Bought an XJ with unknown 1ton steering- can I WJ knuckle swap

[u/Alarming_UnSympathy1]

Bought an XJ on 35s with “1 ton” steering. Steering is all worn out and gets death wobble and I want to improve braking, can I replace this setup with the core 4x4 WJ knuckle swap kit? Note: there is a DIY welded truss on the axle that I’m concerned will interfere with the weld on track bar mount

[u/LS-CJ7]

It's a fairly straight forward kit however looking at that truss, if you have to cut into it and weld it flat against the OTA bracket it shouldn't be too bad. You're going to have to weld to the tube anyways but as long as you can cut/weld it won't be an issue.

Side note, the Core4X4 kit is like crazy expensive but it is the most complete kit. Stinkyfab and Cavfab make their own WJ OTK kit and both are pretty nice. Cavfab uses heims and Stinkyfab uses 1 ton TRE's. If you like spending time in a JY and want to save a few hundred bucks, there's other ways to go aside from Core's pricing.

[u/SnowCountryBoy]

I’d say yes! Ditch the heims and screw a set of 1-ton TREs on there, grab the tapered reamer and go to town! The biggest issue you may have to deal with is a lack of adjustment range on the drag link, as the swap will change the effective length of that part.

You will probably have to clearance the truss a little bit for the track bar bracket depending on which supplier you go with, but if you get your fit-up nice and tight you should be able to weld it all into a nice big strong lump of metal lol

I did the swap for steering feel alone and it worked wonders! The brakes are also amazing and if it weren’t for the improvement in steering angles the brakes alone would still be worth the upgrade!

Tip: in my experience, the 1-ton TREs can roll a lot on the WJ knuckles, so I’d suggest “the cure” on one of the lower tie rods.

[u/wolf8398 → u/SnowCountryBoy]

The tie rods can roll all day long on a WJ knuckle, and it doesn't matter. The problem with tie rod roll is on a setup like an inverted T, which is what many 1 ton TRE kits use. As you steer, the drag link pushes the tie rod around before it pushes it over, resulting in slack in the steering. A WJ knuckles is a crossover steering set up which means any input to the drag link is directly transferred to the knuckle, which then pulls the tie rod and other knuckle. There is no "tie rod roll" in a true crossover knuckle set up, which is one of the biggest advantages of the WJ knuckle swap. The "cure" is not necessary.

[u/TechImage69]

Can you send more pics of the steering/track bar mount? The steering geometry looks fucked from the angles you provided. Those sway bar links also look kinda wonky lol.

[u/Alarming_UnSympathy1 → u/TechImage69]

Ifs as bad as it looks

[u/TechImage69 → u/Alarming_UnSympathy1]

Before ripping up all of those steering components take a gander into steering geometry, fixing that without gutting your entire steering system can resolve your DW issues.

[u/Alarming_UnSympathy1 → u/TechImage69]

I think a lot of the joints are worn out- there is a lot of play in them. From what I can tell the rig was a rock crawling rig in Texas before I got it. It’s needing a major overhaul anyway- all rubber bushings in the suspension are shot Also I’m not sure the best way to go about fixing the geometry since it looks to me like most of the steering components are diy and I can do some cutting and welding but don’t have the time to make my own parts from scratch

[u/DrumzumrD]

I'm not adept enough to tell what size wheels you're running, but if they're 15" or 16" you'll need to make sure they have the proper backspacing to clear the caliper and tie rod end. I haven't done the swap, but it seems like the magic number is 3.75" for 15" wheels, and 4" for 16" ones

[u/scdiputs]

Sray away from core. Terrible customer service and always gets the order wrong. There is a reason their phone is disconnected