yossarian19
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Grass Valley, CA
Before the install, let me review why you would bother swapping.
For the 99-04 Grand Jeep redesigned the front end. Both upper and lower control arms got gone over. Same length, so no new geometry, but much larger bushings. This is one reason the WJ is more comfortable: more rubber between you and the axle. Since the eye-to-eye length is the same, it's not a real hard swap to put the lower control arms from a WJ into an XJ, TJ, ZJ or MJ.
And, yes, let me point you to Gojeep - who posted all this years ago...
This first picture is actually after I started modding the control arm, but you can see roughly where the bushing starts.
Basically, it's about 1/2" too wide at first. When you cut the steel sleeve that the bolt passes through, make sure to keep the rubber from melting. I used a spray bottle of water & tried to keep it wet, stopping frequently to let the bushing shed some heat. You really don't want to melt it, which you could easily do.
Note, though, that now that you've cut the sleeve to the right width it is damn near even with the end of the bushing's steel casing. This means that when you bolt it up in the control arm that the casing will be preventing much misalignment / twist on the arm, because it will contact the control arm pocket.
More grinding, like so:
If I got the right files inserted, you can see that I ground away some of the steel casing to un-shroud the sleeve for the bolt.
NOTE: The large oval bushing is the one that needs cutting / grinding on. The axle side bushing is round and you can leave it alone. I recommend something NOT a 4.5" grinder or sawzall to modify the frame side oval bushing. Bandsaw, larger grinder, abrasive 14" cutoff wheel, etc. The 4.5" cutoff wheel doesn't leave you a lot of blade to work with on a 4" bushing. Moving on...
Now we remove the lower control arms from the XJ. I did this with the XJ on the ground to minimize shifting. Also, remove and replace one control arm at a time. Again, this will minimize shifting and make it easier on you.
First problem I ran into, once I had the bushing width corrected, was that in a past life I'd used an impact gun to tighten the lower control arm bolts. 500 ft-lbs is a helluva lot to loosen by hand, on your back, under the XJ. So I attached a Matco 1/2" ratchet (warrantied) to the bolt, wedged a counter-holding wrench to the nut, and turned the ratchet with this:
The jack lifted the ratchet handle easily (of course it did). Lower the jack, the ratchet drops, use the jack again. I had to do this 3 times before the bolt was loose enough to work with. YMMV.
Now that the XJ lower control arm is out, you want to take a BFH and tap the axle's lower control arm bracket a bit wider. It really isn't hard. I used a 16oz ball peen and it only took a handful of clumsy swings under there to get the space I needed.
Put the modified WJ arm in there, put the bolt through it but do not tighten it yet.
Now put the frame side of the arm in there w/ bolt.
NOW tighten both sides. The fit on either end can be adjusted with a hammer or a grinder, whichever, and as you tighten the bolt you'll take up any slack. You end up with this:
Test drive the Jeep. Don't leave your first drive after *any* work for your morning commute or a road trip.
I noticed right away that a lot less road noise is transmitted to the cabin. It's kind of strange, actually, how much it changes the feel of the vehicle. I'm quite impressed with it. I could also probably fit 30" tires on stock wheels & stock height without rubbing on the LCA, thanks to the S curve designed into it from the factory.
Hope this helps somebody...
For the 99-04 Grand Jeep redesigned the front end. Both upper and lower control arms got gone over. Same length, so no new geometry, but much larger bushings. This is one reason the WJ is more comfortable: more rubber between you and the axle. Since the eye-to-eye length is the same, it's not a real hard swap to put the lower control arms from a WJ into an XJ, TJ, ZJ or MJ.
And, yes, let me point you to Gojeep - who posted all this years ago...
This first picture is actually after I started modding the control arm, but you can see roughly where the bushing starts.
Basically, it's about 1/2" too wide at first. When you cut the steel sleeve that the bolt passes through, make sure to keep the rubber from melting. I used a spray bottle of water & tried to keep it wet, stopping frequently to let the bushing shed some heat. You really don't want to melt it, which you could easily do.
Note, though, that now that you've cut the sleeve to the right width it is damn near even with the end of the bushing's steel casing. This means that when you bolt it up in the control arm that the casing will be preventing much misalignment / twist on the arm, because it will contact the control arm pocket.
More grinding, like so:
If I got the right files inserted, you can see that I ground away some of the steel casing to un-shroud the sleeve for the bolt.
NOTE: The large oval bushing is the one that needs cutting / grinding on. The axle side bushing is round and you can leave it alone. I recommend something NOT a 4.5" grinder or sawzall to modify the frame side oval bushing. Bandsaw, larger grinder, abrasive 14" cutoff wheel, etc. The 4.5" cutoff wheel doesn't leave you a lot of blade to work with on a 4" bushing. Moving on...
Now we remove the lower control arms from the XJ. I did this with the XJ on the ground to minimize shifting. Also, remove and replace one control arm at a time. Again, this will minimize shifting and make it easier on you.
First problem I ran into, once I had the bushing width corrected, was that in a past life I'd used an impact gun to tighten the lower control arm bolts. 500 ft-lbs is a helluva lot to loosen by hand, on your back, under the XJ. So I attached a Matco 1/2" ratchet (warrantied) to the bolt, wedged a counter-holding wrench to the nut, and turned the ratchet with this:
The jack lifted the ratchet handle easily (of course it did). Lower the jack, the ratchet drops, use the jack again. I had to do this 3 times before the bolt was loose enough to work with. YMMV.
Now that the XJ lower control arm is out, you want to take a BFH and tap the axle's lower control arm bracket a bit wider. It really isn't hard. I used a 16oz ball peen and it only took a handful of clumsy swings under there to get the space I needed.
Put the modified WJ arm in there, put the bolt through it but do not tighten it yet.
Now put the frame side of the arm in there w/ bolt.
NOW tighten both sides. The fit on either end can be adjusted with a hammer or a grinder, whichever, and as you tighten the bolt you'll take up any slack. You end up with this:
Test drive the Jeep. Don't leave your first drive after *any* work for your morning commute or a road trip.
I noticed right away that a lot less road noise is transmitted to the cabin. It's kind of strange, actually, how much it changes the feel of the vehicle. I'm quite impressed with it. I could also probably fit 30" tires on stock wheels & stock height without rubbing on the LCA, thanks to the S curve designed into it from the factory.
Hope this helps somebody...
