joemomma22

Finally named her. Meet Roxxy, my Rock Crawler

Disclaimer: I have never made a build page in my life. bare with me.

Anyway, in the beginning of jan i bought this beautiful 2001 jeep cherokee classic. 4.0L I6 AW4 auto trans dana 30 front d35 rear. thing was bone stock and had a bad battery. the guy i bought it from was nice enough to replace it for me though. Anyway, 104k mi on the clock and i only paid $1900. I had been saving for a tacoma trd offroad but at 1/10th the price i couldnt pass it up.
Problem with it was it needed a heater core, had really bad suspension, and a check engine. i figured okay so the heatercore is expensive but even with the price of that job added on im still getting a good deal. and hell ill be lifting it anyway so who cares about the suspension. not gonna be riding on the fenders for too long anyway.

I dont have many good pictures, i actually took a lot today. but here she sits after a carwash stock after i bought her.



Not too shabby. First thing i did was go right to wallyworld picked up some rainx window cleaner, microfiber clothes and some rainex blades. one of the best investments ever i swear. Meanwhile, my friend and brothers roomate kyle had just hydrolocked his jeep in the swamp so he was with me buying seafoam and oil and air and filters and such to prevent damage. (somehow it actually started to drive him home)

this is while i was doing the windows, i got seafoam exhaust blasted



Alright so i was tired of driving around and getting thrown all over the place by my broken chairframe. so i took it out and re tacked the welds in place. in my attempt to get the seat out of the car this is what i find on the back left bolt.


That was a PITA!!!
So i got that done, but i still feel like the chair leans and its honestly really uncomfortable. The seats in there have a really really really pronounced lumbar 'support'... id call it 'bender'. still to this day this is my biggest problem with the damn thing. probably going to get new seats unless there is an easy way to fix this.

Before i took it offroad for the first time i figured id probably want a recovery point so i ddint have to climb under in the mud to get to my axle. went to the junkyard and picked 2 towhooks of a blazer. little did i know about the uniframe problems with this though soi didnt ever end up mounting them

this was the original plan. cut the bumper and weld on here


whatever. so i put the bumper back on but left the caps off.

had my brother order me (he works at CarID.com and also has a cherokee so i pay his price) a Curt stage 3 or 4 i dont remember... its normal size... trailer hitch so id at least have a back recovery point.
had to go out and buy a tap and die set to retap the holes on the exhaust side. the driver side had new threads fished into the frame. overall pretty easy install and definitely worth it for the price i got it for.


FINALLY time to take my stock baby muddin. unfortunately being stock it didnt work as well as wed hoped.


random picture of the jeep crew. from left to right me (joe), my brother with the 96 cherokee (frank) and in the garage is kyle with a 94 2 door 5 speed stick.



Okay so i figure id finally target that pesky check engine. had one of my brothers old co workers run a snapon computer check, and i through codes for all 4 o2 sensors, one or 2 of the cylinders was misfiring, and the engine was running too cold. he told me dont bother with the o2s yet, and to get a new thermosstat and the heater core fixed to regulate the cooling loop. so i did. bought my thermostat, switched it (in 9 degree weather by the way) and when putting the tstat housing back this happened

i guess i torqued it a little too much.
so i buy a new housing, bring my truck into meineke for the heater core. get that all taken care of.

im still throwing codes for the o2s and misfires so i need to get the sensors and also im gonna get new spark plugs and see if that helps the misfires. meanwhile ill keep driving with my inspection rejection sticker.

Random day i figured id look behind my headunit because the only speakers that worked were the ones in the overhead speakerbar in the trunk. this is what i found


now im not really that much of a mechanic, nor an autoaudiophile, so i just tucked that back away and i figure ill let my brother fix it all when i buy new sound system stuff. (he is a certified mechanic thank god. without him i wouldnt have a build. or at least everything would be much more expensive and have an installation fee because when i get stuck i turn to him for help)

we finally got some snow this winter here in jersey


so frank kyle and i of course had to go snow wheelin, which was amazing.


kyle


the trio

Ill have to get a pic of franks setup (all the way to the right). but his front end is amazingly homebrewed... errr.... rednecked? idk. basically he put a front trailer hitch with a winch plate and a winch on. and to not make it look rediculous he took a brand new dodge ram bull bar that he got for free from his old job, eyeballed center on his bumper, angle grinded some holes, and welded it on. simply amazing and im actually stunned it came out so nice.

anyway so on our way out, franks jeep took a poop on him, after running for a while it just shuts off. we dont know why. but i had to pull him to a parking lot and then we went to get some food. notice kyles tires are covered with snow. whitewalls would look good!


Last week i finally got my lift. Skyjacker 3" kit. comes with full leaf pack, new coils, LCAs and a trac bar relocation bracket (that still needs to be installed but i havent gotten to home depot to get the drill bit)

Out with the old

the leafs were sooo bad. had to cut the front bolts off and get new ones from jeep because they were seized in the bushings. but we did it after a while.

Sorry i dont have too many action pics here.

In with the New:




Before... Riding on fenders:


After... NOT Riding on fenders.


i know its not the highest lift but itll last for now. im only 20 so i have plenty of time haha.

One of our buddies called up kyle and asked us for a rescue about 5 minutes before the lift was done being installed. so we finished up and i instantly got to take her offroad! WOO. the guy had an old lifted up chevy pickup. Really big lift really big tires. thats all i could tell you. but something went wrong in his front diff i think because his 4wd wasnt working. the front driveshaft spun but the axle didnt. so my brother just winched him out and said what do we do now. the answer was clear. now we go muddin!

Unfortunately being on stock tires still i got stuck with no problem.

JEEPS ARE NOT WATER PROOF! i learned this the hard way. water soaked in so quickly through the hatch, i literally had at least a 3" puddle in my trunk and a lot of stuff in there too. thankfullly frank has a winch. he pulled me right out. thankfully i had a towel in my trunk i used to soak up and ring out most of the bad soaked trunk. unfortunately it was a bit too late. it seeped all the way up the carpets because somehow or another the floor under the pedals was wet, as well as under the drivers seat, passenger seat, and driverside rear seat... but not the passenger side rear. strange. but whatever. So we keep going a little. frank gets stuck in the next bit of mud. he ties a rope around a tree and pulls the rope with the winch and gets out no problem. at that point we had to turn around because i had to get to work.

I got stuck again in the same puddle on the way back. then kyle went a bit too fast after i got pulled out and he hit a rut in the mud that threw him off course so he got a little stuck in a seperate part of the trail. butafter lots of rocking and forward and back he got himself out. at this point my brothers jeep takes a poop again and shut off. so we had to wait for it to cool off i guess until it started up again. needless to say, i was late for work.

(word to the wise for new wheelers, wear boots! i was dumb and had my shoes on)


next day i woke up and asked the forum what to do about the carpet.
so i went outside and shop vacced. only helped a little. ive also been running a dehumidifyer in it all week.


Everythings pretty much dry now except the drivers area i guess youd call it. basically where my feet go. its still soaked. nothings drying it. and its too cold to take it out and air dry it, it will just freeze. i dont know what to do. i vacced it again today and no result. its still wet.

On a different note, this stuff is awesome!

Being a Classic, my whole truck was red so i figured id add some black.
i took my whole head off and dipped it.


also did a few emblems


I might do the bumpercaps, i did the valace though


The thing is, plastidip sprays REALLY weird in the cold. so im going to wait to spring to do any more, and redo my emblems. By that time though ill probably have a winch bumper on so no point in doing the bumper caps. but ill still do the molding maybe and fender flares and back bumper caps and bumper if thats not replaced by then either.


This is how she sits today:

Interior shot:


Oh by the way, since i submerged myself last week i cant get the hatch to open. any ideas?


These are on the way! Very excited.

Bilstein 5100!

On a list of things to come... everything... haha but more seriously
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CB Radio
Sound System (or at least working stereo and speakers)
Winch Bumper

98REDXJ2

do you have a catalytic converter? if you dont then that would explain your o2/misfire code. mine comes on and goes off in the winter cause i have no cat

joemomma22

Stock exhaust so unless the cat is bad it should be there. Other than that not sure.

joemomma22

Alright so 2 noteable things within the last week.

1) since being lifted, not only do i feel every single bump nook and cranny in the road (i hope this goes away w. shocks) but also around 55mph and up i start vibrating on the front tires. usually feels like its passenger side. its very loud, louder than the engine itself, and idk why its happening. its not shaking, just vibrating/humming. I hope its because i havent relocated the trac bar yet.

2) Since ive submerged my jeep, the carpets have dried with no smell, except the floor under the pedals. it never seems to be getting any drier, and ive shop vacced multiple times. Also, the main thing since i got stuck, the trunk hasnt been able to open. i pull the handle, and it feels like all the stuff inside releases, but its stuck closed no matter how hard i pull. if i push it after, it clicks, as if it was being closed again... like a door thats not fully closed almost.

not really sure why either thing is happening and idk what to do about them.

1998xjspt

have someone go inside the trunk and push while you pull and see if that gets it to come free. other than that might as well take it apart and see if anythings seized up or rusted out from the water, id also remove the wet carpet asap before it rusts out your floor panels.

joemomma22

Okay thanks ill try that. And is there really nothing else I can do besides take the carpets out. The rest of the truck is dry.

joemomma22

Sooo today I went back to my high school (I'm 20) to print some vinyls for the Yeep. Naturally the day I pick is the day the graphics art teacher is absent. -_-

1998xjspt

Lmfao! That suuucks, and for the carpet..as long as the carpets dry, I guess you can take the risk but just to be safe I'd recommend just pulling it back just to make sure (you don't have to take it completely out and leave it out) or you might end up finding a big ole badly rusted hole in ur floor panel..but do what you please

joemomma22

I wanna pull it and rhino line it or something lol. Honestly I don't know where to start to take it out though. I'm not the most handy person. Learning as I go lol

Dino's 99XJ

ya, take that carpet out at least in the front two footwells and dry it up.. just take off the front trim and pull! jeeps looking good by the way.

1998xjspt

yeah man same here. And I would love to pull out my carpet and beeline it.. The only thing that's stopping me is that iv heard that the noise from engine bay travels in the cab real easy and it's noisy..

joemomma22

that easy? ill probably do it tomorrow, my billys are comin in too so hopefully tomorrow will be a progressive day.

id put the carpet back in after to help with that. or i wonder if after it dries, you just keep bulking up the coats. wonder if that would help at all. idk but ill put carpet back in hopefully the bedliner stops water from coming in as well as preventing rust if water comes in through the trunk again lol.

idek how it got from the trunk to the footwell.

letsgomuddin

I really like Hurculiner for Jeep tubs, i've used it on my last 2 XJ's and my TJ and have no regrets. The stuff is bomb proof and has little bits of rubber in it for texture. I got a gallon (enough to do the inside of your XJ tub) for like $70 at Wallymart.

1998xjspt

doing many layers isn't a bad idea at all! I think it might actually work! And even if you get water in the XJ, as long as no metal from the floor is exposed, you can make custom drain plugs that you can let the water out from, heck you can even spray down the inside of the XJ and the plugs will let it drain.

KevMez

As far as your rear gate not opening. Push in on the gate as you lift the handle. You may need to use your knee or something, but it will open. Try it, once you've done it once or twice you will get good at it. Then pull the panel off the inside of your gate and clean the mechanism up real good and lube it. The little rubber stops on either side of the gate on the inside near the tail lights will probably need to be replaced also. I dealt with this for a long time till I finally got around to fixing it, never had a problem since. Do not have someone push on the inside while you try to open it, won't work and will probably damage something. Jeep is looking good!