are on the XJ (Which I think they are) it should work fine.

Like Mopar said, I wouldn't go that route but if that's what you want to do then go for it. Can't hurt to try. Worst case scenerio you'll have a bunch off new paper weights.

At this link: http://www.google.com/imgres?q=WJ+D...bnw=146&start=15&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:13,s:15

it all seems to be in relativly the same spot. I think you'll be fine.

CartsXJ · Nov 17, 2011

Yes, you can run your stock trackbar set-up or mounting points. As far as your steering, I believe you can. But I would just pick up the drag-link and tie-rod from JKS along with their unit-bearing spacers, then a set of stock WJ TRE's off ebay and lower WJ ball joints. Then you should be good to go.

ryan6838 · Nov 18, 2011

You must be in Birmingham I was up there the other day and snagged the other set.

aparke4 · Nov 18, 2011

CartsXJ what is up? I bought some parts from you a long time back...

I had the WJ conversion and did OTK with heims (drilled out of course) and JKS spacers welded... i had to clearance the the diff by bending the tie rod out some at the weld in bungs but other than that all was gravy... I used the JKS mount for track bar because i had about 6.5 inches of lift

so sorry i never used factory hardware - it was easier for me to start from scratch with a fresh steering set up

gunselman · Nov 22, 2011

You can't use WJ tie rod's and drag links. They are to long to use on the XJ dana 30. I guess you could use them if you cut them down to the correct length but then they would need to be re tapped. The Tap needed is hard to find and expensive and its metric (24mm).

JKS sells the appropriate tie rod and drag link to use on the XJ.

Lowrange2 · Nov 22, 2011

Lowrange2 said:
I think it needs to be a lil bit shorter... Not 100% sure on that.

gunselman said:
You can't use WJ tie rod's and drag links. They are to long to use on the XJ dana 30. I guess you could use them if you cut them down to the correct length but then they would need to be re tapped. The Tap needed is hard to find and expensive and its metric (24mm).

JKS sells the appropriate tie rod and drag link to use on the XJ.

THIS is what I meant when I said it needs to be shorter...

CartsXJ · Nov 22, 2011

aparke4 said:
CartsXJ what is up? I bought some parts from you a long time back...

I had the WJ conversion and did OTK with heims (drilled out of course) and JKS spacers welded... i had to clearance the the diff by bending the tie rod out some at the weld in bungs but other than that all was gravy... I used the JKS mount for track bar because i had about 6.5 inches of lift

so sorry i never used factory hardware - it was easier for me to start from scratch with a fresh steering set up

Aparke4......how's everything going? What did I sell you? Can't remember, LOL!!!

I just rebuilt my Dana 30 with the WJ conversion, I am running ruffstuff's 1 ton GM steering and JKS's trackbar mount, along with Ruffstuff 3/4" hiems for a trackbar.

This is with 5.5" RE lift coils, no spacers.

You can run stock inverted y-style steering on WJ knuckles, if you need to. But only up to maybe 3", after that, why?

WJ knuckle swap question

Rmart30

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92xjunk

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Destroyer

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Lowrange2

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Rmart30

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MoparManiac

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Lowrange2

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CartsXJ

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ryan6838

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aparke4

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gunselman

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Lowrange2

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CartsXJ

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