But he wont if he goes with the generic disc brake conversion lol

 

I'm wondering why I'm seeing the phrase "constant adjustment" in this thread. If you've got your drums set up properly and maintained correctly, they are automatically self adjusting. That's what the starwheel is for. If you have to constantly adjust your drum brakes, the mechanism is in a failed state.

I just did a full maintenance write-up here:

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f24/ho...-8-25-a-58947/

$218 to replace every single part of the rear brake system from the proportioning valve to the drums on a 1997 Cherokee. Now I won't have to touch them from another 100k miles. Cheap and effective.

 

When you run with big tires and five guys in your car the drum brakes dont works good. In this case you need a brake system more efectively. In my case i swap to zj disk brake system and works good.


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That e-brake cable looks really taught...does it still work ok?

 

really works good and this is the original ebrake cable.

 

I have the parts to do the swap on an 8.25. They came off of a Jeep Liberty. If you want them let me know

 

Where are you located? I'm interested.

 

So I'm pretty mechanically inclined, but my experience is limited to aircooled VW's. I have a couple stupid questions...
1) I think converting to rear discs is something I could handle on my own, and I've read several of the write ups. Is there anything I should absolutely NOT do? I mean anything I need to be aware of, like "Don't let ___ happen, or you'll be screwed", or "don't touch ___ or move ___ while ___ is off" etc.
2) (This one's a doozy). I have a 97 sport with the 5 speed and a small (1-1.5" I think) budget lift (looks like little blocks). I keep seeing comments relating to d35 or 8.25. What is this? And (yikes) how do I know which I have?
Like I said, I've read the write ups, I just wanna make sure I don't have it up on jackstands and realize I did something wrong or forgot something. Thanks everyone

 

The d35 is a Dana 35 rearend and the 8.25 is a Chrysler rearend.

 

When comparing the two stock systems available drum stock, ZJ disc conversion. The Discs provide more stopping power than drums. My Opinion, I have XJ and ZJ.
That being said I just ran 110000 km on my last set of drums on the XJ (had one shoe delaminate) worked great up to that time, kept them adusted. Started with all new and good quality parts. Going good on the next set. Just did the ZJ disc set too, all new parts also. Keep your rear drums adjusted, will stop well and give you good pedal. Start with good quality parts. My opinion still the discs work better, however I have no intention of changing the XJ setup. An XJ will provide plenty of other opportunities to spend the money LOL