Evil Drew M

I've been researching the setup for quite some time now and it seems as though the list of parts has many "options" in it so I am curious as to what everybody seems to use the most. I'm also curious to see what you guys had to modify to use said parts.

Please use the following format to post so that it is easy to reference:

• Hubs used (00+ XJ/TJ, 99- XJ, re-drilled WJ, etc)
• Hub spacer type (JKS, washers, shortened axles, etc)
• Rotor (Explorer, Crown Vic, re-drilled WJ, etc)
• TREs (WJ, tons, etc)
• Tie rods (Shortened WJs, JKS, other, etc)
• Lower ball joints (WJ or XJ)
• Sway bar mounts modified/removed?
• Track bar relocated?
• Steering stabilizer modified/removed?
• Additional notes (Anything you modified to get any of the above parts to work such as grinding the hub for the rotors to fit, using washers to space the caliper or rotor, etc)

Most of the info on the swap seems to be several years old and very few write-ups/discussions are current. It would be nice to have a current list of what people are doing.

I am currently gathering parts still but so far this seems to be the list of what will work the easiest (with the least modification):

• 2000+ XJ/TJ hubs
• JKS spacers
• 2002 Explorer Sport Trac rotors (Requires some grinding?)
• WJ TREs
• Shortened WJ tie rods
• WJ lower ball joints
• JKS swaybar mounts
• Track bar relocated?
• Removed stabilizer
• If staying UTK the trackbar only needs to be relocated to correct bumpsteer but isn't necessary. Stabilizer seems optional on crossover steering

PingPong

Seems like you have done all the work/research. SO whats the actual question?

I was going to do this swap, but ended up swapping in a HPD44 instead.

Evil Drew M

The question ultimately was what parts did you use and what modifications did you have to make to them to get it to work?

My intent was to have a concise list of "If you use [insertspecificparthere] you will have to [insertmodhere] to get it to work" since that isn't really out there.

PingPong

I ended up going full width.. so I never completed it.. But your parts list seems complete, My only advice is to do the trac bar work... will be cleaner looking

Evil Drew M

Just as an update I ended up with the following parts list:

• TJ hubs
• Explorer rotors
• JKS spacers

The modifications I needed to make are:

• I had a friend take .020" off the outside of the hub flanges on his lathe. I wanted it to be a clean job so I went this route. Bottom line is that the hubs are a hair too big for the rotors to fit over the outer edge. Machining the hubs means that any future rotor purchases will be a drop-in (some people grind the inside of the rotors instead).
• I will need to space the rotor off the hub by ~2MM. 2.63MM is a hair too much which is how I honed in on 2MM (I had some washers that measured out to that) but I am still working it out. The difference between the height of the WJ rotor and the Explorer rotor is .1" which is 2.54MM so logic would say that 1.25MM would be the ticket BUT in reality it seems to need to be a little more than that. Once I work it out I will post up my findings.

That should be it. The 2MM spacing of the rotor is NOT enough to pull the rotor off the locating ridge on the hub.

As for HOW I am going to space it I haven't decided on that yet either. I ordered a pile of 2MM round shims (Washers but much tighter tolerances) from McMaster but I'd prefer a 1-piece spacer. I have a 3MM wheel spacer that fits inside the rotor. I may have that milled down to 2MM.

Why am I spacing the rotor? As stated earlier the Explorer rotor is .1" taller which moves the face of the rotor closer to the caliper bracket. With no spacer the clearance between the rotor and the bracket is less than 1MM.

TJ hubs machined down:


Explorer rotor on TJ hub:


Clearance with 2.63MM spacers:


TJ hub, spacer and knuckle (spacers still need to be welded on):

SeriousOffroad

97 unit bearing hubs ground down to fit the rotors listed below.
Akebono Dual Piston Calipers
JKS Spacers (Tig Welded)
3/16" spacers for the caliper saddles (place between the saddle and the knuckle)
12" Ford Explorer Sport Track Rotors
TeraFlex Offset TRE's to move the tierod forward to clear the diff.
Homebrew OTA Trackbar bracket
Built my own trackbar too.
Homebrew swaybar mounts and customized my JKS Quicker Disconnects to fit

No grinding of the calipers on my set up to clear the wheels either.

Evil Drew M

For those following along at home this is the deal if you use the regular XJ hubs and Explorer rotors. The TJ hubs don't require the caliper spacing but it requires the hub spacing that I am currently working on.

I am betting that Frank opted for the Explorer rotors for the same reason I did - not having to redrill for our bolt pattern.

My desire with this is to have as many unmodified off-the-shelf parts as possible. Yes my hubs are modified now but they are gonna last a lot longer than the rotors.

There is a 3rd option using the old XJ hubs (Pre-91 I think) that alters the spacing issue again but I don't know the details. It may alleviate both of the spacing issues myself and Frank are having to work with.

If someone has one of those old hubs handy and can take some measurements I may be able to tell you what the specific changes would be in regard to the spacing. PM me and I will tell you what measurement I need.