TJ wheel bearing on an XJ?

[sumofatguy]

Hi everyone,

I have a 2001 XJ with ~5" of lift or so. The wheel bearing are shot on the front D30, and I know some point in the future I'd like to do the Clayton High Steer kit (WJ brake upgrade). With this in mind, I (somewhat stupidly) bought TJ wheel bearings - ha597449, thinking that I could install them, and when I have enough money or the Canadian dollar gets better I would buy the high steer kit and not have to throw out my newish XJ wheel bearings.

Today, I went to install the TJ bearings and found out there's more of a difference between them and the XJ bearing than just the flange height.

My question is: can I simply space the TJ bearing out from the knuckle until I buy the whole kit, or will this not work?
Something like this? http://www.northridge4x4.com/jks-xj-steering-knuckle-flange-spacer

Thanks

 

[Ian Christiansen]

The TJ and XJ wheel bearing for 2001 are the same.

 

[sumofatguy]

The TJ and XJ wheel bearing for 2001 are the same.

Shoot, I should've mentioned that the axle is a HP D30 from a '98 XJ :S

 

[Ian Christiansen]

That makes a difference. The newer unit bearings would work if you were using newer brakes.

 

[Talyn]

Just to clarify, not all the brake hardware. Just the rotors.

 

[sumofatguy]

Just to clarify, not all the brake hardware. Just the rotors.

What do you mean by 'newer rotors'? As in WJ rotors?

 

[Ian Christiansen]

Low pinion wheel bearings will work on HP axles if you use the LP axles' brake rotors. If you still have the original LP axle just swap over the rotors.

 

[Tim_MN]

Buy rotors to match your hubs.

Read more about hubs/rotors here in the FAQ's -> http://www.naxja.org/forum/showpost.php?p=245269210&postcount=22

 

[Ian Christiansen]

And no, not WJ rotors. 2000-2001 XJ wheel bearings must use 2000-2001 XJ brake rotors. Or TJ in your case since its the same, all TJ's were low pinion.

 

[sumofatguy]

Low pinion wheel bearings will work on HP axles if you use the LP axles' brake rotors. If you still have the original LP axle just swap over the rotors.

Excellent, thanks for the help!

 

[Ian Christiansen]

Done

 

[Tim_MN]

Thanks.

 

[DeftwillP]

The low/hi pinion doesn't correlate to the change in hub bearings either as a point of clarification. I've got a 99 hi pinion with the newer style hubs and brakes. I suppose it's possible that the previous owner swapped them both at the same time but I've always seen the cutoff for that hardware listed as year 99.5

 

[Tim_MN]

When the axle was installed in the Jeep factory, as far as anybody can prove, it had the unit hubs as described, low pinion vs hi pinion. Since then, any type of axle swapping, and/or parts changing may have occurred.

 

[DeftwillP]

What does that mean? I thought it was well documented that somewhere in 99, that year model still have the hi pinion but also have the newer hubs and brakes.

 

[Miller88]

99.5 and up use the newer style wheel bearing and rotor.

The 99.5 I grabbed my high pinion 30 from had the same wheel bearings and rotors as my 2000. They were definitely original given the amount of work it took to get them off.