2WD Grand Cherokee Axles?

[Mtn WJ]

Anyone familiar the front suspensions on 2wd Grand Cherokee's. Are they basically a solid axle similar to the 4wds without a diff? WJ or ZJ. We do not see many 2wd grands in Colorado but when I travel to Atlanta and Dallas I see them all over the place. I am building a 49 Ford F1 truck into a retro type hot rod. There are serveral front suspension upgrades I can do to make it IFS however most are not heavy enough if I want to keep its hauling capabilities. Since the trucks front axle is solid with leaf springs I was thinking perhaps I could use a Grand 2wd front axle and build a long arm type set up with coils or air bags. I could keep the leafs but I will not gain as much this way. I want it lowered in bit in front like it is now. The older Ford trucks like mine has a narrower frame and there for it may fit. I can use wheel spacers to get the width to match the rear and bolt patterns.

http://www.imagestation.com/member/j...d%3D4286960469

Well this is a concept thing for now but it may be what I am looking for. I want to improve the ride a bit and put discs on the front at the same time.

Another couple axle swaps are the Aerostar/Ranger and the Dakota set ups but they are fairly involved. But they will be stout enough. Then there is the popular Mustang II set up but not so sure it is beefy enough for hauling. Probably my second choice besides re-working the existing axle is going to the Mopar torsion conversion but again a little skeptical on how heavy duty this would be.

Any suggestions would be helpful

Keith S

[OverkillZJ]

Awesome.

I've only seen a picture of one, but if I recall correctly it was a tube with the knuckles at the end. So ya, basicly a d30 axle minus the diff...

[FinlayZJ]

They are identical. The 2wd tube lacks a diff and axle shafts. The knuckles, spring perches, LCA/UCA mounts, shocks mounts, etc are all identical.

[Mtn WJ]

Thanks for the replies. I will do some more measurments and think this through a bit more. If it seems to be a possibility I may ask someone from the southern areas to see if an axle can be picked up cheap or not. Not much of a chance in finding one in Colorado.

I will need to change the steering box out as well because on the Ford it is behind the axle. This will not be too big of a problem but fabbing a track bar to be parrallel with the steering may be an issue when I mount the 5.0. It might make sense to use some soft leaf springs in the front.

[Swamp boy]

LEt me know there are quite a few 2WD grands in the bone yard here..

[Mtn WJ]

Swampy Any idea on how much they go for?

The more thought I put into this the better the idea sounds. Does anyone know the front axle width of a ZJ? I believe the ZJ is slightly shorter than the WJ. I would like to know the width between the outer hubs where the wheels bolt on and the width between the center of the coil buckets. How safe would it be to cut the tube in half to shorten it and re-weld it back together. It seems a good welder could re-weld it back together with out any issues. The springs on my Effie are only 32 inches center to center.

I think this could be a Hot Rodders trend especially for old truck builders. The money it costs just to convert the old king pin axles to discs is very expensive. Then you add steering upgrades etc it gets pricey and you have a crappy suspension. The IFS upgrades are more money and complicated.

[norton]

cuz im bored i went outside and did a little measuring for you ...

36" from center to center on the spring perches

52" from inside to inside of hubs

and I looked in my FSM (ya its just setting next to the computer all the time ) and it says the track widtch is 58"

enjoi