WJ Steering knuckles and Mustang Cobra Brake Upgrade
1. Tighten up steering, loose and worn out
2. Raise the steering link, fix clearance issues.
3. Improve the brakes, mine were all shot anyways.
NOTE: I built new coil buckets and all brackets,
some of this may not work for you because of clearance issues.
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Here is a list of the parts and prices for mine.
Knuckles / pair shipped Car-parts.com $115.00
ORGS hub flange /pair shipped $ 70.00
Custom Draglink W/ ES2027L + Unknown TRE $175.00
WFO Concepts Tie Rod W/ ES2010L + ES2010R shipped $160.00
Ford Explorer Sport Trac Rotors EBAY $ 75.00
2004 Mustang Cobra Calipers EBAY $200.00
All 4 Ball joints EBAY shipped $ 82.00
Welding Labor - $150.00
Filling and taper reaming knuckles from the top
Welding the ORGS spacers onto cast knuckles
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Total for WJ knuckle swap $1027.00
and COBRA brake upgrade
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The brakes are phenomenal !!!
Well worth the price of admission.
The ES2010L and ES2010R have a deeper taper than the thickness of the WJ knuckle. I would recommend finding a pair of TRE's that have a shallower taper. I welded a piece of DOM to the bottom of the knuckle as a permanent spacer. As seen in the pic above.
So let's say that you want to piece it together, you could get the knuckles, your choice of calipers+brackets, and rotors. Add the ORGS 1/4" spacer and you can install all of this and leave your steering stock. Providing that the taper on your TRE's are the same as the WJ. Then later, funding allowing you could do a new Draglink, Tierod, and Trackbar.
To eliminate bumpsteer, your Trackbar and Draglink need to be as close to parallel to each other as possible. I was told to make the trackbar as long as possible to eliminate other steering wander and shifting. The flatter they are at ride height the better. I made a custom trackbar bracket to adjust it to the height of the stock ZJ pitman arm.
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You will need to either fab a new trackbar and mount or have one modified.
For my Trackbar:
I had a 36" piece of 1.5" .25 wall DOM threaded with 1.25 12 TPI. I used some B7 Allthread that I ordered through Fastenall. I had some left over from doing my Arms. I used a small piece of 1.5" .120 Wall Dom to weld to the Small RE superflex joint and then slid the Allthread inside. I then cut the DOM to length and notched the end. Here are a few pics.
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I originally bought all of the WJ TRE's and the ORGS Draglink and Tierod. After mocking it up, I was disgusted with the complete lack of droop from the WJ TRE at the Pitman Arm.
I sold the stuff and had a custom Draglink made.
The ES2027L is amazing, it is 2 TRE joints in 1, it has 60* of rotation. Check
one out at a local parts house, you will be amazed.
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I chose to have an old time professional welder do the welding to cast, this
MIG stuff is fun and all, but he knew how to do it correctly.
All you need is the knuckle -> out. Housing and shafts are different.
I put mine on a HP30 from an XJ.
Look on Car-parts.com for the knuckle only. Then call the yard and ask if they
have the rotors and calipers as well. You don't want to use the WJ hub, unless
you are swapping to a 5 on 5" bolt pattern. You will have to redrill the rotor
for 5 on 4.5".
What size wheels do you run? "some grinding may be required" to fit a 15"
wheel. That is why I choose the Cobra brakes, they have a slimmer profile.
Hoping that with the slim brakes and spidertrax 1.25" spacers my TJ canyons
would clear. They were too
close to rubbing for my comfort. I choose to get larger wheel. 16" Wheel would
clear just fine, I chose to go to a 17" wheel.
4x4wire writeup
Cobra brakes
An interesting writeup on redrilling the WJ hubs. We have been conversing
about this, he suggests spacing the hub out, ORGS sells the spacer, he was
busting u-joints.
WJ knuckles and hubs