[XJ2000]

The leaf springs were easy to remove and then reinstall because I had just had them off a year ago, so the bolts weren't seized (like they were last year). This was probably the easiest part of the entire day.

Immediately following the installation of the new leaf packs, the Dana 44 went in \/ =D>
D44 on it's way to its new home:




Here it is being bolted to the leaf packs.

[XJ2000]

Another thing on the agenda for the day was a new exhaust. Needless to say, I had mangled mine, again. This time I did an extra special job and made a W out of it. It was also rubbing against the driveshaft, hence the reason why part of the DS is nice and shiny.





This is how bad it looked after we started to tear it apart. We decided that the easiest way to get that thing out of there was with a Sawzall. We cut it off right by the crossmember.

Another problem we ran into was that since I had done such a great job with my trail-bent custom exhaust, my cat wouldn't fit after straightening the pipes out again. My downpipes are actually bent, and required a relief cut at the 90* bend by the oil pan in order to straighten it out enough to fit a new muffler on there. I went with a Cherry Bomb because I figured I had mangled a stock exhaust, and then a $150 replacement exhaust, so $20 muffler and some spare pipe my friend had lying around was a much more cost effective fix.



Making the cut:


After bending the pipes back, we matched together an exhaust and welded it all in. There are no leaks, and it sounds great. The Exhaust from the downpipes back actually fits perfectly now for having been so torn apat. Unfortunately, no pics of the new setup.

While the front axle was out of the XJ, we welded some sheetmetal to the passengerside UCA bracket to reinforce it, as well as made some skids for the LCA's.


My friend welding the skids for the LCA's


Final products:
UCA Bracket reinforced:


LCA Skids:


After the skids were done, and the brackets were welded into place, the D30 was ready to go back in. At this point the new uppers and lowers were mounted at the body, and the springs were in place, so in went the D30.

[XJ2000]

Another task at hand that day was the Slip Yoke Eliminator. I have the NP242 (Selec-Trac) Transfercase, so my options were pretty limited in what I could do for a SYE and driveshaft. I chose the more cost effective way, which was the Rubicon Express Hack 'n Tap SYE with an XJ Front driveshaft in the rear. The pros to the setup are saving money and being able to carry one spare driveshaft for the entire rig versus two. Cons are that some say that this setup is not as stout as a true SYE, however I haven't read of one failing thus far, so I chose it.

The hack and tap consists of cutting about 1.25" off of the Tcase output shaft (the Hack part) and then drilling and tapping a hole to hold the adapter in place (the Tap part). I was pretty nervous about this hole procedure, because this is a pretty essential part of the rig. You also only get one chance at this, so measure plenty of times before cutting and tapping.
At this point the shaft had already been cut with a cutoff wheel, and smoothed off with a 4.5" angle grinder.

We put the adapter back on the output shaft to use as a starting guide, so here Marc is drilling the first pilot hole.



We took our time on drilling the hole, so we also took turns. We didn't do one pilot hole then jump to the big bit for the size we needed. Instead, we went up in increments. This was my turn:


Finally the hole was drilled, then we tapped it, then we put the adapter and driveshaft back.

In order for a front XJ driveshaft to function as a rear driveshaft, I needed a flange. This is a Spicer part, which allows the driveshaft to connect to the SYE that is bolted to the tcase output shaft. It is held on the driveshaft with a u-joint, and the other end of the flange has four holes in it so that it can be bolted to the adapter on the output shaft.
Full driveshaft with Spicer flange installed:


Close-up of Flange:


After all the installs were completed, and everything was reassembled, we bled my brake lines. After the brake lines were done, we did a quick alignment because the toe is different after a lift. This would reduce any front end wobbles during the drive home, a professional alignment is recommended, however, just to get everything spot on. We used the tape-measure method.

This pretty much sums up what went down the day we did all the work.

[funinmud]

final picture?

[offroading.net]

Have you got a part number or supplier for the spicer flange you bolted to the front driveshaft?

cheers

EDIT, found it, just need to find a supplier who ships to the UK

[gijazbo]

wow man, i was just reading your first post when you where talking about it being too pretty to wheel. and then i read your last set of post and thought wow now this guy is gettin serious. great build man its lookin great so far...... lucky to have a car lift.

[XJ2000]

I bought the Spicer flange at alljeep.com, not sure they ship to the UK though.

Thanks, the lift isn't mine though... I did all the work at my friend's place, who's got everything you could imagine. If you can't fix or build it there, then you shouldn't be working with Jeeps!

[gorman]

Congrats on a very nice developing XJ! I've got a maroon one that looked exactly like yours when it was stock.

Here's what it looks like currently - it sits at about 6" with a RE/OME combo lift, the same H&T SYE as yours and it's running on 33s also.

[Muddeprived]

Originally Posted by HeavyMetal

x2 that freaking skid made changing oil such a pain in the balls. i dont have it anymore due to longarms but it got to the point where i didnt care anymore and just pulled the plug and let the oil just drain all over the skid and drain into the pan below it..there was a hole in the skid for changing oil but it was basically useless, WAY too small to be of any use.

You need to make a funnel out of a milk jug and place it above the skid so the oil drains into the jug funnel and through the hole. I have rusty's skid and i do it this way.

[99XJburton]

looks goooood!

[XJ2000]

Very nice XJ, gorman!!

I like that funnel idea, definately something to consider.

[XJ2000]

Back in October, during the club 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.

Now onto the meat and potatoes of this post - The Swap

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.

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. We opted for the drill and chisel method. First I drilled a hole in the bearing retainer, then used a hammer and hammer to knock it off. The retainer, bearing, and seal have to be removed in order to install one of the spacers necessary for the swap.

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.

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


Setting the bearing:

[XJ2000]

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 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.

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.

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.

[XJ2000]

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 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.

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.

[XJ2000]

I also replaced my front u-joints this week, as well as added Solid Diff Covers front and rear with lube lockers.