WJ swap.......info and lessons learned

Not as much fun and more time consuming than I thought, but isn't everything we do.

1. The drag link JKS sends was too long for me. I used a stock pitman arm and mounted the TRE as they would stock and the ended up cutting 1.5" off each end of the draglink and 1" off the stock WJ TRE just to get it close and it's still too long by about half of turn of the steering wheel. The plan is to find a piece of tubing stock and cut the threaded ends off the JKS draglink and convert them into tubing bungs and weld them into the tube and make a custom draglink.

2. My MM hub kit with sport-trac rotors still required spacing of the caliper mounts to center the rotor.

3. THe MM and Warn kits uses CJ front wheel bearings for their hubs, both the 5 on 4.5" and 5 on 5.5" kits. Not Ranger bearings like previous thought.

4. The stock bend in the WJ pitman arm TRE sucks, totally the wrong bend. Can be fixed in a press very easily.



Haven't gotten to the trackbar yet. But as it stands with the stock pitman arm and RE HD trackbar bracket and stock axle mount, no noticeable bump steer.

Will apply more info, as the conversion procedes.

Oh yeah.........becareful on seating the brakes and doing brake checks, you might find yourself picking your teeth out of the steering wheel.

I just installed a WJ pitman arm on mine today and even though I didn’t buy the JKS draglink I bet it would fit because of how it’s clocked.

REDDOGG.XJ said:

I just installed a WJ pitman arm on mine today and even though I didn’t buy the JKS draglink I bet it would fit because of how it’s clocked.

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Is the WJ pitman arm clocked differently? I can see why it is clocked the way that it is for a stock height WJ, but for a lifted Jeep, it takes away some of the droop angle.

The splines of the WJ pitman arm off set compared to the XJ arm this is because the WJ steering arm @ the knuckle doesn’t stick straight out it points to the drivers side. I used the JKS track bar weld on bracket and with the OTK conversion I had bump steer, even though the WJ pitman arm may not have as much drop as an XJ pitman arm it fixed it and also I get full lock to lock now.

CartsXJ said:

4. The stock bend in the WJ pitman arm TRE sucks, totally the wrong bend. Can be fixed in a press very easily.

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Why is the bend of WJ pitman arm TRE so wrong? Doesn't it just step it down a little to allow for more space above the draglink when flexed? I contemplated getting the Chevy ES2027L TRE for the pitman arm but in the end settled on all Moog WJ TRE's - I know some people said that the WJ pitman TRE doesn't have enough droop, but I figured the Moog ones, might allow a bit more movement than the OE ones.

Mine is still to be installed, so I cannot speak from any experience...

gorman said:

Why is the bend of WJ pitman arm TRE so wrong? Doesn't it just step it down a little to allow for more space above the draglink when flexed? I contemplated getting the Chevy ES2027L TRE for the pitman arm but in the end settled on all Moog WJ TRE's - I know some people said that the WJ pitman TRE doesn't have enough droop, but I figured the Moog ones, might allow a bit more movement than the OE ones.

Mine is still to be installed, so I cannot speak from any experience...

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Its actually bent the wrong way. You would figure the bedn would be more like the TRE at the pitman arm of the currie system, but the one I have is bent in the opposite direction. It would be good if I mounted teh TRE above the pitman arm, but thats a little more work than I want to bite off. Drilling out a pitman arm, and welding in a flip-it kit, while I can do it, I just rather not.

Here's three different angles of the WJ upper TRE at the pitman arm:



It bends down - how is that a problem or am I missing something. I can understand if it bends forward or backward, but as it is all it'll do is change the angle of the draglink.

I tried looking for a pic of a Currie setup, but from what I could see their's are straight at the pitman arm side.

If you look at the pic, I need the TRE to sit at the angle of the long red line, which move the TRE into its upper limit of flex. Though this was at full droop. I haven't crawled under there since I put it down off the lift to see how it sits now at ride height.

Ahh, I hear what you say. You're saying the same as everyone else - I guess that's why some people use the Chevy high misalignment TREs, cause the give more droop to the draglink.

As mentioned, I'm putting my trust in the Moog TREs providing a bit more movement than the OE ones.

Here's a nice pic of the TRE you mention. BTW, do you have the TREs on the knuckles flipped or installed from the bottom - it'll make a difference to the angles.

gorman said:

Ahh, I hear what you say. You're saying the same as everyone else - I guess that's why some people use the Chevy high misalignment TREs, cause the give more droop to the draglink.

As mentioned, I'm putting my trust in the Moog TREs providing a bit more movement than the OE ones.

Here's a nice pic of the TRE you mention. BTW, do you have the TREs on the knuckles flipped or installed from the bottom - it'll make a difference to the angles.

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I stalled them from the bottom up. I looked at the draglink TRE at the knuckle and don't really see how the geometry would allow it to be flipped, unless you used one from the tierod.

Are you runing a WJ pitman arm in that pic? It looks like it allows the stock size JKS draglink to be used.

That's not my Jeep - only one that has been though the mod...

I have all the components, but I'm also doing a whole front axle build, so it might be a while untill I have it running with the WJ knuckles. Wrt flipping the TRE - the trick is to get a RHD lower TRE on the draglink. Seeing that my Jeep is a RHD, it was easy for me as LHD ones are easy to find (bought mine on Rockauto, but they don't do the RHD models).

Here's what a flipped RHD draglink lower TRE would look like:

possibly a mod I might tackle the next time the TRE's need replacing, or when I get bored :laugh2:

Carts, do you by any chance know the lengths of your tierod and draglink? I bought some 32mm (1.25") hollowbar today to make my tierod and draglinks from - would like some advice on the lengths.

I take it you have found a decent priced source for 24x1.5 mm left-hand thread taps?

As far as length, drag-link looks to be around ~20", but could even be shorter, Tie-rod.....not sure, I'll have to measure it for you. The stock JKS tie-rod works great, the drag-link.....not so much for me.

Nope, but I've asked the local machining shop to do the threads for me on the lathe - I have found some RH and LF locknuts though.