JRusty15

That's good to know! Do you have any links to posts or items to buy? Might be a good resource that I missed in my searches.

'00 XJ

Thanks for asking. Though we are surrounded by giants in terms of their greater knowledge of XJ's I'm glad to respond with some humility for my own.

Two threads showed up recently that might come in handy for older XJ's:

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f59/20...lemons-232867/
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f46/re...-build-226152/

I hope others will help a Jeeper out and share more.

What would you like to do with your Jeep?

cruiser54

I love living where there is no rust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Wg_lDs2OY

JRusty15

Thank you for the links! However this thread is primarily related to doing a ZJ disc brake swap in the rear of my XJ. I'll keep the focus on that.

Cane

i'm in the same boat as you, my backing plates were as rusted as the ones you posted.

search the threads by big david (he posted earlier, go on his profile), he has one where he sells the whole assembly for a reasonable price. i was gonna go that route but shipping to canada was too much and i was able to salvage a good and a not-so-bad dust shield that i think i can manage to use.

JRusty15

It's always nice to just have new(ish) parts shipped to you, but I like putting in some elbow grease now and again. It's nice to sit back and look at my handy work and say "yea, I did that!"

So I spent less than $50 on the rear caliper brackets, backing plates, e-brake levers, and caliper - brake line banjo bolts from the local junkyard, and I spent maybe 2-3 hours (in two trips) to get all the parts. I spent another $200 at RockAuto to pick up new rotors, brake pads, calipers, soft brake lines, parking brake shoes, parking brake hardware (springs, clips, etc), ZJ e-brake cables, axle seals and wheel bearings. I just had to spend about 8 hours with my dremel and a few grinding stones to clean up the rust and paint all the old parts. So for about $250 and a day's worth of work, I have all new brake hardware for the rear. I'm hoping to get it all assembled this weekend. I'll post up pics as I go.

Cane

oh i'm the same, I was mentionning it in case you couldn't find any and it's what stopped you from completing the job. i'd much rather put in the work myself, a lot more gratifying in the end!

i'm in about 100-150$ more than you, got all new break calipers because i couldn't find any salvageable ones. good luck!

JRusty15

Yea I ended up getting new calipers too because the ones in the junkyard were just in too bad of shape for me to take home. These were probably the most expensive component I purchased new from Rock Auto.

Originally when I went to the yard I just picked up the bracket and didn't realize I needed the backing plate and lever. So I could have saved myself a trip if I did a little more research. I should have everything ready to go now. I just wish it was warmer out!

'00 XJ

Ah, of course! Fallible of me.

JRusty15

I basically have everything bolted on and just need to get parking brake cables attached and connect the brake lines.

I originally ordered parking brake cables from Rock Auto for the ZJ, but it looks like the lengths are just totally wrong. Luckily the cables were only a few dollars so no harm done. Now I'm not sure what cables to get that will fit? I don't want to re-use the existing cables because they are super rusty and deteriorated. I would rather spend the money and get new cables, I'm just not sure which ones will work. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Big David

One of them should work on the drivers side.

Passenger side. Post #4.
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f67/pa...7/#post3314054

JRusty15

Thanks for the link! Looks like the ones with the Amazon links should work since mine is a '99 and the parking brake cables are not equal length. They attach on the driver's side, so the passenger side has to be longer.

JRusty15

I ordered the ones from Amazon listed in this post

Amazon said it fit my car with a disc brake conversion, so let's see what happens. I'll post up results when they get here.

JRusty15

I was hoping to button everything up today. Unfortunately the brake line I made going to the rear passenger side was leaking at both fittings! So I went to re-flare the lines and the tool I rented from O'Reilly's broke. Ugh. Anyone know where I can just buy a pre-bent line?

Also I went to install the ZJ brake proportioning valve and realized there is no port in the rear of the proportioning valve for the line that goes to the driver's side front tire. Am I missing something? There are two ports on the top that connect to the master cylinder reservoir and then just two ports on the bottom. But the XJ proportioning valve has two on the bottom, one of which goes to the rear, the other to the passenger side front. And then a port in the rear for the driver's side front. Any ideas?

cruiser54

Keep the XJ valve and just swap in the ZJ s prop valve guts.