Project Bruised: 2000 XJ Limited Build Thread

[2000XJ]

Originally Posted by finneys98xj

nice heep.

Thanks alot!

[cherokeebaby]

Nice looking rig

[TeamCherokee06]

Nice Rig!

[2000XJ]

Back in October, during myclub ride, my passenger side drum decided to explode. Here is what I found when I popped the drum off when I went to check out what happened:







The backing plate was bent backwards towards the leaf springs between the 12 o'clock and 3 o'clock positions. The wheel cylinder was bent and busted, the shoes were bent and cracked, the starwheel was in pieces, and all of the springs had popped out from their proper locations.

When I had originally bought the Dana 44 back in June '08, one of the two backing plates was also bent. No, the backing plate was not on the same side of the axle, nor was it on the same position as where mine bent - it looked bent more due to someone dragging it through a junkyard than an actual brake failure. It took me about two months of calling what seemed like an infinite amount of junkyards, posting on many forums Wanted Sections, contacting other people who had XJ 44's in their rigs to see if they had an extra one, etc etc etc.

I decided that instead of putting my rig out of commission for who knows how long, a disc brake conversion would be the best option. Swapping discs from a TJ or ZJ Dana 44 wouldn't be a direct swap. I was almost going to do a GM 3/4 Ton conversion, but this revealed that an emergency brake would not be an option, and for a street-driven vehicle I felt that the E-brake would be a good thing to have. Swapping from an 8.8 would be the closest thing to a near bolt-on swap. I did my research and realized that in order to make the 8.8 swap successful, I'd need some spacers.

I made a call to Eric at EMS Offroad (HIGHLY RECOMMEND THEM), and Eric set me up with a complete package for the swap. I took some measurements for him that he requested, and he made the spacers that were necessary. He also sent me all brand new parts for the swap.

Essentially, the kit consisted of brakelines, calipers, backing plates, rotors, two spacers, new studs, bearings & seals (for the axle shafts), and all associated hardware.

Just a disclaimer, this swap is XJ Dana 44 specific. If it works for another axle great, but I am not aware of it. PLEASE make sure that your rig is in a safe position to be working on, around, and below it - Use jackstands, chock the front tires, etc.

First thing you'll want to do is disassemble your current drum setup. If you have a set of Brake Spring Pliers you'll make your life much easier, and have the assembly disassembled in about 5 minutes.

Once you've removed the springs and shoes, you'll want to remove the E-brake cable from the drum backing plate. For this you'll want to use a small flat head screwdriver and push the retainer in towards the hole, and then slide the cable out. Then remove the brakeline from the back of the backing plate:


Next, you'll want to remove the four bolts holding the retaining plate to the face of the backing plate, subsequently removing the axle shaft. Follow this up by trying to remove the backing plate by pulling it off, if that does not work, use a hammer and gently tap it near the studs until the backing plate comes off.




Finally, I used a hammer to remove the four studs that are used to hold the backing plate and retaining plate in place - these will be replaced with new, longer studs. Hammer them out towards the center of the axle - shouldn't take much effort.

4 Studs that need removal:


The next step involves removing the old bearings and seals from the axles. This may sound like an inconvenience, but a.) it's necessary in order to install the necessary spacer, b.) my bearings needed replacing anyway.

This is what the stock setup looks like pre-spacer:


Use whatever method you'd like for the removal. I opted for the drill and chisel method. First I drilled a hole in the bearing retainer, then used a hammer and chiselto knock it off. The retainer, bearing, and seal have to be removed in order to install one of the spacers necessary for the swap. This spacer is used to maintain the correct preload on the bearing.

Next, I reassembled the axle in the following order: Retaining Plate, Spacer, Seal, Bearing, Bearing Retainer. The Retaining Plate will slide right down the axle, as will the seal. The bearing will need to be reinstalled with a press or with a long piece of tubing that will slide over the shaft but is not wider than the bearing - then use the tube like a slide hammer and get the bearing on there.

[2000XJ]

Here I am pointing at the spacer that was added (prior to installing the bearing and bearing retainer:


Setting the bearing:


Once the axle shafts were completed, they were set aside until the backing plate was assembled on the axle.

The first thing that needs to be done to the bare axle is to install the new studs. These will pop right in to the original holes.

Once the new studs are in, another spacer must be added to the end of the axle tube. This spacer makes up for the difference between the drum backing plate and the caliper bracket on the backing plate of the disc setup. This is essentially a thicker version of the Retaining Plate. It is necessary for proper fitment of the backing plate. Unfortunately, I have no picture of this. Order of installation: Studs, Spacer, Backing Plate.

Backing plate and caliper bracket installed:


This is a Drum-in-Hat setup, which means that the typical braking is done by the disc, but the E-Brake is a mini drum that sits inside of the Rotor. Thankfully, this came pre-assembled on the backing plate because it's a complete PITA to set it up - did it once on my buddy's LJ and hope to never have to do it again.

Next comes the fun part, reinstalling the axle shaft. You will need an extra set of hands for this because one hand needs to hold the 4 studs in place so that they don't slide out, another hand needs to keep the shaft in place, and another hand needs to get the spacer (the round spacer that I pointed out before, that is installed just after the retaining plate) into the center of the backing plate. Since this spacer is loose on the axle shaft, we used two flathead screwdrivers to push it into place. Once it's in place, take a nut and screw it onto the stud. We installed the nuts on opposite sides of the retaining plate so that the there would be even pressure on the spacer in order for it to not slide out the bottom or the top. I don't have many pictures of this as there weren't any free hands with which to grab a camera. One idea that I had AFTER they were both installed was that maybe the use of a light adhesive to hold the spacer to the seal would help keep it in place while sliding the axle into place.

Here the nut is being placed onto the retaining plate (you can see that the upper right hand nut has already been installed - just below the yellow spring):


This is a good shot of just how much space you're really working with in order to make this happen:


Once the shaft is in, and torqued properly, the rotor goes on:


Next, the caliper is installed. The trick to installing the caliper is to slide the top caliper bolt in prior to installing the caliper because the leaf spring gets in the way and won't let you slide that top bolt in once the caliper is in place.:


Next, install the new brakeline to the caliper:




At this point the brakes are fully assembled on the axle.

I also had to replace the brake line going from the passenger side brake to the T on the driverside of the axle, since I had hammered it closed on the trails in order to get back to the staging area.

You can see the end of the hammered line in the left of this picture:




Removing the old line is easy. Disconnect it from the T, then remove the three 10 mm bolts that hold the brake line bracket to the axle, and remove the old line. Slide the new line into the bracket, and retighten the 10mm to the axle.

I got a 40" long, 3/16" American brake line. 40" is a bit long, so if they have something about 5" shorter go with that (I will be replacing this with a shorter line this week).

New line:




Excess brakeline was made into a circle. This will be replaced with a shorter line to keep it clean, and to prevent it from getting hung up on anything. The brakeline on the driver side was also a bit long since the conversion came with its own soft brakeline for the caliper. This line will also be swapped to a shorter line (3" if I can find it).



Entire axle to provide a visual:


Once the lines are all hooked up, bleed the brake system.

With this setup, you may have to change your proportioning valve to an adjustable proportioning valve in order to have the correct amount of bias between the front and rear of the vehicle. At the moment I am "test driving it" with the stock valve to see how it feels. I am experiencing more nose dive than normal, so the proportioning valve is on order. This is no longer my DD, so it won't be street-driven until that swap is completed just to play it safe.

I will make a list of all part numbers once I get them together. I will also supplement this write up with "How to Connect the Ebrake" once I get a set of new cables, as the stock drum ones will not work properly with a disc setup.

[2000XJ]

Last week I was driving down I-95 when I heard a really loud BANG POP POP, and increase shaking in the steering wheel. I pulled over and inspected the front end (control arms, steering linkages, tie rod ends, sway bar links, u-joints, etc) and everything looked good to go. I deemed it to be a spring resetting itself or something along those lines.

Well a few days later while I was putting on my new Dana 30 Solid diff cover, my friend was hanging out and asked why I was driving around with a shot u-joint. Low and behold, my driveside u-joint was missing a cap. I know I had checked them both, and I owe it to being nieve for not checking the opposite side of the u-joint while I was doing my side-of-the-road-look-through.

Missing Cap on U-joint:


The blown u-joint actually did alot of damage. It wallowed out the ear, and actually pulled in ear where the cap gave out. It also damaged the three bolts holding on the unit bearing.



Here you can see where the ear has been pinched in:


The disassembly:


What I ended up deciding to do was pull the other unit bearing and u-joint off of my spare long shaft (Pat still had my short side shaft on his ZJ) and reassembling the short side so as to make the XJ safe to drive on the street.

Since the u-joint that was on the spare shaft wasn't in the best shape either (good enough to work as a spare to get me home) I decided that it'd be best just to replace it with a new one.

Removing the c-clips on the old u-joint:


Removing spare (older) unit bearing from shaft in order to continue to use the one original to the XJ.


Setting new u-joint in the short shaft.


Once the new u-joint was set, the unit bearing was thrown on and torqued to spec. Then everything was reinstalled into the XJ, and what was on the XJ was kept as a spare.

[TassieXJ]

Looking good, great rig

[2000XJ]

Originally Posted by TassieXJ

Looking good, great rig

I'm sorry, I haven't checked this thread in a while. Thanks for the kind words!

[2000XJ]

Couldn't pass up the great weather this week, so I took out the angle grinder and took another .75-1" off of the front fenders. I then used Duplicolor Bedliner on all 4 quarter panels, rockers, rock sliders, lower parts of all four doors, front and rear bumpers, and hitch. Additionally, I also quickly hit the front fender wells so that they'd match the rears, which I painted black a while back. I used three coats on each surface, for a grand total of four cans.

Reason for bedlining: After the first trimming, the spray paint didn't adhere as well as I thought to the "folded" parts, and the salt ate away at much of the paint throughout the course of the winter. I also like the texture and look of the bedliner. Furthermore, this stuff will hold up better to trees and rocks, and the "flat-ness" of it hides alot of the dents much better than shiny paint does. Eventually I'll do the same to the rims so that they match as well.

I used thin cut-off wheels to cut through the fenders. I then used a very well-used flap disc to get rid of any shards that were left over from the grinder, and to also clean up any uneven parts of the fender.

I asked XJJeepThing for advice on how to prep the XJ for the bedlining since I was doing pretty much exactly what he did.
His directions:

Originally Posted by xjjeepthing

First thing I did was wipe down the entire area with PPG Wax and Grease remover. Masked the area off I wanted to spray. Sanded the area with a hand held sander with 100 grit paper, resanded the area with a red 3m scuff pad, especially around the edges where I taped it off. Wiped it down again with wax and grease remover and a tack cloth and then sprayed it. It sounds like alot, but to make it look good and last the prep is the most important. I can't remember for sure how many cans, I did my bumpers, quarters, rockers and hitch haul. I have about 3 coats on everything.

Used blue painter's tape to tape off all surfaces where I didn't want bedliner. Coats can be applied about 5 minutes apart, but it'll take a few days for them to fully cure. I recommend waiting 24 hours before peeling the tape off.

Pics:

[cubanater]

really nice jeep. i will be doing the same very soon.. hopefully it goes well thanks for the tips

[REWSTER]

looking good, do you plan on doing the doors also?

[2000XJ]

Thanks guys!

Right now I plan on leaving it as-is. I really love the burgundy and black color combo, and don't want to cover up alot of the burgundy. The quarters had many battle scars on them, and that was the best way to cover them up and make the rig look better. The doors are in pretty good shape (for now), so until they get worse, they're going to stay as-is.

[elnino]

dude thats a sick looking jeep....what tires are those? (size)?..

[Quinn]

That is a sweet looking Jeep

I have the same exact dents in my driver's side doors

[kmanxj5050]

looks nice i am wanting to do the same thing soon. Were did you get your supplies and about how much was it all?

got pics close up to see the texture?

thanks man