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wj swap question

G

ghettocherokee

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Salt Lake City, Utah
So I am going to do a wj knuckle swap in a few weeks, so I am getting parts now. Here is a list of what I need/have.
Wj knuckles
Akebono calipers
02 sport trac disks
Knuckle spacers
Lower wj ball joints
Jks drag link and tie rod
OTA track bar mount
New track bar

Am I missing anything? I was curious if my stock pitman arm would work with the wj TREs or do I need a different one?
 
You do not need WJ upper ball joints. The uppers are the same, it is the lower that has the different taper. I have WJ steering and am running stock XJ uppers and WJ lower ball joints.

WJSteering_zpse3c9f8f5.jpg


List looks good. Only other thing I could think of is perhaps TRE inserts if you plan on going OTK steering (unless you plan on reaming the knuckles).

My list of parts.

(2) WJ Knuckles
(2) WJ Calipers & pads
(2) Knuckle spacers
(2) WJ lower ball joints
(2) IRO WJ Disk Brake Rotors (w/XJ pattern)
(1) WJ RHD drag link TRE (P/N 52088512)
(3) Go-fer-it inserts
(1) 7/8" Hex Head TRE 18tpi 1" tube ID for 1ton pitman arm (Pitman arm was already reamed for 1Ton steering)
I cut and sleeved the stock WJ tie rod and draglink.
 
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xWhatever on the uppers being the same.

You will also need washers to put between the hub and rotor. I think I used 9/16" SAE washers, as the knurl of the wheel studs showed a little through the hub face. 10 should do.

As long as you have a grinder + a wheel or two, you're good to go. Just be careful while you grind a moving wheel hub - those lugs and u-joints are in a hurry and will ruin your day if you make contact.

OH - sway bar mounts. I ran stock steering so I can't say firsthand but I am fairly sure you will need to remove your sway bar mounts on the axle side because they will not clear a crossover tie rod. This may only apply to OTK... not sure, don't remember.

And copper washers for your brake lines. You'll want 4.
 
Yes, I replaced the hub/unit bearings with 2001 models. I did not have to use any washers to space the rotors or grind the hub OD.
 
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WAZZUXJ said:
I did not have to use any washers to space the rotors or grind the hub OD.
Click to expand...

This is because you ran the IRO rotors, which are re-drilled WJ stuff (I think)
If you run sport-trac stuff... washers & grinding.
I recommend re-drilling off the shelf WJ.
 
I don't have access to a drill press, otherwise I would drill the wj rotors. Where would I get SAE washers for the hubs and rotor? Also I was going to replace my unit bearings this week because they are squealing like crazy, can I get 00-01 unit bearing and run them on the xj knuckle? I have a 98 HP 30.
 
Yea they'll bolt up but your current rotors won't sit correctly in the calipers you have. If your pads are worn enough it'll probably still bolt up but won't be correct. I don't remember how far off it'll be.
 
Replace your rotors with 00+ ones if you go the 00+ UB's. Otherwise its plug n pray.
 
ghettocherokee said:
I don't have access to a drill press, otherwise I would drill the wj rotors. Where would I get SAE washers for the hubs and rotor? Also I was going to replace my unit bearings this week because they are squealing like crazy, can I get 00-01 unit bearing and run them on the xj knuckle? I have a 98 HP 30.
Click to expand...

Just making sure, you do have an angle grinder though?
Or a buddy with a grinder or a drill press?
Otherwise, you're SOL and should buy them pre-drilled from Iron Rock.

SAE washers aren't all that exotic, not like aircraft grade stuff. I just went to the hardware store and looked at their Grade 8 stuff, usually has a gold colored coating on it, and picked washers out of that bin. I'm actually not sure if they were USS or SAE but in any case, the washers were all of a uniform thickness - unlike the stuff in the other bins.
 
Don't need a drill press to drill the rotors. I laid one on top of an XJ rotor. Centered it, marked the holes and drilled by hand. Worked fine.
 
I have a shop to work in with a welder, grinder and a torch. Just no drill press. What part of the hub would I have to grind? How much grinding? I am just nervous of drilling the rotors because I'm sure I will screw it up. I assume it isn't good to drive 500 miles on a bad hub.
 
Well, how many miles are on the hub and how bad is it?
Unless it's scary-floppy-tire-moves-an-inch-freely bad, I woudn't sweat it.
People talk about wheels falling off... it'd have to suck the axle shaft through the back of the bearing housing to do it. I'm not saying "don't fix it" I'm saying "don't sweat it... for now"

The OD of the hub needs ground down maybe 1/16th. I didn't measure it, I just freehanded. Took a couple minutes a side.
 
It squeals pretty bad, been doing to for a few weeks now. I am pretty sure that they are the original hubs that came on the jeep. I am planning on picking up spare shafts for wheeling anyways, if the hub gets super bad, I will just swap a JY shaft in with the hub to make it the rest of the drive. I guess I will know in a few weeks what I will be doing about the disks. Also, I want to run 12" travel shocks. I am thinking Bilstein, same compressed length as my fox 10" travel. How do they ride? Any ideas of how to make an old tow strap into a limit strap?
 
Drilling out the rotors is super easy. I did it with a unibit and a 12v drill. A lot easier than washers and grinding hubs.

the Unit bearing (hub) i used was for a '03 Tj. I believe they are the same part numbers as the 00-01 xj unit bearings, but part stores can accidently mix them up.

If you use the '03 unit bearings (00-01xj), you can run the stock WJ rotors, it centers the rotor back in the caliper. Set the old xj rotor on the new wj and redrill the pattern from your old xj rotor. The rotors are Hub centric so the size of the lug holes isn't critical. This eliminates the need to grind down the unit bearing to fit the sporttrac rotors.

There is less margin for error if you go this route.





 
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I used the Sport Trac rotors and didn't have to grind the hub of the unit bearing. I also didn't space the rotor, there were no issues with the wheel studs for me. Instead, I found that the rotor was not centered within the caliper bracket, so I spaced the caliper bracket inboard with 2 washers on each of the two caliper bracket bolts. I suppose I could have spaced the rotor out instead to resolve this, but I see no downside to what I did.
 
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