Well, ended up doing the extended wheels studs, but it wasn’t nearly as straightforward as I’d hoped.
Had some friends in town so I took them up on a day trip into the hills and got a little dirty.
Rental JL did fine, but if you’re looking to buy one of these: go Rubicon. No lockers on the Sport model wasn’t great. It was a little crazy watching the brakes auto apply corner by corner and the power transfer back and forth back between wheels as traction control tries to help out, but it’s still not the right setup though.
Anyways, we came down the hill and we’re headed back into town after 20 miles of dirt road and suddenly I realize I’m pulling hard right ever time I’m on the brakes. We pause to be sure I didn’t rupture a brake line or have a tire going flat, but nothing I can see. Triple check I’m not in 4wd by rolling forward and back a few times. Nothing obvious. Keep driving.
About a mile from my house I start smelling brakes. Get ‘er home hop out and I’m smelling brakes strongly on the left front. Sure enough, that corner is cooking and 600 degrees hotter than the others.
Apparently I totally faded front left which is why it was pulling right.
Pull it apart and try to drive the caliper pistons in (this is a Teves WJ setup by the way). One piston slides smoothly the other is frozen and barely moving. Well, guess I found the issue. I call around to see if I can find a rebuild kit (no), but the Napa in town does have rebuilt calipers. Since these were just junkyard parts I decide to do both sides and upgrade the later WJ Akebonos (believe 2002 is the split so I had them spec calipers for an 04 and that was right).
Should just bolt on right?
Wrong. I’m running 15” wheels. Turns out the Akebonos have just enough extra meat in the caliper body that I’m rubbing when I wasn’t prior. Bah. Can’t even take them back and stick with Teves now since I marred the calipers.
I did check fitment as I started the install process, but it seems I had just enough slack in my wheel stud holes that I fooled myself. Once I torqued the wheels it pulled the rim into contact, actually squeezed the caliper floating part against the rotor too. See rub marks on the rotor perimeter.
I only moved a few feet before I realizing it was wrong. B’ah!! Looks like it’s time for the longer wheel studs after all. While I could shave on the body of the Akebono’s I really wasn’t into it so that means going back to a bit more wheel spacer. That’s ok. I wanted to shove my tires out to the limits of the new fender flares anyways.
So digging into the WJ spec studs (thanks for the references Nimrod!) these studs claim they use a 0.627” knurl. In measuring my parts, I was finding numbers in the 0.620 to 0.624 range but maybe they compressed as bit on install. Note, this is a little confusing since my WJ conversion should be using TJ unit bearings and TJ wheel studs are 0.615” knurl and a bit under 1.5” long. My studs are 1 15/16” long and seem to match WJ specs. That means I’m not 100% sure what wheel studs I was starting with. Maybe it’s an aftermarket unit bearing thing or maybe it’s a difference in TJ years for the specs I was checking… Not sure.
Either way, I didn’t find anything off the shelf easily available in a 0.627” and I wanted studs closer to the 3” range. I ended up buying 4 sets of ARP 100-7703.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/arp-100-7703
Figured the 0.625” knurl was close enough, shoulder length was right, and they’re 1/2-20 pitch by 3.5” under head length.
Old stud knocked out ok, but I did need to trim my welded on knuckle spacer from the original WJ conversion. Note the OEM style studs are BARELY are removable vs the body of the unit bearing.
The new ones won’t go back in. The head is just a bit bigger and hangs up in pretty much the same place the old studs rub on removal.
In looking at the clearances closer this interference actually occurs for two reason. The head of the stud is slightly large diameter but it also maters that the splined knurl on the ARPs is full length. That means they have to be inserted straighter with more of the head portion protruding. That also drives the head toward the unit bearing shell which is tapering outward.
I debated disassembling the unit bearings since it seems likely the studs were originally pressed into the hub bare. That said, from what I’ve read, unit bearings aren’t intended as serviceable items and if you’re crooked at all in the attempt to press the thing apart you destroy the bearing. Mine are less than a year old so I wasn’t excited about that.
Eventually—though after some careful eyeballing—I decided to suck it up and just shave on my brand new wheel studs.
Shaved bits were painted for rust avoidance. The good news is I was able to keep at least part of the shoulder all the way around so they still clamp down evenly.