ZJ e-brake cable and hoses (again)

I thought it was worth making a new thread, rather than letting the other one stray completely off course, so apologies in advance if this appears to be covering old ground. I've looked at http://www.4x4wire.com/jeep/tech/brakes/xjhoseext02/ and am just getting confused.

Can anyone clarify things for me: when converting to ZJ rear discs, do you need to change over the hoses and e-brake cables, or is it an option?

If I've got it right, the ZJ handbrake cable has a different end on to XJ cables, and is shorter: this means that you either have to buy new ones or shorten and modify the originals, as GoJeep did. Is this correct?

What about the standard hoses though? If you've got no lift, I can't see the necessity of changing the soft hose lines - can anyone please explain why I need to change them, or is it possible to just reuse the originals?

TIA

BTW, 1993 XJ, 8.25

The hose Berkeley talks about in that is only the soft line from the frame to the axle; that part is replaced in a lift but if you're stock there's really no reason to swap that out.

I didn't see a discussion of the ZJ disk swap in there, but if I recall the brake cable ends are the same - I just don't have any supporting documentation to go with that statement right now. However, if you have some links please post them up...I'm interested too.

Yucca-Man said:

I didn't see a discussion of the ZJ disk swap in there, but if I recall the brake cable ends are the same - I just don't have any supporting documentation to go with that statement right now. However, if you have some links please post them up...I'm interested too.

Click to expand...

Thanks Yucca-Man. Here's the link to the previous discussion http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=44053&page=2.

Noone else want to chime in?

Here's what you have to change:

- 'Body' to Axle line: the fittings are the same, change as you need for the amount of lift you have.

- Ebrake: XJ has a barrel end, ZJ has a 'looped' end that catches the ebrake arm. Definately needs to be addressed. Do some searches, there are a few ways to deal with it. I haven't decided how I want to handle it yet, so I haven't touched this part yet.

Axle to Brake caliper: XJ has a hard line. You need the soft line from the ZJ to allow the caliper to move as it works. If you use the XJ hard line, you risk weakening then breaking the line. I took the whole hard/soft lines from caliper to caliper for my conversion and mounted it on the D44.

-Jim C

All you need to know.................:lecture:

http://home.swbell.net/rriojas3/reardisk.html

Thanks for that webpage - I've been using it for my work, and it's really very good. Unfortunatley I shoud apologise for having a complete brain fart on Thursday - I now understand why you need the soft lines to the caliper.

Unfortunately, over here it's a test failure to have a crimp lock on the e-brake cables, so I thought I'd be sensible and go with ZJ cables. Now I see that they're far too short to be a direct swap. Should I be looking at getting the YJ cables instead, and do they have the correct end for the ZJ e-brake arm?

Thinking aloud here: since the ZJ cables are shorter, logically that would mean that the cable from the adjuster to the handbrake lever was longer. Is it possible to just change to the ZJ handbrake part of the cable to make up the difference?

In the quest for a moderately professional looking adaptation for the end of an XJ handbrake cable, I've come across this, which I thought was worth sharing. A little bit of work with a dremel to cut a channel for installing the cable end, followed by a splodge of welding, and it looks like being a cheap and neat link to the actuator assembly.

http://www.trailerpartswarehouse.co.uk/trailer_parts_spares/image_zoom.aspx?PartNo=BP26&Title=Clevis+5/16"+UNF

http://www.rjays.com/Lokar/Lokar-Brake-Cables.htm