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Need Brakes upgrade

Mike from Chile

NAXJA Forum User
Hi guys,
MIne is a XJ classik 2000 4.0 with 4" lift. My tires are 32 and brakes are still stock what makes the Jeep hard to stop. I don't want to spend lots of money but I really need to improve them. What should I buy or replace?
Thanks for your advise.
Mike
 
If the brakes are old, new front rotors and pads will make a huge difference. Same with the rear, Get shoes and new drums. Makes all the difference in the world. If your looking for more of a upgrade. look into rear disc brakes
 
Swap to rear disc. They stop better & are easier to maintain. JIM.
 
whats the budget like?

i would be one to think a booster upgrade, or front upgrade to grand knuckles/capilers would do much more then a simple rear disk swap, as the front does 70% yada yada...
 
Budget and WJ swap do not go hand in hand.

Plan on re-doing your steering and track bar setups.


when someone says BUDGET BUILT, they mean cheap. when someone asks about THE budget... theyre asking what kind of budget the guys working with... a budget can be large or small...


::goes off to research the wj stuff::
 
Hi guys,
MIne is a XJ classik 2000 4.0 with 4" lift. My tires are 32 and brakes are still stock what makes the Jeep hard to stop. I don't want to spend lots of money but I really need to improve them. What should I buy or replace?
Thanks for your advise. Mike

With my XJ, I have noticed how the braking power has decreased as the tire sizes have increased over the years.
When you upgraded the tires on your XJ, you went to tires 4" taller and almost 50% heavier than stock. It takes a lot more brake to stop it now.
If you stay with the stock brakes, all you can do it to optimized what you have. Think premium rotors and aggressive pads.
Make sure the back brakes are still operational and adjusting properly.

There are no 'cheap' upgrades.
Your 2000 XJ already has the better dual-diaphragm master cylinder/booster.
Better brake hoses produce minor improvements unless you have bad, old hoses.
ZJ rear brakes can be installed but they do not make a huge difference since the front brakes do most of the braking.
Front brake upgrades are limited (for most of us) to WJ brakes and hubs or an after-market upgrade such as Vanco.
Either way, it’s a lot of work and money. You might consider downsizing the tires to 30"s or 31"s if the lack of brakes still bothers you.
Now you have better understanding why Jeep stands for "just empty every pocket' Good
 
Remove wheel and drum.
Then turn the little wheel on the bottom of the brakes.
install drum and when the brakes drag just a bit (slighly hard to turn by hand) re install everything and your good.
 
I just put the WJ booster and master cylilnder on mine from a 2003 WJ. I am running 35 inch tires. Before the booster change, if a pedestrian stepped off the curb in front of me, they would see my face in the windshield because I had to stand up and put both feet on the pedal. Now if a pedestrian steps out in front of me, they see my face in the windshield, because my XJ stops faster than my seat belt can hold me.
This is a 250% increase. Cal Tuttle has posted information on our NAXJA website on this installation. It was not real difficult, nor expensive. Once I had the parts, the job took 2 1/2 hours. The rod had to be bent to match the pedal position, the firewall seam had to be hammered about 1/8 inch to clear the booster, and in my case, my91 had a separate brake light switch, so that could be left alone. The same bolt holes worked, and after installation and bleeding, I was stopping better than I ever did with stock size tires.
 
Again, booster wont help as he already has the dual booster the same size as a WJ one.
Might pay to look into hydro boost instead.
The only other way to overcome the extra leverage taller tyres create, is to fight back with bigger rotors that give you extra leverage to help you.
Vanco or Wj are the only ways in the US.
I did mine differently here. http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoFordBAdiscs1.htm

DiscBrakes 122.jpg


 
ZJ rear brakes can be installed but they do not make a huge difference since the front brakes do most of the braking.

I used to believe this, in theory at least, until I swapped in ZJ disks and modded the prop valve. Big difference on my rig.
No matter how much effort or parts I put into the 8.25 drums they always sucked. The fronts do most of the work, but are completely overwhelmed with bigger tires and more weight. With far from stock suspension and camping loads going higher, they were definitely an upgrade worth the install.
 
I used to believe this, in theory at least, until I swapped in ZJ disks and modded the prop valve. Big difference on my rig.
No matter how much effort or parts I put into the 8.25 drums they always sucked. The fronts do most of the work, but are completely overwhelmed with bigger tires and more weight. With far from stock suspension and camping loads going higher, they were definitely an upgrade worth the install.

I still believe this, as I had both 9" and 10" drums before I put rear discs on mine. I haven't noticed a big increase in rear braking power, but I also have yet to mod my prop valve. As long as my drums were PROPERLY adjusted, then I didn't have a problem at all with them. They still worked well.

Discs just don't need to be maintained.
 
How do you adjust your rear brakes?

Remove wheel and drum.
Then turn the little wheel on the bottom of the brakes.
install drum and when the brakes drag just a bit (slighly hard to turn by hand) re install everything and your good.

if the brakes have been neglected, or your unsure of how the adjuster works, or if the star adjuster is froze up, then its a good idea to adjust the brakes as rogersjeep said.

if you know the brakes are in good working order and only need to be adjusted, to save time by not taking the wheel and drum off you could do it this way:

with parking/emergency brake off and front wheels blocked, jack up 1 rear tire, pull rubber plug out of the back of the drum, insert a straight screw driver through the hole and with it resting on the notches of the star adjuster, pry up( or vise versa) on the screw driver so it turns the star adjuster. spin tire and listen/feel for drag. repeat until the tire has significant drag, then turn/pry the adjuster the opposite direction until the drum is slightly dragging when you spin the tire. repeat on the other side.

ideally, the rear brakes are self adjusting when you back up and apply a hard brake. sometimes this works and sometimes it doesnt.

the rear drums on an xj can be tempermental. on my 89, i service the rear brakes every 2-3 years with a spring/hardware rebuild kit, replace the brake cylinders and install new shoes and drums. then i periodically adjust them with the method i described.
 
I haven't noticed a big increase in rear braking power, but I also have yet to mod my prop valve.

That's the key phrase here. I tried stock prop valve versus modified, big difference. Stock prop valves are designed to work with drums they come with. Everything I researched said their two needs are quite different and with the stock prop valve there was literally no difference between drums or disks.
 
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