Hey I know that there are several people on here who have put a front and rear under their ZJ and I have a question or two.

What did you do for your brackets? Fab em? I heard RE makes a kit but I cannot confirm anything. I will prolly call them soon.

Also what did you put the Pinion angle to? how about the coil buckets? UCA and LCA mounts?

I can and will measure the stock setup so if you did not change it from that never mind. But if you did how is it working?

RE does have brackets (quite nice and appeard to be lazer cut 3/16 or 1/4 I don't recall). However, I think the brackets were made for the TJ. There shouldn't be much difference and you should be able to do it. One more thing, if you go ahead and get them make sure that there are no rocks stuck inside the coil bucket brackets or any of the other enclosed brackets for that matter.

I already answered this on JU, but here goes again. The TJ (EDIT: Made by RE) brackets work for the front, but the rear has to be either fabbed or cored from a stock ZJ axle.

Those RE brackets are kick ass. Laser cut, well formed, and 1/4" (I believe). Might be 3/16", but still Beefy.

Bob

trango,
I am not sure what you mean by the rear brackets have to be cored from a ZJ. I have RE rear brackets installed for my rear UCA and Track bar. I do agree. They are the $hit.

The RE front kit is for a Dana 44 and the rear is for D44 D60 or 9"

What Bob is saying is most of the TJ brackets won't work for the ZJ. I think the uppers/trackbar brackets would work and possibly if you modified the lowers you could also get them to work. The spring perches are very different. My brackets came from a donor 35C. I modified my lower mounts to move the shocks up about 2.5 inches. So I think you could get most of the mounts to work. I haven't looked under a TJ for a while though. Most of the brackets wouldn't be that hard to make.
Nathan

Thanks guys,

I called RE and they want 399 bucks for the front bracket kit! Man I can F up a lot of metal for 4 bills. I was thinking about half that price would be about right.

I am sorry but they seem to be getting more and more expensive at time rolls on.

I will most likely cut mine off or make them as I go.

Any opinions on the angles?

Went and looked at the Waggy today and I lucked out for sure. Basically brand new axles (rebuilt 1000 miles ago) to include brakes. Know what I am paying? My old running gear! Good deal for me and for the guy since he is getting ARB's.

Not sure how hard you run your ZJ. But paying 4 benji's for a bracket kit that is over built is a fair price. I have ripped of 3 stock brackets. Also the driver side upper CA is cast into the Dana 30 housing.
Do your self a favor and put up the cash and save your self the design and fab time.

.../dan

Buy the brackets! The stock 1/16" (exaggerating, barley) are junk, especially once you start heating them up. Just do it right the first time, your wallet will thank you later...

Well you are probably right I just need to pony up the cash. But man I am a cheapass!

I have ripped up the stock jobs on my ZJ already and that is why I am considering it. I also looked into what it would take to fab them up and I think it is more time and resources than I have available.

Thanks for the input guys.:flipoff2: :beer:

If you have a welder handy, you can sufficiently reinforce the stock brackets and keep that couple hundred $ for something else.

The front lowers tend to roll away from the axle tube then rip off. This is cured by welding the coil pad to the top of the ctl arm bracket; I used 1"x3/16" flat bar for this.
The fronts also get bent out of shape from bashing into rocks. This is cured by welding 3"x3/16 flat bar to the front of the ctl arm brackets. Be sure to make it short enough, as not to interfere with the control arm (stock arms require an extra inch or so of room over RE / Tera arms).

The rear axle brackets have proven pretty solid. The driver's upper is prone to tweakage. This can be reinforced with flat or anlge bar to the axle tube.
The driver's rear upper frame-end bracket is prone to ripping off the frame (and taking a good chunk of the "frame" with it). I used 1" channel iron (looks like a 'u') to truss the bracket; welded one in front and one behind the bracket- to thicker sections of the frame.

Less that $20 in steal to beef up your stock brackets. Compare that to RE's $300 kit that doesn't include ctl arm bracket skids.

Originally posted by cbassett
If you have a welder handy, you can sufficiently reinforce the stock brackets and keep that couple hundred $ for something else.

The front lowers tend to roll away from the axle tube then rip off. This is cured by welding the coil pad to the top of the ctl arm bracket; I used 1"x3/16" flat bar for this.
The fronts also get bent out of shape from bashing into rocks. This is cured by welding 3"x3/16 flat bar to the front of the ctl arm brackets. Be sure to make it short enough, as not to interfere with the control arm (stock arms require an extra inch or so of room over RE / Tera arms).

The rear axle brackets have proven pretty solid. The driver's upper is prone to tweakage. This can be reinforced with flat or anlge bar to the axle tube.
The driver's rear upper frame-end bracket is prone to ripping off the frame (and taking a good chunk of the "frame" with it). I used 1" channel iron (looks like a 'u') to truss the bracket; welded one in front and one behind the bracket- to thicker sections of the frame.

Less that $20 in steal to beef up your stock brackets. Compare that to RE's $300 kit that doesn't include ctl arm bracket skids.

You know I considered doing the whole frame with c -channel. I just might if I ever decide to Long arm the thing. But as for right now I am doing fine with my current setup. Flex is not that big of a thing up here and I have seen it get people in over thier heads.

I will keep an eye on that UCA framemount. Looks fine as of now but I will keep my eye on it. Thanks for the tips!