How to: 2wd conversion to RubiAtlas
Thread Starter
JK Freak
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 604
Likes: 0
From: Cape Coral, FL
How to: 2wd conversion to RubiAtlas
This guide will be a couple months in the making, as I'm missing the transfer case and front driveshaft at the moment, but I thought I would start posting it up to give others some ideas on how to get going on their own conversion. I'm doing my install in 3 steps, rear axle, front axle, then transfer case. I'm by no means a skilled mechanic, so this guide is directed towards novices like myself.
Rear Axle
What parts you will need:
Rear Dana 44 Rubicon Axle
JK Wiring Harness (Mopar Part# 56055357AF or http://www.quadratec.com/products/52446_111.htm)
First things first, get yourself a pair of rubicon dana 44 axles.
I highly recommend getting tall/strong jackstands so that you can lift the jeep up adequatly enough that you have plenty of room and that your springs can fall out when you lower your axle, this will make it alot easier to swap them in and out.
1 - Jack up Jeep, and chock the frame with jackstands.
2 - Remove wheels.
3 - Use an extra set of jackstands to hold your axle at a low position.
4 - Unbolt lower shock mounts and lower swaybar mounts, move these to the side for now. A good rule of thumb is to put all bolts removed into their new place on the axle and just lightly put the nut on, so that way you know which bolt is for which hole.
5 - Loosen all control arm bolts, and then remove all axle mounted bolts. Same goes for these bolts onto the new axle. Remove the axle mounted part of the trackbar at this time also and zip tie it up above so it is out of the way.
6. Unplug both of your abs lines and make sure that any christmas tree clips are removed from the body. On each plug is a red lock switch (just like the door wiring) and you want to pull the red clip out and the plug should come out easily then.
7. Remove the emergency brake line from both sides of the axle. I found the easiest way to do this, was to first pull the spring out of its eyehole, then to take a pair of round pliers and grab the silver piece that expands to hold the cable in. Pliers will compress the expanded metal allowing it to be pulled out, give it some muscle on the end closest to the rubber and the clip should come out and be able to hang loose along with the spring. This will only leave the hook on the end hooked up. Pull on the brake line and it should give you enough slack to unhook it. Repeat on both sides.
8. Unbolt both of your brake lines, taking care not to lose the bronze washers on both ends of the bolt. Wrap the line in a towel to collect any drip and hang it above the hard line on the frame. Repeat on both sides.
9. If your springs are still compressed, at this point you will want to lower the axle some so you can pull the springs out.
10. Unbolt all 8 bolts on the driveshaft and put them to the side for now.
11. At this point everything should be unbolted and the only thing connected to your axle is your driveshaft. Depending on how high your jeep is put on jackstands, lower your axle to the ground and set each end on wood blocks. Put a jackstand/jack/wood support underneath the driveshaft near where your bolts were, this is to catch it when you pull the axle out. Slowly walk each side of the axle forward, one side a time, away from the driveshaft and it should fall out. If you feel some resistance, you will notice on the backside of the driveshaft where the bolts went through there are 2 larger holes between the bolt holes. Using a punch and a hammer, alternate between the two to help seperate it some and it should come out.
12. Your axle should be fully disconnected from the jeep now. Place it to the side and move your new axle in place.
13. Line up your axle with the driveshaft and push them together, it may take a bit to get the bolt holes lined up exactly right between the yolk and the driveshaft, but once you have them bolted in, go ahead and tighten them down.
14. Next, line up your control arm bolts and your control arms and put them in. Do not tighten down yet.
15. Put your springs back into place and raise the axle to keep them in.
16. Bolt your shocks and swaybar links back to the new axle.
17. Bolt your brake lines back into the caliper, making sure there is a bronze washer on both sides of the line.
18. Reconnect your abs plugs on each side.
19. Reconnect your emergency brake by first putting in the lacking mechanism, then pulling out the cord to push in the hook into the eyelit. After doing this make sure your spring is on the outside half (same as it was before).
20. Raise your axle back up and reattach your wheels, at this point you will want to tighten down your control arms and trackbar. You will also want to reattach your axle drain line at this point, if your using a brand new axle, you will need to unscrew the plug and screw in your old drain.
21. Bleed your brakes after putting the axle on if you are doing the front/rear at the same time.
Your new axle is installed, now to hook up the locker.
Rear Locker Setup
When you start out with the wiring harness you will have a larger amount of wire that you do not need.
These are the plugs you are looking for, there is also another set for the front, you will want to hold onto both sets of plugs. The front will be much shorter than the rear is from the giant plugs, this is the best way to tell them apart.
I cut mine off relatively short, because I didn't want to have to figure out which ground was which, so I cut mine when they started to pair up with the ABS lines. Once you have the wire cut, go ahead and plug it into your axle like so. Make sure that you push the red lock switch over on the sensor plug to lock it in.
Your wiring diagram for the plugs is:
Rear Locker Sensor [Yellow/Pink(+) and Blue/Green (-)]
Rear Locker Activator [Yellow/White(+) and Black(-)]
In my case I have a ****, so I ran the Yellow/White to the positive side and the black to the ground. If this isn't your case, you will run it to a switch where you can active the locker.
For your sensor wire, I would set it up in this fashion:
Battery -> 5 AMP Fuse -> 12v Light -> Sensor (either side, YP or BG) -> Ground
This will protect your sensor from overload and also provide you with an indicator to make sure that the locker actually activated.
And that's it for the rear axle, stay tuned next weekend for the front axle!
From start to finish, doing this by myself and with my girlfriend bringing me water every once in awhile (in Florida during the spring it gets hot in a garage!) it took me about 8 hours, this is with only hand tools and one person. If you have 2 people and air tools it would probably greatly reduce this time.
Rear Axle
What parts you will need:
Rear Dana 44 Rubicon Axle
JK Wiring Harness (Mopar Part# 56055357AF or http://www.quadratec.com/products/52446_111.htm)
First things first, get yourself a pair of rubicon dana 44 axles.
I highly recommend getting tall/strong jackstands so that you can lift the jeep up adequatly enough that you have plenty of room and that your springs can fall out when you lower your axle, this will make it alot easier to swap them in and out.
1 - Jack up Jeep, and chock the frame with jackstands.
2 - Remove wheels.
3 - Use an extra set of jackstands to hold your axle at a low position.
4 - Unbolt lower shock mounts and lower swaybar mounts, move these to the side for now. A good rule of thumb is to put all bolts removed into their new place on the axle and just lightly put the nut on, so that way you know which bolt is for which hole.
5 - Loosen all control arm bolts, and then remove all axle mounted bolts. Same goes for these bolts onto the new axle. Remove the axle mounted part of the trackbar at this time also and zip tie it up above so it is out of the way.
6. Unplug both of your abs lines and make sure that any christmas tree clips are removed from the body. On each plug is a red lock switch (just like the door wiring) and you want to pull the red clip out and the plug should come out easily then.
7. Remove the emergency brake line from both sides of the axle. I found the easiest way to do this, was to first pull the spring out of its eyehole, then to take a pair of round pliers and grab the silver piece that expands to hold the cable in. Pliers will compress the expanded metal allowing it to be pulled out, give it some muscle on the end closest to the rubber and the clip should come out and be able to hang loose along with the spring. This will only leave the hook on the end hooked up. Pull on the brake line and it should give you enough slack to unhook it. Repeat on both sides.
8. Unbolt both of your brake lines, taking care not to lose the bronze washers on both ends of the bolt. Wrap the line in a towel to collect any drip and hang it above the hard line on the frame. Repeat on both sides.
9. If your springs are still compressed, at this point you will want to lower the axle some so you can pull the springs out.
10. Unbolt all 8 bolts on the driveshaft and put them to the side for now.
11. At this point everything should be unbolted and the only thing connected to your axle is your driveshaft. Depending on how high your jeep is put on jackstands, lower your axle to the ground and set each end on wood blocks. Put a jackstand/jack/wood support underneath the driveshaft near where your bolts were, this is to catch it when you pull the axle out. Slowly walk each side of the axle forward, one side a time, away from the driveshaft and it should fall out. If you feel some resistance, you will notice on the backside of the driveshaft where the bolts went through there are 2 larger holes between the bolt holes. Using a punch and a hammer, alternate between the two to help seperate it some and it should come out.
12. Your axle should be fully disconnected from the jeep now. Place it to the side and move your new axle in place.
13. Line up your axle with the driveshaft and push them together, it may take a bit to get the bolt holes lined up exactly right between the yolk and the driveshaft, but once you have them bolted in, go ahead and tighten them down.
14. Next, line up your control arm bolts and your control arms and put them in. Do not tighten down yet.
15. Put your springs back into place and raise the axle to keep them in.
16. Bolt your shocks and swaybar links back to the new axle.
17. Bolt your brake lines back into the caliper, making sure there is a bronze washer on both sides of the line.
18. Reconnect your abs plugs on each side.
19. Reconnect your emergency brake by first putting in the lacking mechanism, then pulling out the cord to push in the hook into the eyelit. After doing this make sure your spring is on the outside half (same as it was before).
20. Raise your axle back up and reattach your wheels, at this point you will want to tighten down your control arms and trackbar. You will also want to reattach your axle drain line at this point, if your using a brand new axle, you will need to unscrew the plug and screw in your old drain.
21. Bleed your brakes after putting the axle on if you are doing the front/rear at the same time.
Your new axle is installed, now to hook up the locker.
Rear Locker Setup
When you start out with the wiring harness you will have a larger amount of wire that you do not need.
These are the plugs you are looking for, there is also another set for the front, you will want to hold onto both sets of plugs. The front will be much shorter than the rear is from the giant plugs, this is the best way to tell them apart.
I cut mine off relatively short, because I didn't want to have to figure out which ground was which, so I cut mine when they started to pair up with the ABS lines. Once you have the wire cut, go ahead and plug it into your axle like so. Make sure that you push the red lock switch over on the sensor plug to lock it in.
Your wiring diagram for the plugs is:
Rear Locker Sensor [Yellow/Pink(+) and Blue/Green (-)]
Rear Locker Activator [Yellow/White(+) and Black(-)]
In my case I have a ****, so I ran the Yellow/White to the positive side and the black to the ground. If this isn't your case, you will run it to a switch where you can active the locker.
For your sensor wire, I would set it up in this fashion:
Battery -> 5 AMP Fuse -> 12v Light -> Sensor (either side, YP or BG) -> Ground
This will protect your sensor from overload and also provide you with an indicator to make sure that the locker actually activated.
And that's it for the rear axle, stay tuned next weekend for the front axle!
From start to finish, doing this by myself and with my girlfriend bringing me water every once in awhile (in Florida during the spring it gets hot in a garage!) it took me about 8 hours, this is with only hand tools and one person. If you have 2 people and air tools it would probably greatly reduce this time.
Last edited by ranwitscissorz; Nov 17, 2011 at 04:48 AM. Reason: removed blac
Thread Starter
JK Freak
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 604
Likes: 0
From: Cape Coral, FL
Front Axle
I found the front axle to be extremely easy to swap compared to the rear. The lack of a driveshaft and e-brake makes most of the swap pretty much a suspension thing. If you plan to do any additionals to your axle or want to paint it, now is a good time with it off the Jeep. It may save a little bit of $$ depending on your welder/mechanic.
1. Jack up your jeep.
2. Remove front wheels.
3. Disconnect ABS lines, they are hidden behind the shock tower and have the same type of locking red clip on them. The best thing to do is to first push out the 2 christmas tree clips that are located on the shock tower, you can see them here.
Once you push them out, give your line alot of slack and reach up and pull the connectors out, slide back the red lock and they should pull apart.
4. Remove the axle trackbar bolt and pull the trackbar aside.
5. Remove the axle draglink nut and use a deadblow hammer to knock it out of it's mount.
6. Remove both nuts from the tie rod and use a deadblow hammer, alternating between the bolts to knock it out.
7. Disconnect brake lines and hang up high so they don't leak as much.
8. Loosen all control arm bolts, but don't remove the frame bolts.
9. Remove lower arms first and let the springs fall out, then remove the upper arms.
10. At this point your dead axle should be completely disconnected, this is where the most difficult part of the installation came. Before you start, take a break and smile to yourself when you compare the old to new axles!
11. If your working by yourself (like me), the front axle is extremely heavy for one person. Slowly work it up to your Jeep and connect the upper control arm bolts first. Do not tighten down bolts yet.
12. Then slide some wood blocks under the brakes to help get the axle high enough to stick a jack under it. Once your jack is underneath you should be able to connect the lower control arms, while you're connecting the lowers try to get your springs to slide in at the same time. Do not tighten bolts down yet.
13. Reconnect Brake Lines.
14. Reconnect trackbar bolt on the axle.
15. Reconnect the draglink to the new axle, lightly tapping with a hammer to get it in the knuckle well.
16. Reconnect the tie rod to both knuckls.
17. I found it best to put the wheels on at this point, so that you can find the right length for your ABS lines.
18. Reconnect ABS lines.
19. Tighten down all control arm bolts.
20. Since you don't have a oil overflow line setup already like our rear did, I suggest going to Lowe's and getting a fuel hose about 1/4" inner diameter and connect it to the drain. Run the hose up behind the shock mount, if you need an idea of where to run it, go to a Jeep dealer and look at a Rubicon's line coming up the driver side wheel well.
21. Bleed your brakes.
22. If you don't plan to hook up your transfer case and front driveshaft immediately, you can get tupperware covers from Target/Walmart that are elastic and can cover up your flange if your worried about dirt/grime.
22. Go show off your new axle by climbing some Florida rocks!
Front Axle Locker Switch
The front axle switch will be the exact same as the rear switch, except the wiring colors are different.
Your wiring diagram for the plugs is:
Front Locker Sensor [Yellow/Blue(+) and Blue/Green (-)]
Front Locker Activator [Yellow/Red(+) and Black(-)]
It will probably be a few weeks/months before I get to the transfer case part, but I'll update this thread when it happens, stay tuned!
I found the front axle to be extremely easy to swap compared to the rear. The lack of a driveshaft and e-brake makes most of the swap pretty much a suspension thing. If you plan to do any additionals to your axle or want to paint it, now is a good time with it off the Jeep. It may save a little bit of $$ depending on your welder/mechanic.
1. Jack up your jeep.
2. Remove front wheels.
3. Disconnect ABS lines, they are hidden behind the shock tower and have the same type of locking red clip on them. The best thing to do is to first push out the 2 christmas tree clips that are located on the shock tower, you can see them here.
Once you push them out, give your line alot of slack and reach up and pull the connectors out, slide back the red lock and they should pull apart.
4. Remove the axle trackbar bolt and pull the trackbar aside.
5. Remove the axle draglink nut and use a deadblow hammer to knock it out of it's mount.
6. Remove both nuts from the tie rod and use a deadblow hammer, alternating between the bolts to knock it out.
7. Disconnect brake lines and hang up high so they don't leak as much.
8. Loosen all control arm bolts, but don't remove the frame bolts.
9. Remove lower arms first and let the springs fall out, then remove the upper arms.
10. At this point your dead axle should be completely disconnected, this is where the most difficult part of the installation came. Before you start, take a break and smile to yourself when you compare the old to new axles!
11. If your working by yourself (like me), the front axle is extremely heavy for one person. Slowly work it up to your Jeep and connect the upper control arm bolts first. Do not tighten down bolts yet.
12. Then slide some wood blocks under the brakes to help get the axle high enough to stick a jack under it. Once your jack is underneath you should be able to connect the lower control arms, while you're connecting the lowers try to get your springs to slide in at the same time. Do not tighten bolts down yet.
13. Reconnect Brake Lines.
14. Reconnect trackbar bolt on the axle.
15. Reconnect the draglink to the new axle, lightly tapping with a hammer to get it in the knuckle well.
16. Reconnect the tie rod to both knuckls.
17. I found it best to put the wheels on at this point, so that you can find the right length for your ABS lines.
18. Reconnect ABS lines.
19. Tighten down all control arm bolts.
20. Since you don't have a oil overflow line setup already like our rear did, I suggest going to Lowe's and getting a fuel hose about 1/4" inner diameter and connect it to the drain. Run the hose up behind the shock mount, if you need an idea of where to run it, go to a Jeep dealer and look at a Rubicon's line coming up the driver side wheel well.
21. Bleed your brakes.
22. If you don't plan to hook up your transfer case and front driveshaft immediately, you can get tupperware covers from Target/Walmart that are elastic and can cover up your flange if your worried about dirt/grime.
22. Go show off your new axle by climbing some Florida rocks!
Front Axle Locker Switch
The front axle switch will be the exact same as the rear switch, except the wiring colors are different.
Your wiring diagram for the plugs is:
Front Locker Sensor [Yellow/Blue(+) and Blue/Green (-)]
Front Locker Activator [Yellow/Red(+) and Black(-)]
It will probably be a few weeks/months before I get to the transfer case part, but I'll update this thread when it happens, stay tuned!
Last edited by ranwitscissorz; May 31, 2009 at 05:46 AM.
Thread Starter
JK Freak
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 604
Likes: 0
From: Cape Coral, FL
I'm leaning towards atlas 4 speed, but I've still got a few weeks/months before I have the $$ for it, so plenty of time to research it.
I should also mention thanks to seer1 for the help with the wiring on the harness!
I should also mention thanks to seer1 for the help with the wiring on the harness!
JK Junkie
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 2,467
Likes: 1
From: 4 Corners
