Hey y'all. I picked up a 8.25 yesterday to clean up and drop in my 01 to replace the dana 35 that is made out of paper mache. Pretty sure the 35 has a bad pinion bearing and figured putting a 8.25 in would be a nice upgrade. I would like to do the disc brake swap for it just for ease of service, I know it doesn't really affect braking that much in terms of performance. From what I have been able to read it seems like there's not much benefit between KJ vs ZJ swap (correct me if I am mistaken). I am wondering what the parts list for doing the KJ swap would be? So far this is what I think I need to buy;

• KJ Rotors and calipers
• KJ backing plates
• RT 31040 and 31041 E-brake cables
• Bearings and Seals (just for maintenance)
• ZJ Proportioning spring
• Dana 30 studs to accommodate for rotor thickness

What else is required for the swap or are there any recommendations on what to get?

 

Backing plate studs, from the KJ
I would use the spring and valve from the ZJ. Just the guts though not the whole thing.

 

Are the backing plate studs a dealer only part or does anybody have a part number for them? I would prefer to use new ones if they don't cost some ridiculous amount. I know Jeep tends to be very proud of their studs when you try to buy them from the dealer. They tried to charge me like 15 dollars a piece for the fan studs on my 2.5L I had.