I finally got started working on this swap. The main purpose of this swap is to upgrade the steering on my D30 and get rid of the inverted "y" steering design.
You may ask "Why not just get one of the aftermarket kits?", well the Currie HD kit is out 'cuz it is still the invertd "y" design. To get a true crossover steering you have to go with somthing like the Teraflex kit or Rustys. At $650 the Teraflex kit is expensive and you only get 1 knuckle, tie rod, drag link, and ends. You still have to look at new ball joints and relocating the trac bar and swabar links. As for the Rusty's kit and the other various kits that run Heim joints in various configurations of OTK and UTK, I'd rather not run Heims on the street and I didn't like the way any of them are set up. JCR Offroad make a inverted "T" design like the YJ's had but with 1-ton TRE's, it's pretty nice but you can still end up with a dead spot because of tie rod roll even with their spacer, and you still have poor TRE angles too. Besides, with any of the above options, you're still running stock brakes.
With the WJ stuff I get cross-over steering, I can run the tie rod and drag link OTK (Over The Knuckle), and I get the added benefit if larger brakes. All for less $ than the Teraflex kit by it's self.
For those of you who don't know, Jeep XJ, TJ, and ZJ all came form the factory with the inverted "y" steering. That design is fine for stock vehices I guess. As soon as you start to lift it you start to have problems. The stering geometry changes with height so just driving and hitting bumps your toe-in setting is constantly changing, the higher you lift it the worse it gets. The drag link will also start to roll a little and cause a dead spot in you steering because of the way the tie rod pulls on it. You also end up with bad TRE angles. I have about 5.5" lift and a 2" drop pitman arm and I have to limit the flex so I don't bind the TRE's.
Jeep WJ's ('99-'04 Grand Cherokees, IIRC) came form the factory with "cross-over" stereing. Meaning they have a knuckle to knuckle tie rod and a knuckle to pitman arm drag link. This way your toe-in setting never changes and it also gets the knuckle end of the drag link up higher to help with TRE angles.
Ok, enough of the background, on to the build!
Here is a list of parts, I'll keep this as a running list and update as I need more stuff.
WJ knuckles, rotors, calipers, brackets, and TREs from a '99.
JKS flange spacers, tie rod, draglink, jamb nuts, over axle trac bar bracket, and sway bar relocation brackets for the axle.
Spicer ball joint kit for '99 WJ, includes upper and lower joints and nuts. (Part #706944X) x2.
Goferit Offroad tierod flip inserts x3
Re-using my '99 XJ unit bearings, only a year old and darn expensive.
Re-Drilling WJ rotors to 5 on 4.5 bolt pattern
(I ended up not needing the spacers, some builds I have seen did need them) Fabbing up some 1/4" caliper bracket spacers to match the 1/4" JKS flange spacers.
(I didn't need these, used the stock WJ bolts) 4 - M12 x 1.25 grade 10.9 bolts about 1/4" longer than stock. (These might be hard to find, we'll see)
I forgot my camera so i don't have any pics yet, I'll get some up Saturday. Sorry!
I'm going to try and have all the parts on hand so I can complete the actual swap in a weekend since my XJ is my dd.
Yesterday I started by welding the JKS flange spacers to the knuckles. You have to space the unit hubs off the knuckle 1/4" to get the axle u-joint on the correct plane with the ball joints and steering axis.
I also drilled out the TRE tapers in the knuckles to 3/4" for the tie rod flip inserts and welded them in place. You can see the inserts at: http://www.goferitoffroad.com/products.htm
More to come soon!