Better brakes for the LJ

I Lean

Mbryson's hairdresser
Vendor
Location
Utah
Just remembering something. Few weeks ago, my buddy Tim, who has ridden tens of thousands of miles in the passenger seat of my LJ, riding shotgun. State highway, cruising 70, spaced off and blew past our turn. Hauled her down to turn around and Tim said "ain't never felt the Jeep stop like that before!".

Sums it up pretty well.

- DAA

That one makes me smile a little. :)
 

astjp2

Active Member
Location
Riverdale/Alaska
Well I have the Elocker in my family room, 30 spline shafts for the HP 30 and 4.56 gears on the way, still need ball joints, brake pads and a few misc items and I will have a new diff for the LJ. I am hoping the higher pinion will allow me to reduce the angle and keep the sway bar brackets from hitting the steering when I am wheeling. I also hope it will solve my bent axle problem. BRR-236 Rotors are ordered from Amazon, I still need wheel bearings, ball joints, and brake pads. I am split between the z23-1455 and the z26-1455 pads, it seems like the 26's are a better pad for a couple of dollars more. Tim

Does anyone want to come over to the shop and install new lockers and gears in my Diff's some weekend? I would provide beer afterwards and Prime rib dinner! I will have the diff's removed and out on the bench.
 
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astjp2

Active Member
Location
Riverdale/Alaska
I dont know what is wrong with junk yards these days, I ordered a used caliper mount for a 330 mm rotor, and they send me one for the 350 mm one. it was almost $40, not worth the headache to send back, so I just did the rock auto thing for the same money. ?
 

astjp2

Active Member
Location
Riverdale/Alaska
Ok, where did you get the bolts to mount the calipers? I went to Marshalls, they have the 14x2.0mm but the calipers are supposed to have 14x1.5mm, in 10.9, also where are people getting the washers for spacers? I need .180", .187" are too thick and rub...Tim
 

astjp2

Active Member
Location
Riverdale/Alaska
Well I goofed up and bought 16mm bolts instead of 14mm so I will just take them back. They only had 8.8 in stock which should be strong enough but I am now going to just get the bolts from Belmetric once I figure out the proper length. I also discovered that an AN960 washer added to a stanndard washer will equal .181" thick so I have all of about $2 invested in the spacers. Well I am slowly trudging on. Tim
 

DAA

Well-Known Member
Brake story with a happy ending...

Cruising through a green light at about 35 MPH. All the sudden right in front of me in the middle of the intersection, there is a lady in a shiny new little shit box that had gone through her red light, coming to a stop as she realized she was about to T-bone a car that was oncoming to me. Setup perfectly for ME to T-bone HER. LJ came to a complete stop with maybe 4" between the winch guard on my front bumper and her driver side window.

Absolutely no doubt in my mind I'd have slammed into her with the old brakes. And given the height of my bumper and the height of her face, it would have been bad.

Thanks again Carl!

- DAA
 

I Lean

Mbryson's hairdresser
Vendor
Location
Utah
Brake story with a happy ending...

Cruising through a green light at about 35 MPH. All the sudden right in front of me in the middle of the intersection, there is a lady in a shiny new little shit box that had gone through her red light, coming to a stop as she realized she was about to T-bone a car that was oncoming to me. Setup perfectly for ME to T-bone HER. LJ came to a complete stop with maybe 4" between the winch guard on my front bumper and her driver side window.

Absolutely no doubt in my mind I'd have slammed into her with the old brakes. And given the height of my bumper and the height of her face, it would have been bad.

Thanks again Carl!

- DAA
If all the other anecdotes weren't enough, this one incident TOTALLY justified your upgrade. :oops:
 

phatfoto

Giver of bad advice
Location
Tooele
I first saw this upgrade over at Cherokeeforum.com a few years ago. I've gone back and looked into it a number of times since. But it is quite nice to know someone LOCAL has done this swap and that it works as expected. Lucky me, I have the early XJ knuckles in question, on hand. I've never been happy with the stock brakes on my 95 ZJ, regardless of pad or rotors used. Part of me has considered just doing a WJ front axle and steering swap all at once. I've even considered JK axle swapping as well. But no budget for that at present. Larger brakes will require wheel change, as I have XJ 15" wheels right now...
 
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