i just bought a 97 ZJ limited V8, and my major dilemma right now is this thing is open on both ends, and to me a 4x4 is worthless if both axles are open. I know my pick up was, I put a locker in the rear of that and it's been a tank since. but sadly I have the D44A/D44HD. I thought about just welding the spiders, but don't really want to since it's primary function will be semi daily driver and snow fighter in the winter. I want to do an 8.8 swap, and I have a 93 exploder that I totaled this past spring, which is why I bought this ZJ, to replace that, so I have an 8.8 already but its drum brake, and my ZJ is disc, I don't want to go backwards and I have ideas to adapt the ZJ discs to the 8.8 and was wondering if its ever been done. if not why? if tried and failed, why? Ive seen may times over where axles that didnt come with disc have had them added so I cant be that hard to swap em over. Only thing I can think of why it may not have been done is because so many newer sploders came factory with discs most people that were buying them bought them with discs already on. However like I said, i have the axle already, and don't want to buy another.

 

Not sure if the Jeep caliper brackets will bolt onto the Ford axle, but I would gues the Ford rear disc hardware should bolt right onto the 8.8 you have. It's going to take some fab and welding to put a leaf sprung axle into a ZJ. www.ironrockoffroad.com will have the needed spring seats and control arm brackets for an 8.8 ZJ swap.

 

thanks for the input, I know about the fabrication and the bracket kit. I have a M.O.R.E. kit in my garage for my buddies TJ we are working on currently. The caliper brackets will not bolt up, The D35/D44A has smaller axle tubes than the 8.8 and the axle flange is smaller too. I know I will have to make them work, be it just boreing out the center bore and redrilling the bolt pattern for the axle flange, building a spacer/adapter for it to work, or even just starting from scratch and building a brand new caliper bracket to fit the caliper to the 8.8. I figured this would be more budget friendly and I'm no were near short of fabrication skill. I was just curious as to if there was any other reason it hasn't been done other than convenience of disc'ed 8.8s being plentiful.