Pelagius

Sorry guys, was out on my deer hunt, so interwebs was pretty limited. From what research I could do since then is the OEM springs ran pretty much flat, so basically it is normal. The jeep sits level, and when I took it hunting everything seemed to work as it should. The rear didn't even dip when I packed it full of all my stuff. I will be getting under it to measure how much lift I actually ended up with by relocating my shackles. All in all I feel kinda dumb about the whole thing.

Pelagius

Ok so the executive decision has been made to make the drum to disc swap for the rear brakes. In preparation of this plan I decided to make a JY run to see what I could round up. I found some backing plates and calipers from a 2000 explorer, and snagged them for 50 bucks. Next is looking at soft line connections and continuing getting part together. Potentially looking at cutting the fenders this weekend. We will see how my time goes.

bad_idea

Use two passenger side soft lines from the Ford Explorer. Use the parking brake cables and metal box that attaches to the frame rail from the Explorer, mate that to your stock parking brake cable from the pull handle. You'll have to shorten the Explorer parking brake cables in the metal box. I used u bolt clamps from Home Depot to shorten mine. (I was in a hurry to get the parking brake hooked up to pass inspection) The ideal method would be to find the ferrels that clamp to the cable and swage them on with the proper tool.

I put an 8.8 in my 90 4 door, and I did the above. I looked into modifying the XJ parking brake cables to work with the 8.8 (is fairly simple to do), but they weren't long enough to allow the rear axle to fully droop. I'm on 5" of lift and the rear droops good. With the Explorer parking brake cables, the shocks are the limiting factor now.

Pelagius

Thank you for the tip! Do you have any pictures of your set up?I have a D44 on mine, thinking I will need to do some minor re bending of my hard brake lines to make it work.

bad_idea

I don't have any pics at this time, currently out of town for work. I'll be home next week for Thanksgiving, if you're interested then I can get some pics then.

I ran new hard lines on mine. Get some stiff wire and bend it up to fit, use that as a template to bend the new lines. Now here's the real trick, look at what lengths the auto parts store sells pre-flared lines. Cut your wire to that length and make that work. Fiddle with the routing until you can make that length work. I hate flaring tubing that much.

Pelagius

Bad Idea, no hurry, I am still in the process of aquiring all the parts and pieces any way.

So made a trip tp Home Depot and harbor frieght in preparation of multiple projects I had waiting for the weather to get nicer. After coming home with my stash I prepared for Sunday to be an all day tinkering day. That us until I got out to my garage and I realized that with a roommate moving out, and just daily life my garage was a mess and I had no room to do anything. Well jeep day turned into organize garage day instead. Got about 80% done, and now will have plenty of room to do some projecting over the long holiday weekend!