gijohn40
too poor to wheel... :(
- Location
- Layton, Utah
Seeing Carl didn't do a write up when he did this same conversion I told him I would do one... so a month or two ago when my track bar ripped off the axle I had Carl make all the parts for me to convert mine to the same as his TJ. He welded on the brackets to mount the track bar above the axle and gusseted my upper control arm mount on the passenger side and made the track bar. He also welded up the knuckles with the brackets need to mount the TJ/LJ unibearing, along with reaming out all the ends for the one ton joints. He then made the new draglink and tie rod bar going between the two knuckles.
Today I started around 11am and did a quick tear down of the front end.
This is where I started. I took both LJ knuckles off and removed the lower ball joints from both sides and inserted the new Grand ball joints that I got from RockAuto (parts list will follow at the end). They have a grease zerk fitting that goes on top but the yokes will hit it so I found some car interior plastic screws (couldn't find a 1/4-28 screw that was short enough to fill the hole) and after filling the ball joint with grease I inserted the plastic screws. Picture doesn't show the plastic screw.
I had to cut the old sway bar mount off and part of the spring mount to make room for the new bars...
after putting the grands new knuckles on and inserting the unibearing and axle shafts I got to work drilling the new rotors for the 5 on 4.5 bolt pattern. I used a 5/8 drill bit and found that when I put the rotor on it was hitting the raised portion of the lugs so I had to make a step on the back side to clear the lug. I used a step bit to do this.
once I had the rotors on I started to install the caliper brackets and found that the brake shield was sticking out to far and had to tap it back in towards the rotor to make room.
the bracket was too close on the outer side and the brake pad clips where rubbing on the rotor so I installed some fender washers between the bracket and knuckle and it moved it out just far enough that the clips no longer rub.
I installed the calipers and new brake pads but still have not cut the brake hose over to the new calipers yet due to I had to run to the orielly's in Murray to get new brake clips seeing I lost them on one of the calipers.
drivers side
Today I started around 11am and did a quick tear down of the front end.
This is where I started. I took both LJ knuckles off and removed the lower ball joints from both sides and inserted the new Grand ball joints that I got from RockAuto (parts list will follow at the end). They have a grease zerk fitting that goes on top but the yokes will hit it so I found some car interior plastic screws (couldn't find a 1/4-28 screw that was short enough to fill the hole) and after filling the ball joint with grease I inserted the plastic screws. Picture doesn't show the plastic screw.
I had to cut the old sway bar mount off and part of the spring mount to make room for the new bars...
after putting the grands new knuckles on and inserting the unibearing and axle shafts I got to work drilling the new rotors for the 5 on 4.5 bolt pattern. I used a 5/8 drill bit and found that when I put the rotor on it was hitting the raised portion of the lugs so I had to make a step on the back side to clear the lug. I used a step bit to do this.
once I had the rotors on I started to install the caliper brackets and found that the brake shield was sticking out to far and had to tap it back in towards the rotor to make room.
the bracket was too close on the outer side and the brake pad clips where rubbing on the rotor so I installed some fender washers between the bracket and knuckle and it moved it out just far enough that the clips no longer rub.
I installed the calipers and new brake pads but still have not cut the brake hose over to the new calipers yet due to I had to run to the orielly's in Murray to get new brake clips seeing I lost them on one of the calipers.
drivers side
