Front axle swap

The TJ front brakes suck. The rotors are small diameter and the calipers flex under medium to high pressure. The GM 1/2 ton rotor is 12" instead of 11" (TJ) and the caliper is much bigger and stronger and uses much larger pads. The pedal feels the same, but as you push harder you slow a lot faster. The TJ brakes work fine under light load, but as you push harder, it doesn't make that much difference. I can lock up my 35's easily. Before, it didn't matter how hard you pushed, it wouldn't lock them up. It's really a huge difference.

Inner axle shafts need to have the larger u-joint (297/760) ears. TJ does, but older XJ and YJ have the smaller 260 u-joint ears. '95 and newer have the larger ears.

From GM solid axle front K10/K5 GM 10 bolt or Dana 44:

'73-'91 outer axle shafts & caliper bracket
'73-'76 spindle (refered to as "small bearing" spindle)
'80-'91 caliper (metric M10 banjo bolt)

From '79-'95 F-150 & Bronco 4x4 with some discrepancies ('79-'85 for sure):

Rotor, Hub, bearings, & inner seal. Make sure it's the 1 1/8" thick rotor

Warn Premium locking hub 20990. Amazon has new for $89/pair.

If you use a metric caliper ('80+) instead of the SAE (7/16 banjo bolt) caliper ('70's) you can enlarge the hole in your stock TJ banjo fitting about 1/32". Then you won't have to use brake line adapters.

The Reid knuckles increase your axle width about 1 1/2". That's 3/4" per side. I am also using a custom 3/4" spacer on each side in the rear. You may not notice the the stick-out difference, but it allows you to run any wheel. Some steel wheels with the 5x5.5 lug pattern will not mount up to the TJ drum correctly. So the spacer gives you a nice mounting surface. The ouside diamerter of the spacer is the same as the front hub mounting surface diameter.

I'm using the stock drum, redrilled to 5x5.5 and Alloy USA shafts in my rear Dana 44.  

Here's a pic of a 35x12.50 tire on a 8" rim with 4.25" of back spacing with the Reid knuckles on the front and 3/4" spacers in the rear...




And here's a pic of a straight edge touching the tire showing the stick-out distance of the Warn lock-outs on the Ford hubs...