You all have heard the saying, "Idle hands are the Devil's playthings," right? Let me tell you...
Due to Covid, my wife and I are staying home, mostly. I've been riding my Mtn Bike quite a bit, until a couple weeks ago when I had a minor crash and sprained my ankle. It was starting to feel better, so I tore the TJ down to replace front U-joints, Ball Joints and Hubs. Well I stressed my sprained ankle due to a 2 year old girl and 3 year old dog trying to occupy the same stair tread I was currently trying to use...Ouch.
Now the TJ is on Jack stands, torn apart and I'm laid up not able to walk. I have high speed internet. Instead of beating my d!ck into hamburger watching pornhub, I look at Jeep shit (I know, weird, right). I think, my brakes sure could use an upgrade. A big Brake kit would do it. That would be another step closer to getting 35's. Sure, I could just write Blaine a check (and probably will), but I wanted to see what kind of DIY set-ups are were outthere?
So, for the last 4 days or so, I've been researching using OLD (1985-1989) XJ hubs with Explorer rotors and Grand Cherokee Calipers. I've looked (extensively) at using WJ hubs and brakes. I've looked at cross over steering design. I've looked at Inverted Y steering and how to make that work with WJ hubs.
I've learned a couple things too...there are a TON of idiots out there that modify their rigs to be downright unsafe. Lots of hacks out there giving out bad info
I was watching that dirt lifestyle guy build the "ultimate Dana 30" and he did the WJ upgrade. When he was done, his trackbar was about a foot shorter than his draglink. He said it would be fine, because the most important thing is that they're in the same plane. I don't think so...Pretty sure he's gonna have bumpsteer.
I also saw the rugged Ridge / Rusty's Off "heavy duty steering" Kit. Holy crap. They went from inverted Y to inverted T without doing anything to the trackbar. The trackbar and draglink not parallel or the same length! How can people install this and thing its an upgrade? Is their personal confirmation bias (I spent a lot of money on it so it must be good) that strong ? I would imagine this setup would bumpsteer AND have a pretty dead on center feel.
In the end, I've come to a few conclusions
1 Its just not feasible for me to design my own steering that would be any better than what I have. In fact, there is a good possibility it would be significantly worse. So, that means the WJ brake swap is out.
2) The old Cherokee knuckle is still intriguing...I don't like a few things about it though. Having parts from mulitple vehicles seems like a Pain in the Ass to me. I don't have a good memory, so going to the parts store for new pads and rotors would be a trip.
"Was is explorer pads and Grand Rotors or Explorer Rotors and Grand Pads?" Plus, the poor schmuck who buys this pile after I'm done with it would play hell trying to figure out parts for it. Even with good documentation, Good Documentation isn't enough in my experience (My motorhome is a great example of this). So, in the end, that is probably out too, unless I get a real wild hair up my ass.
3) @mrblaine knows his shit (not there was any doubt) and his kit is undoubtedly the best way to get bigger, stronger brakes on a TJ. After all the web crawling I've done, I'm beginning to see why his kit is designed the way it is, and why it is so much better than anything else you can get. It checks all the boxes of what you need, and nothing you don't (which I believe I've read in his posts more than once).
Now, I just to figure out if I need the 15, 16, or super 16 kit...
Due to Covid, my wife and I are staying home, mostly. I've been riding my Mtn Bike quite a bit, until a couple weeks ago when I had a minor crash and sprained my ankle. It was starting to feel better, so I tore the TJ down to replace front U-joints, Ball Joints and Hubs. Well I stressed my sprained ankle due to a 2 year old girl and 3 year old dog trying to occupy the same stair tread I was currently trying to use...Ouch.
Now the TJ is on Jack stands, torn apart and I'm laid up not able to walk. I have high speed internet. Instead of beating my d!ck into hamburger watching pornhub, I look at Jeep shit (I know, weird, right). I think, my brakes sure could use an upgrade. A big Brake kit would do it. That would be another step closer to getting 35's. Sure, I could just write Blaine a check (and probably will), but I wanted to see what kind of DIY set-ups are were outthere?
So, for the last 4 days or so, I've been researching using OLD (1985-1989) XJ hubs with Explorer rotors and Grand Cherokee Calipers. I've looked (extensively) at using WJ hubs and brakes. I've looked at cross over steering design. I've looked at Inverted Y steering and how to make that work with WJ hubs.
I've learned a couple things too...there are a TON of idiots out there that modify their rigs to be downright unsafe. Lots of hacks out there giving out bad info
I was watching that dirt lifestyle guy build the "ultimate Dana 30" and he did the WJ upgrade. When he was done, his trackbar was about a foot shorter than his draglink. He said it would be fine, because the most important thing is that they're in the same plane. I don't think so...Pretty sure he's gonna have bumpsteer.
I also saw the rugged Ridge / Rusty's Off "heavy duty steering" Kit. Holy crap. They went from inverted Y to inverted T without doing anything to the trackbar. The trackbar and draglink not parallel or the same length! How can people install this and thing its an upgrade? Is their personal confirmation bias (I spent a lot of money on it so it must be good) that strong ? I would imagine this setup would bumpsteer AND have a pretty dead on center feel.
In the end, I've come to a few conclusions
1 Its just not feasible for me to design my own steering that would be any better than what I have. In fact, there is a good possibility it would be significantly worse. So, that means the WJ brake swap is out.
2) The old Cherokee knuckle is still intriguing...I don't like a few things about it though. Having parts from mulitple vehicles seems like a Pain in the Ass to me. I don't have a good memory, so going to the parts store for new pads and rotors would be a trip.
"Was is explorer pads and Grand Rotors or Explorer Rotors and Grand Pads?" Plus, the poor schmuck who buys this pile after I'm done with it would play hell trying to figure out parts for it. Even with good documentation, Good Documentation isn't enough in my experience (My motorhome is a great example of this). So, in the end, that is probably out too, unless I get a real wild hair up my ass.
3) @mrblaine knows his shit (not there was any doubt) and his kit is undoubtedly the best way to get bigger, stronger brakes on a TJ. After all the web crawling I've done, I'm beginning to see why his kit is designed the way it is, and why it is so much better than anything else you can get. It checks all the boxes of what you need, and nothing you don't (which I believe I've read in his posts more than once).
Now, I just to figure out if I need the 15, 16, or super 16 kit...
