Front axle is stupid. Cv joints in a dana30 on a 4500+lb rig? Ya that'll work... I watched Dan blow up 4 of them on 31's.. no joke at all: 4 of them
This is very common, but most people know that it's common and swap to ujointed shafts with full circle clips, or alloy shafts/joints. I've seen this setup do pretty well with up to 35's.
Rear axle: dana35 that barely hold up to 31's on much lighter rigs? Or a D44A with an aluminum center that is prone to rock damage+ the tiny axle tubes of a d35? That's a winner.
Not that it's any better, but at least the WJ 35 isn't c clipped
. The 44a is actually a pretty decent axle for up to 35's. You can get 4.56's and alloy shafts and a lunch box locker for it, the ring gear is almost the size of a d60 and I think the tubes are pretty thick. People complain about the aluminum center, but how many people do you know that have had problems with it? I can't think of any. the biggest knock on it is the lack of aftermarket support, but, I mean, they put the thing in Viper's so it can't be that weak right
Driveshafts: ball and socket style.. like a jk only smaller. Weak.
especially the front. The front CV drive shaft will not hold up to any offroad activity.
Ther is no room under the wj. The wheel wells (even cut up) will hardly fit a 33 without tons of lift (seriously 6+ inches). The rear wishbone ball joint upper link cannot be lifted above 2" (with a spacer) unless you swap in after market contol arms. Even swapping in long arms leaves you with the poor geometry of long lower contol arms and very short uppers which makes the pinion point down under droop and gives you sone funky anti squat #'s.
There are suspension systems that address this, but you do get weird anti squat in the rear. There isn't a ton of room in the WJ wheel well, but there are lots of people who run 35's on 6 inches of lift. You just need to do some trimming here and there.
Front radiator hangs super low. Like below the front bumper low. Plan on adding a skid like kevins offroad has.
Same problem with ZJ's. WJ's actually like to eat their windshield washer reservoir, so that needs to be relocated.
The computer is insane, its like aol, it controls everything. Its a bear to get around the vss speedo system and without it, the traction control gets pissed. Most of the stock tcase options are garbage (249 that is standard on a lot of them) 242 is ok but you can't get a real SYE for it, so plan on swapping that out and even if you keep it you will have to spend some money swapping out the ball and socket style cv yokes and do a hack and tap to put real driveshafts in it.
WJ's actually have a 247 when they come with the verilock axles, but same difference, it sucks. there are lots of computer issues in WJ as it relates to the speedo and ABS, but it's all been dealt with by other people by now. You can find a RARE 242 behind a v8, or a little more commonly behind a 4.0--but why you would want a 4.0 is a mystery to me.
and it will throw codes at everything. It weighs a ton and the 4.0 is only just adequate. The gas tank hangs super low and even stock there is very little clearance between the rear diff cover and tank, so without relocating it, forget about a rear stretch.
Yup
AND my personal pet peeve: it only has ONE door lock!!! I mean how stupid is that? ONE! Driver side only. Want to unlock the hatch or passenger door without a key fob? Sorry charlie... walk around to the front door. Oh what's that? Your battery is dead? Too bad... you can't get in the trunk to get your jumper cables because anytime you go over 15mph the doors auto lock. So now your doors are locked And you can't open any doors without reaching across and there is no manual unlock for the hatch at all... STUPID!
I've never noticed that, and yes that would be annoying. The auto lock at 15 mph can be turned off though with the factory key fob.
Mallcrawlin or cody's website, NAGCA.org, are huge resources for everything grand cherokee.
Just about every sort of build has been done on ZJ's and WJ's, and most of it can be found at those two sites.
The WJ is definitely more difficult and expensive to build, but it is super cool. If I were building a rig to beat on offroad with 35's etc, I would build a ZJ. If you want a nice camping rig that you can do some moderate trials on, then a WJ with 3" of lift and some 31's will work awesome without opening up too many cans of worms.
