Crossover steering and better brakes: JK knuckle vs Teraflex high steer knuckle?

TJBrad04

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I am having a front Dana 44 built and I am pretty set on going with Teraflex's high steer and raised track bar conversion system on it. Teraflex's passenger side knuckle is the key to making it all work since it has a dedicated steering arm. 37's and hydro assist will also be included.

I am torn between two paths.....

1: complete Teraflex kit as mentioned above and send the Teraflex knuckle to Black Magic Brakes and have it modified to accommodate their 17" wheel dual piston caliper kit and 30 spline stub shaft.

2: JK knuckles which allow me to have JK bearings, brakes, and 32 spline stub shaft.

The million dollar question.....

Does anyone know how similar the steering arm geometry is between the Teraflex and JK knuckle? They "look" similar... But I would rather not have to buy the Teraflex knuckle just to mock up and measure the two. Luckily the Teraflex trackbar is height adjustable on both ends so I'm thinking that should help with drag link alignment on the JK knuckle if necessary.

Any additional thoughts and input would be greatly appreciated.
 
What are you doing for the track bar? With either of those options you listed if you leave it stock you're going to have bumpsteer.
 
This kit, it is required when running their steering to keep track bar and drag link complimentary of one another.

https://teraflex.com/shop_items/tj-high-steer-track-bar-kit-w-brackets?vehicle=TJ Wrangler

A couple of things I'm noticing about that setup:

1) The trackbar bracket on the frame is super low. That may cause a limit on your uptravel possible if the axle either hits the bracket or places the bar too close to the pumpkin.

2) The trackbar length looks to be significantly shorter than the draglink. That will cause bumpsteer regardless of position.
 
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A couple of things I'm noticing about that setup:

1) The trackbar bracket on the frame is super low. That may cause a limit on your uptravel possible if the axle either hits the bracket or places the bar too close to the pumpkin.

2) The trackbar length looks to be significantly shorter than the draglink. That will cause bumpsteer regardless of position.

Im assuming it will work based on the fact that they engineered the whole system... I have their long arms already.

I'm thinking the 37" tire will be limiting up travel before anything else... I still haven't decided on fenders yet. I really prefer the original fenders but I know I'm just prolonging the inevitable.
 
what width axle are you having built? If you stick with the TJ stock width the bumpsteer probably wont be too bad and the teraflex kit probably works. It looks like a complete-ish high steer kit. It basically does what @toximus and I just went through with our builds but the parts are already worked out for you.

The kit limitations look mainly to be that your track bar will not be the same length as the drag link. This gets to be a bigger bumpsteer influencer the bigger the difference between the two. If you're stepping up to JK width (65WMS) you're going to want to consider something else. Unless you like anticipating road imperfections with steering wheel input.

The teraflex knuckle looks very similar to a JK knuckle. I ran my junk with a JK knuckle and short trackbar for a couple years. It's bearable but not desireable. If you're going to do a new knuckle and thinking of a JK you may as well go Reid. The tie-rod in the stock JK location is very low and it hangs up on everything, at least for me and where i wheel. The reid knuckle flips the drag and raises the tie rod so now you would be into custom steering country. So if you're basically doing a JK swap you are going to want to rethink your steering.

One added benefit of JK knuckle is it looks like the JL brakes will bolt up to the JK knuckle which basically gives you a low cost big brake kit. I picked up a set of used JL calipers for cheap on craigslist but i havent mounted yet. I will tell you the Jk brakes with Hawk pads would not lock up my 37s. The JK caliper with black magic pads will lock up my 37's. You can probably get JK calipers super cheap too. i will report in my build when i get to that part how the dual calipers compare to blackmagic pads in JK calipers.
 
Im assuming it will work based on the fact that they engineered the whole system... I have their long arms already.

I'm thinking the 37" tire will be limiting up travel before anything else... I still haven't decided on fenders yet. I really prefer the original fenders but I know I'm just prolonging the inevitable.

Haha, you should peruse my thread about doing things twice (or three times if you're like me)... you're headed that direction :)

The more you modify, the more you modify.
 
What size suspension lift and tires will you be running? Understand that you won't find many (any?) fans of cross-over/high-steer steering systems for the TJ here for commonly installed suspension lift heights.

For dual-piston brakes I'd go ONLY with the Big Brake kit from www.blackmagicbrakes.com whose developer absolutely knows more about Jeep brakes than the next five do combined. He also happens to be an active member/resource here, I've been running his dual-piston brakes for many years now.

I stopped being a Teraflex fan many years ago. I used to run their products until I figured out they're never as good as they claim they are.

You can see my old Teraflex sticker here from the days when I still thought their products were good and ran their junk suspension lift and even worse inflexible control arms. Ha, I still had dark hair then. :ROFLMAO:

jer1a.jpg