WJ Grand Cherokees

[Begster]

Alright, I'm talking with a friend about his '02 WJ, and we are talking about some axles. He was talking about axles and how he had a lot of money he needed to put into his front end to make it decent and get rid of the CV joints, so I just suggested swapping a HP XJ D30 over.

He responded saying how it was wrong bolt pattern (I understand its a 5 on 5.5, and there are spacers to easily fix that), not wide enough, ABS Tone rings, etc etc.

My question is, how much wider is the WJ than an XJ, cause this is the 2nd time I've heard him talk about it. Would a HP from an XJ be a decent upgrade, and what else would be needed to be done to it, what would you guys suggest?

 

[Rev Den]

how he had a lot of money he needed .....
..........what would you guys suggest?

Call Currie.

Rev

 

[BIGSLVRXJ]

I understand its a 5 on 5.5

I believe it's actually 5x5, but that's not the worst of his problems.

 

[Prepmech]

How big of lift and tires is he planning on running? I helped to put a WJ together and it was a PITA. We ended up putting a 4" lift and 31" tires on it and had to do a ton of other stuff to make it work. The front axle had to be pushed forward (adjustable control arms) to keep it from rubbing the fenders, we had to weld new brackets on the front axle, trim the front bumper. All that for just 31s. I can't imagine trying to fit anything bigger under one without some major body work, they aren't as easy to trim as our cherokees are. The sway bar still rubs the coils, have to move that sooner or later.

I would be more worried about the rear axle than the front. The d35 or the d44a are both pretty weak. It would be pretty difficult to swap in a different axle and make the stock upper wishbone work with it. A bridge across the top of the axle attached to either triangulated 4-link upper arms or a custom wishbone would probably be the best setup.

For the front, On the one I helped build, we had to put new lower control arm mounts on the axle. The WJs are prone to death wobble because of how far inboard the lower control arms are mounted on the axle. It already has a pretty good steering and brake setup. Rustys has a kit to get rid of the CV joints on the driveshaft. Some alloy axle shafts with u-joints are easy enough to find. The low pinion 30 should be able to handle 31s without much trouble.

My recommendation would be to move, change your phone number, name and whatever else it takes to keep him from finding you. Yeah, they are that bad.