Warn 5x5.5 Hub Conversion and WJ Steering

Well I have seen and heard of a few people doing this, JKS' site says to mill the knuckle a little bit, to center the caliper on the rotor

From JKS' site:
Mill work: The knuckles, at the caliper mounting surface, must have machine work done to remove .130 (+/-.010) material. Must be machined flat. Please verify this on your setup prior to machining. The idea is to remove enough material to center the caliper on the rotor.

The main problem I have is that with the .25" spacer the rotor is touching the knuckle not allowing anything to spin, to fix this and get the rotor centered in the caliper I need a .5" spacer. My main problem with this is that the spindle is no longer a tight fit in the knuckle like it should be, my question is, has anyone milled a spacer that is .5" thick and goes back into the making the spindle and the knuckle a tight fit again? thanx, Jamie

A buddy of mine machined a 1/2 spacer about 5 years ago, before we realized there was a better way to do it. IIRC, he also had to machine the back of the spindle. This was more complicated than it needed to be, & it spaced the ujoint 1/4" out past the king pin axis.

If you already have the 1/4" spacer wleded to the knuckle, & you've already machined 0.130 off the knuckle, my guess is that you've got the wrong rotors, otherwise it has to work. You need shallow hat CJ rotors. I think I have some here if you want some measurements to compare.

Paul

Just thought of something else, make sure you DIDN'T install the Warn 3/16" spacer between the rotor & wheel hub. It needs to be installed outside the wheel hub, or omitted completely.

Paul

well worked on the Jeep all day, replaced the inner axle seals, reshimmed the pinion, replaced the pinion seal, found a tear in my drivetrain direct outer seals, put new bearings and races in my hub conversion, did a test fit to see how much the knuckle would have to machined to center the rotor, over all a dissappointing day since I didn't figure all the bearings would be on their way out, and that the gears pretty much have to be setup again, but o well, here's some eye candy(click the photos for the larger version)
driver's side knuckle:

hub and rotor pressed together:

JKS .25" spacer(not welded yet):

and the problems start(nothing a grinder can't fix):

got a good amount of machining to do(looks around .25")

I will have more photos as I go along, Jamie

Alright, new developments in the swap, I got into talking with Blaine and he suggested using 1/2 spacers, so after getting them from him, I mocked it all up and the spacers need to be machined .05" and the caliper lines up fine, I also got the upgraded spindles from Warn since my old ones had a problem staying tight, I also realized that I had a tear in my Drivetrain Direct outer seals so I called them up to get a part number on the actual seal part and instead of getting a part number I got a new set of seals under warranty, tonight I got the JKS trackbar bracket welded, my RE LCA brackets welded to the axle, and shot a coat of paint on it, the spacers should be welded to the knuckles monday and my skinned diff cover should be done monday, the gears should be setup tuesday, the track bar will be made, it will be a modified skyjacker track bar with a Currie JJ and a poly bushing, wednesday and I should be done with everything by thursday, I can't wait to get this all done...I'm like a crack fiend without a fix, I haven't driven my Jeep in over a week

edit: I also tried to install my rear JKS barpin eliminators but got about half way through the first one and my arm was so tired from turning the allen wrench, I'm lazy so I will be picking up a ratchet 1/4" allen

I'm really intrigued by what you have encountered.

I'll be mocking mine up to figure out how much to mill this afternoon (need to run into town for bearing grease).

Hope I don't run into what you have...

yeah, instead of milling the knuckle/caliper bracket, I just went with a thicker spacer and milled that, i'll get some pictures monday after some of it's welded

Root Moose said:

I'm really intrigued by what you have encountered.

I'll be mocking mine up to figure out how much to mill this afternoon (need to run into town for bearing grease).

Hope I don't run into what you have...

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Hmm, I just realized you aren't using WJ knuckles (last pic above). At least my WJ knuckles look nothing like that...

I guess that explains some of the issues you've been having? From others this swap (Warn kit, WJ steering AND knuckles) is fairly straightforward.

those are WJ knuckles, that's the drivers side, what's diff between mine and yours is that you are probly running the newer calipers, I opted for the older ones, and yeah everyone I talked to said it was straight forward as well, but saldy enough as most things go, I ran into problems, oh well, nothing a little problem solving can't fix

Root Moose said:

Hmm, I just realized you aren't using WJ knuckles (last pic above). At least my WJ knuckles look nothing like that...

I guess that explains some of the issues you've been having? From others this swap (Warn kit, WJ steering AND knuckles) is fairly straightforward.

Click to expand...

TheHighHeat said:

those are WJ knuckles, that's the drivers side, what's diff between mine and yours is that you are probly running the newer calipers, I opted for the older ones, and yeah everyone I talked to said it was straight forward as well, but saldy enough as most things go, I ran into problems, oh well, nothing a little problem solving can't fix

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Gotcha, I see it.

If it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all. What should take a couple hours normally winds into days it seems.

Discovered I have the old style calipers this afternoon - and yes, it looks like yours (i.e. rotor really tight to the caliper bracket). I note that the D-C retrofit kit for early WJs also spec a new rotor. Maybe the hat depth is different.

Got some more stuff done today, not all of it steering but made some pretty good progress
rear JKS BPE installed with a ton of anti-sieze


My free JKS Quicker discos, I got rid of those allen head bolts and replaced them with hex bolts


It's coming along, yes that's a dana 30

Drivetrain Direct out axle seals(Quality product...even better customer service)


JKS Trackbar bracket


RE LCA Mounts

Did some more work today ended up getting the axle back under the Jeep, got my knuckles with the 1/2" spacers welded up and installed, bolted the new spindles and hubs up, got the calipers on and brake system bled, installed the JKS tie rod and drag link, I took off my skyjacker drop pitman arm and put my stock one back on(which will probly be changed out for a wagoneer pitman arm with a longer throw), before I did this my drag link was parallel to the ground and I couldn't get my trackbar parallel to it, I got my RE trackbar bracket installed, took measurements so I could get my Skyjacker trackbar cut and welded up, I took some measurements and decided to push my wheelbase out 1/2", I got my extended bumpstops in, I got my DPG disco cables installed, I had 2 diff covers laying around so I started playing around and cut one of them up and had them welded together for cheap diff protection, I also had a buddy of mine tighten up the gears while it was all out, it's good to see my Jeep standing on it's own again, the brakes feel pretty stiff and I noticed a difference just from putting my Jeep in drive, with my rear detroit my whole jeep use to jump forward when I put it in gear but these new brakes don't let it, with my drag link and tie rod flipped on top of the knuckles I had a problem with them being to long, the tie rod will have to be cut down 3/8" on each side and the drag link has yet to be determined since I don't have the trackbar installed yet and I know this post is useless without pictures but I didn't have my camera with me today so I'll snap some pictures while I home tomorrow and post em up, any questions?

TheHighHeat said:

...with my drag link and tie rod flipped on top of the knuckles I had a problem with them being to long, the tie rod will have to be cut down 3/8" on each side.

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How would a knuckle to knuckle tie rod be to long when flipped from under to over?

I got nothin:banghead:I have no idea why it isn't fitting right, I do know that everything is installed right though, since I took it all apart checked it all and put it back together with the same results, with the tie rod cranked all the way down on the TREs it's toed out 1/16", the guy at JKS said he'd never heard of anything like this, but that's my luck

91 Jeep Project said:

How would a knuckle to knuckle tie rod be to long when flipped from under to over?

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As promised
passenger side

drivers side

diff cover

all of it

caliper in 15" rim, tight fit

LCA

Outer axle seals

back just a bit for a whole frontend view

TheHighHeat said:

I got nothin:banghead:I have no idea why it isn't fitting right, I do know that everything is installed right though, since I took it all apart checked it all and put it back together with the same results, with the tie rod cranked all the way down on the TREs it's toed out 1/16", the guy at JKS said he'd never heard of anything like this, but that's my luck

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I had the same problem with the JKS stuff being too long. Cut a quarter inch and put everything up this weekend. I'm back to good but could use a touch more as I'm almost adjusted all of the way in.

Also, I ran the stock booster on my '99 for a few months and noticed a brake drag at the pass rear. Pulled the o-ring from the prop valve and all is good AND it stops better (more even).

well I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that has had this problem, yeah when I went with the 8.8 in the rear I pulled the o-ring off the prop valve and it made a world of difference

Paul S said:

A buddy of mine machined a 1/2 spacer about 5 years ago, before we realized there was a better way to do it. IIRC, he also had to machine the back of the spindle. This was more complicated than it needed to be, & it spaced the ujoint 1/4" out past the king pin axis.

If you already have the 1/4" spacer wleded to the knuckle, & you've already machined 0.130 off the knuckle, my guess is that you've got the wrong rotors, otherwise it has to work. You need shallow hat CJ rotors. I think I have some here if you want some measurements to compare.

Paul

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Do you happen to know the measurements for the cj shallow hat rotors or what years? I'm in the same predicament right now and would like to hear your experience. I considered doing the 1/2" spacer but I'm concerned that it would be a weak point on those bolts...

What's your easier way than rubbing that 1/2 spacer?

You do realize that this thread is 9 years old?