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FaultyLine

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
Location
Burbank
Hello folks - I'm curious to gather the collective thoughts of all the wonderful :NAXJA: members on what I'd like to do to my 2001 rust-bucket XJ. I'm not interested in "extreme" wheelin' but would like to replace the worn and sagging suspension so I can get some more flex out of it. Mostly everything is currently stock, with some minor things like the VANCO 15" brakes and Currie steering added to the mix.

I'd like to lift the vehicle which accomplishes 2 of the issues I bring up. I want to put a rear disk kit on the Detroit Locker axle I had given to me recently. Install an SYE so I can hopefully avoid drive shaft binding. Replace the rear drive shaft with a proper beefy drive shaft after the SYE install. I imagine that will get me about 90% of what I'll ever want to do to this Jeep.

Based on maintaining the factory driving experience, it seems like an Old Man Emu 3" or Rubicon Express 4.5" kit would work nicely. I've heard a LOT of good about the OME kits and mostly positive feedback about RE kits. Does anyone have experience with either, or an opinion about which is better? How should I go about choosing shocks? It seems like the Bilstein 5100 shocks are really decent for the price - but I have no idea which model to get to fit the Jeep properly and can't seem to figure it out :tear:

Once the lift kit is on - what kind of drive shaft would one recommend for the SYE to 8.25" rear end?

As for the rear disk brakes - I was thinking of this: goo.gl/VtxeDD

Any help, suggestions, comments are appreciated! Thanks everyone!
 
all things have been asked hundreds of times what are you going to be doing with it if your not into "extreme" wheeling...i'm sure many will agree but "extreme wheeling" means different things to different people....you also did not mention which size tire if your gonna do 33's you really dont need the vanco kit or rear discs they help but stock stuff in good working order does too...searching disc brake swap would inform you hundreds of times you can grab parts from a donor zj d35 or a kj 8.25 with minor mods for the rear...for a driveshaft you can go to tom woods or a couple others or do what i did i bought a '00+ tj front shaft and had it shortened and balanced half cost of a custom driveshaft and beefy enough
 
Moab is about as extreme as I'm going to get. I realize that isn't extreme for a lot of folks. I'm thinking 31" tires are the biggest I'll go.

Thanks for the information - I'll go find the hundreds of articles on rear disk swaps.
 
:thumbup:
Moab is about as extreme as I'm going to get. I realize that isn't extreme for a lot of folks. I'm thinking 31" tires are the biggest I'll go.

Thanks for the information - I'll go find the hundreds of articles on rear disk swaps.

The rear disc swap is pretty straigt forward. if you have to D35 its a direct bolt on, if you have the C8.25 you have to hone the backing plate a little to fit over the axels. All parts can be found on ZJs with rear disc brakes. It took me about 4 hours start to finish and thats with the extra time honing the backing plates. The only thing I havent dont was switch to the ZJ proportioning valve which I might do sometime soon when I replace the front brakes. It's probably my favorite mod/upgrade. :thumbup:
 
Thanks for the information askingforit.
 
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