Currie Johnny Joints, weld in threaded tube bungs for the long arm build.
Dana 30 Detroit Truetrac and New WJ ball joints. I had to get a new carrier to run 4.56 gears the XJ axle I pulled originally had 3.54 gears (the carrier break on the dana 30 is 3.54 and down, 3.73 and up) and the Truetrac will fit my daily driver duties nicely on an axle with no selectable hubs.
The XJ and WJ upper ball joints are the same and interchangeable, however the lower balljoints on the WJ have a different taper on the stud. Ive seen the swap done with XJ lowers before but I imagine the different taper will eventually cause un-even wear and ruin the knuckle.
These are my new WJ twin piston Akebono calipers. These things are huge, nearly the same size as kingpin60 calipers. The WJ knuckles use two different style of calipers- 1.) Akebono and 2.)Teves. Both are twin piston designs with the Teves being a bit smaller. The Teves calipers have a reputation for warping rotors and were recalled and replaced with the Akebono style on the later model jeeps. I got these akebonos brand new, not remanufactured complete with hardware and pads.
and a picture of them next to the stock XJ calipers they are replacing
XJ rotors 5x4.5” lug pattern vs. WJ rotors 5x5”
The WJ rotors need to be drilled out to the 5x4.5” pattern, the rotors are hub-centric and not lug-centric which makes it a bit easier. I took an old XJ unit bearing and pressed out the studs and then separated the two halves using a BFH and a chisel. Then I clamped the unit bearing section with the wheel mounting surface to the WJ rotor as a template and used a transfer punch to mark the new pattern, and drilled the new holes it worked pretty well.
this shows the difference between the XJ (top) and wj knuckles. you can see the extra steering arm on the passenger side knuckle of the WJ knuckles that allows for a true cross-over steering design.
knuckles after beadblasting, ready to weld the JKS spacers on. The ~0.25" spacers are required to align the u-joints with the axis of the knuckle. It is sandwiched between the unit bearing hub and the knuckle. this spacer is needed because the depth on the WJ knuckle is shorter than the XJ knuckle, without it the hub will botom out against the outer stub shaft before it seats.
I ground a bevel around the inside of the spacers and bolted them on tignt with an old unit bearing and then welded them on with the MIG turned up nice and hot welding a small bead and skipping around. I wrapped the knuckles in welding leathers and about 20 old t-shirts and towels so that they would cool as slow as possible. It took about 6 hours for them to cool enough to touch.
I called around about reaming the knuckles and pitman, the cheapest I found was a 4x4 shop that wanted $70
So I ordered up a HSS Xkut reamer and did it myself, now I can run the TREs over the knuckle getting the steering up even higher.
You also need 99.5+ unit bearings for this swap the 99 unit bearing isn’t the same. It was a mid year switchover. If you don’t use the newer unit bearings the rotor will not be properly spaced inside the caliper. I used a Timken part # for a 2002 XJ
96XJ on left 2002 XJ on right
offset TREs for the tie rod to clear the thick aftermarket diff cover and leave extra room for the ram
I painted the knuckles and assembled everything and did a test fit. The calipers are large and known to cause problems when fitting on 15” wheels. I have 3.75” of backspacing and the calipers and offset TREs fit with about 0.125" of clearance to the rim, they also clear the balance weights on the inside.
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Sounds like you had fun. I got stuck and broke my truck out at CORE a few years ago. Did they come pull you out with the tractor?
