Axle upgrade, but keep ABS?

hear me out- the our 99 XJ is the offroad toy/wifes winter vehicle, up until recently... it is currently sitting on a 4.5" Rough Country lift on 31's, with a Detroit Softlocker in the rear. since it has abs, it's the venerable Dana 35. when installing the locker (and doing a rear brake job), I think we moved an ABS sensor just too far from the tone ring and I lost ABS. This combined with the locker, she is hesitant to drive it in the snow (we have a 9 week old) and would rather just stay home then drive somewere in that, or take her Mitsu Lancer.

The goal of the build is as follows. we are talking east coast mud/rock terrain, mostly rausch creek type stuff. I currently came into an '89 XJ (my thrid XJ to date) which is going to turn into a budget/junkyard/rat trail only rig, using parts I have, or get for free, and it will be a trailer queen (35's, dana 60's, locked, yadda yadda yadda). so you can leave the "hardcore" reasoning out of this vehicle. The '99 will need to keep up with the "boys" on the larger trail rides, but still be a good inclement weather vehicle as a primary purpose and will still be my off road toy until the '89 is finished.

I would like to upgrade to a beefier rear to eventually run 33's, add something like a LSD in the rear and a selectable in the front. Ideally, the rear would come with an LSD to keep costs down. LSD will be a bit more predictable in the snow and Ice. To make it acceptable to the wife, how do I keep ABS with an axle swap? I would love to add rear disks in the process as well. everything screams ZJ Dana 44 due to availability, but I would prefer an Iron Axle, not aluminum....

so here is the big question:

has anyone ever converted an XJ Dana 44 to have ZJ ABS disk brakes? and will a LSD from an alum. ZJ 44 fit in an Iron XJ 44? This seems like it would be the best of both worlds for my situation, if I could just get all of the parts together, but obviously don't want to start until I get a clue that it could work. searching only turns up "if you are going to swap an axle, you will loose ABS"

any ideas?:helpme:

why does a lack of ABS make you afraid of driving in the snow? you just pump the brakes...dont slam them on...

anyway...

I would think the LSD would fit in the XJ 44....same size, just a different material used for weight and possibly cost reasons.

With the ABS...not sure. I'd imagine you could modify it to work, just like doing any other disc brake conversion - and as long as the ABS systems were the same, you should be ok. I'd get a 99GC setup just to be sure. ChryCo probably used the same ABS system in both models for the same year.

X2, 1999 Jeep, ordered new with out ABS. Drives just fine in the snow. Just brake carefully. When it starts to slide, get off brake. Simple.

I much prefer my new lack of ABS--if anything, I can stop more quickly. If there is snow on the road, she should be in 4WD--that will keep her straight if the rear end tries to come around. Teach her when to pull the ugly stick (assuming you don't have a 242 nor front locker) and all will be well.

Lockrite makes a locker for the dana 35 with ABS. Does any body know if the tone rings on the front dana 30 fit the aftermarket alloy axles?

usually ABS on oversized tires in XJ's yields goofy undesireable braking characteristics anyways, several people ditch it because it acts so funky.

ABS will still lose traction in the snow/ice. I think good tires here are a bigger factor.

ABS mainly allows you to steer in a dry panic-stop situation, but in snow/ice, you are likely to slide with or without ABS in such a situation.

Straight-line dry braking has been shown to be *worse* with ABS, as the "pumping" increases the stopping distance.

I think you'd be OK without it. I think the two more important variables than ABS are (1) driving carefully and not to fast for conditions, and (2) good tires with a sever weather rating.

thanks for all of the opinions so far, but it is not my driving ability we are talking about, it is hers. and "it doesn't have ABS" is all she needs as an excuse to not drive it. I will have to try coaching her into driving it this way

maybe we should just get her a 4wd passat or something like that, but that isn't a cheap solution

why does she need a car anyways? there's no roads between the kitchen and the laundry room, hahahaha


sorry, had to say it.

nice one wheelinjr.... lose the abs,, much safer!!

instead of trying to talk me out of it, anyone have any ideas on how or if it could be done?

First why don't you fix the sensor on the D35 so the ABS works again? Once you have that done you can test it to see if it is really going to be a big deal.

As far as I know the ZJ D44 carrier is the same as any other D44 carrier. If is has a tone ring you should be able to drill the XJ D44 housing and install the sensor. If it isn't going to be wheeled hard I'd keep the D35 and toss in some alloys or something, unless you have a XJ D44 just lying around.

the broken abs in the 35 is not the cause for the swap, more of an example of why I would like to retain abs after the swap. thanks for the input. I guess there is only one way to find out. hard part will be finding the xj 44

you could go with an 8.8. some of them were equipped with the abs tone ring. easier to find, cheaper and can be had with disk brakes.

I believe the fords use a tone ring on the Ring gear, and the cherokee system uses a sensor at each wheel. I would be concerned with splitting the signal

ah, i didn't relize the d35 wasn't like the 8.8 with the tone ring on the carrier.

jmop said:

you could go with an 8.8. some of them were equipped with the abs tone ring. easier to find, cheaper and can be had with disk brakes.

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The 8.8 has a single tone ring in the pumpkin, as opposed to the two at the axle ends on the D35.
So...
You can break every other tooth off of the 8.8 ring and combine the signals, or do what I did and retrofit tone rings on the 8.8 shafts.
Once the D35 tone rings are off, they are such an odd size that I needed to Dremel out the tone rings and then put them on the 8.8 axle shafts with a small sleeve.
Some machine work was needed, due to the convex nature of the tone ring housing.
It was not an easy task, but I have ABS on my disk-brake 8.8.
Wouldn't change a thing.

When I first started building my 44 I looked at pressing on the tone rings for the axles. Didn't bother in the end because it was too much of a baother and I didn't really have room for them with my custom hub/brake config.

On a rig that gets wheeled you don't want ABS. It could lead to scary muddy downhill syndrome.

Root Moose said:

When I first started building my 44 I looked at pressing on the tone rings for the axles. Didn't bother in the end because it was too much of a baother and I didn't really have room for them with my custom hub/brake config.

On a rig that gets wheeled you don't want ABS. It could lead to scary muddy downhill syndrome.

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that is why you turn off ABS off road, it is much easier than you think

tomcat said:

that is why you turn off ABS off road, it is much easier than you think

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Who said it was hard? The issue is whether most people KNOW that it is an issue.