• RME Gear & Apparel

Explorer brakes for the D30 crowd

phatfoto

phatfoto

Giver of bad advice
Location
Tooele
Found this on a Ford Ranger/Explorer forum, a SportTrac guy used a HP D30 setup under the front, but with 2002 TJ knuckles. And then used the unit bearing from a 2002 Explorer, to keep his ABS functional. Here is the better part. He cut the original brake mounts off the TJ knuckles, and used the rotors and calipers from the same 2002 Explorer. The caliper bracket is bolted to holes drilled in the TJ knuckles. The Explorer brakes are an inch bigger in diameter, and the calipers are 2 piston. So this should be a big improvement in braking for us as well. I want to go to the parts store and measure the TJ and Explorer unit bearing hubs side by side and see if us Jeep guys can just use existing unit bearings to fit the Explorer rotors and calipers. The SortTrac guy claims this works great and hasn't had any ABS issues.


The thread I pulled this from is here. I want to give this a whirl. Wife is on board for this mod too...

Pics...

20140113_083010_resized.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
You can see what is cut off the TJ knuckle.


58e9910e-9b19-42aa-87a6-aadeca15403a.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
Showing the TJ knuckle with Explorer unit bearing, rotor and caliper.


HPIM3429.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
Here you can see it all mounted and ready.


This actually seems simple enough, I can probably do it myself! So, anyone in a parts store verify the hubs are indeed the same? Are all XJ, ZJ, TJ hubs and knuckles from 91 through the end of TJ production, physically the same (WJ hubs are quite different in and of themselves)? Guess I need to snag some knuckles and start cutting.
 
phatfoto

phatfoto

Giver of bad advice
Location
Tooele
Yes, keeps the 5 on 4.5, but I would imagine that it would be cheaper to source the Explorer calipers and rotors, using a stock D30 knuckle, than trying to score dwindling supplies of WJ knuckles and expensive Akebono parts. And getting all the parts from a parts store would be nice as well. Dual patterned rotors like Eric mentioned aren't available everywhere. And don't forget the spacer ring for the WJ hub swap into the normal knuckles.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top