to preface the questions I have let me say a couple things. the 2 reasons i'm doing this is 1) it was very cheap and 2) my pinion bearing is going bad on my current 8.25, this is a cheaper alternative than to have a shop replace the other one (for now)

So I bought a junkyard axle from a 98 XJ and I'm looking to clean it up in order to swap it under my XJ.
Here's what I plan on doing :

- Wire wheel the outside and coat it with POR15,
- Inspect the drums and possibly get a rebuild kit & new shoes depending on their conditions,
- New parking brake cables, it was so rusty at the junk yard I ended up cutting them
- Pull the cover and inspect the gears,
- Remove the axle shafts, inpect them and then replace the seals & wheel bearings
- Finally I want to install the RE extended brake lines because I cut the rubber hose at the junction block thing and I need to replace it anyway, and also new brake lines because even though the new ones are relatively new, they were poorly installed and it's not pretty.

Here are my questions

- My current lift is about 5" in the rear, which parking brake wire should I get? Stock XJ replacement or junkyard?

- Is there any way to diagnose the pinion bearing on the diff outside of the jeep? I took a guess getting it, so if I can at least check before doing all the work, I will. Currently there is no play, that's as far as I went with my diagnosis.

- Is the pinion yoke from a 96 8.25 the same length/ujoint size as a 98 8.25?

- Anything else I should know, or any tip before doing this?

 

Good time for a disc swap?

Not sure if the brake line over the axle needs to be longer with your lift or not but I have a brand new one I will give your cheap. Just got done with a disc swap and didn't use it.

I know the over the axle brake lines can be had at the dealer, just replaced mine. No too expensive either.

 

for the disc swap, I thought about it and would really like to do it, but I don't have 500$+ for a new kit and I tried to source the parts to make my own but i can't find backing plates, I checked everything. KJs and ZJs, all of them are so rusted the plate just becomes dust when I touch it.

when you refer to brake lines over the axle, do you mean the hard lines that go from the junction box to the wheel cylinders? if so I'll go to the dealer and see how much they would charge for both. are they flared too, so no need for the tools?

the RE extended line I was talking about is the soft line that connects the hard line from the master cylinder to the ones on the axle, like this :



Is that a similar line you have? If a stock one can be used with my lift (never had issues with mine, just thought I'd better get a longer one while I was at it) and it is indeed the same thing, I might take you up on that offer, depending on the price. If you're able to get backing plates too, i would definitely buy them

 

Too bad you already bought the axle. I would have gone with a ford 8.8" from an explorer they're super easy to find and already have disk brakes. and the swap kit is pretty cheap too.

 

Get your kit for the disc brake swap from Big David.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f71/di...on-kit-159484/

 

You should be able to re use the stock parking brake line on your Jeep, I've heard Dakota soft lines are 6 inches longer than stock xj, I have a YJ rear line in mine it's about 3 inches longer than stock and only cost like 25 bucks at auto zone opposed to the RE line which is more, also I think POR15 is intended for use on rusty metal so cleaning the axle and then painting it with POR15 might cause it to not adhere properly, I've heard tractor paint is supposed to be pretty durable my axle just has flat black rustoleum on it.

 

yeah I know.. there is even an explorer in the yard with a good looking 8.8 under it. it looked like much more work and since they don't let jacks in, it was somehow less accessible than the 8.25. trust me i wish I could have gotten it, but their regular prices are 120$ on an axle anyway, so I can always go and get it later on. i got the 8.25 for 60$

i checked out his thread when I first looked into rear disc swap, but I wasn't ready to spend 170$US (220$CAD) plus shipping. if i were in the US I'd probably do it in a heartbeat.

i also heard about the YJ lines and I think I'll go that route since they're pretty cheap. I'll consider reusing mine but one is in pretty bad shape from getting in contact with the muffler. they are also pretty tight because of my lift.

when I said clean I meant getting the crust off the axle to get a flat surface. I'll leave plenty of rust for the por15 to adhere onto. the thing is they also say if you prep bare metal properly, POR15 will also work, the key is prep.