Jeep Cherokee Forum - Jeep Builds

Pedro's - '98 XJ BUILD

pcrescenti — Wed, 13 May 2026 12:47:02 GMT

Hello everyone, how are you guys doing?

First of all, nice to meet you all. My name is Pedro, I�m from Brazil and I�ve been a huge Jeep enthusiast for many years.
Before talking about the XJ itself, before this Cherokee I had two JKs: a 2012 2-door Wrangler and later a 2015 JKU that was fully built for off-road and overlanding. I�ve been into off-roading for years, but about 8 years ago I stopped, sold both JKs, and kind of stayed away from the Jeep world for a while.
But this week I finally got my dream Cherokee XJ!!!
Ever since I was a kid I�ve been fascinated by this vehicle. I always say that for me, the XJ is probably the most beautiful car ever made. I absolutely love the shape, the stance, the presence it has� I don�t know, it has always done something to me.

I�m from S�o Paulo, Brazil, and I went all the way to Rio de Janeiro to pick it up. On the drive back home (about 500km / 310 miles), at the very first gas station stop, one of the radiator hoses cracked and I had to come back on a tow truck� lol.
But honestly, that didn�t even stress me out. I know that to discover issues like that, the previous owner would�ve needed to drive the car for over an hour for those weak points to show up. The car had been sitting stored away for a while, but it is INCREDIBLY well preserved and original.
So my Rio-to-S�o Paulo roadtrip got postponed for another day.

My plan for this XJ is to use it as a daily driver and for road trips. I really love the original look and feel of the car, but at the same time my off-roader blood and anxiety already want to start modifying things a "little bit"... hahaha.

The craziest part: it still has cassette tapes in the center console and the original sound system! Until I upgrade the stereo to something modern, I�m literally listening to cassette tapes while driving the XJ� man, that�s incredible.
So to start, I�ll post some pictures of it here for you guys to see, and also list some of the things I�m planning to do to it.

It�s a:
1998 Jeep Cherokee XJ Sport Green
4.0 Automatic
The XJ is SUPER well preserved and has only around 69,000 original miles on it.

In the next post I�ll list the issues a
nd problems I�ve already identified that need to be fixed (nothing big), what I�m currently working on, and also the things I�m planning to do during this first phase of the project.
I already have a few questions as well, but I wanted to introduce myself first and show you guys this beautiful machine before jumping straight into the technical stuff.
So in the next post I�ll go over the problems, the plans, the upgrades, and hopefully get some help and advice from you guys too.
Looking forward to learning from everyone here!

I also want to thank everyone here for welcoming a new member into the community. I hope to exchange lots of experiences, technical knowledge, stories, ideas and everything else with you guys here.
Thanks everyone!

Greetings from Brazil,
Pedro

14 Years Since Last Log On...Here's My Current Jeep(s)

Ghettojeep1 — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 17:19:33 GMT

Haven't made a post since I went off to college 14 years ago. Time flies and I forgot my account name until last night. I've gone through so many vehicles since then; this thread feels like a tiny fraction of my relationship with Jeep Cherokees, but here goes.

First of all my name. Ghettojeep1. Why? Well, let me show you my first vehicle.

I bought this 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo 4.0 4WD in 2010 at a dealer auction for $400. Had 230k on her, was completely stock and unmodified, and everything worked. One day on my way to school, a pothole caused my door to fall off do to 2 broken pins. That day she became known as the ghetto jeep and the rest was history. I can't find pics of how she ended up, but she was a great woods rig. Sold her for $400 when I went off to college as parking garage spaces were absurdly expensive.

ENTER: 2000 GREEN XJ

My junior year I moved off campus to a house with a driveway, garage and a big ole steep hill for a front yard. Needless to say, I went on Craigslist (well before the days of our glorious marketplace) and found a 2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport 4.0 4wd completely unmolested, functional AC, perfect green metallic paint, and 102k original miles with a clean title. $1700. That was a lot for an XJ back in 2014, but she was super clean and in my budget.

Since I hadn't learned my lesson yet, I immediately cut and folded the fenders, bought a set of 31" kenda klevars, then flexed her out with stock suspension on the aforementioned hill. She was the perfect vehicle. Then the water pump went out, the AC stopped working, then the SKIM went kaput. I towed her to a dealership and had her reprogrammed and new keys made for a whopping $700. She went the rest of my college experience with no issues and I never appreciated that until recently. This is the only pic I have of her from that time period.

ENTER: 2018 Volkswagen Beetle Dune Edition

I graduated college and immediately took a job offer as a project manager for a major construction company. I was living the dream. But my old jeep with no AC became a hassle in city traffic, I had a 2016 Tacoma SR5 that work paid for and I got accustomed to creature comforts and nice paint jobs. One day my young and dumb self waked into a Volkswagen dealership to look at a used 4Runner, but got immediately side tracked by the most gorgeous thing my eyes had ever seen. A brand new 0 mile Volkswagen Beetle Dune edition in sandstorm yellow metallic. She was only $27k which seems like a damn bargain nowadays looking back.

Needless to say my ole 2000 Jeep XJ sat undriven for a couple years, but never considered selling her because I knew she'd become useful one day. Enter the pandemic. Car prices soar, the Beetle had been discontinued in 2019 which had already inflated the used Beetle prices, but the offers from the dealer for my car became too hard to refuse. In 2021 I sold my little thug bug back to the dealer I bought it from for $32k with 30k miles on her. That same day I put insurance back on my Jeep and charged the battery, started right up. At that point she only had 132k on the clock and was ready for some more modifyin'. I lifted her 3", added some affordable offroad bumpers, new brakes, new wheels with some BFG M/Ts, bushwhackers, and a bunch of other stuff. Just gonna dump all the pics I have from around that time.

Deleted the passenger seat at some point to haul lumber for the new house build

We got rear ended and shoved into a truck, so the front bumper and bull bar got chopped, reinforced, and left as a stubby.

Thus concludes the era of my slow green Jeep. After this point she got really spicy with nitrous and the next part of this build thread will feature many more modern pics of her. Also pictures of my other 2 project XJ/MJ's I've acquired from marketplace the last couple years. Stay tuned!

'98 XJ Complete Body Swap - Bertha and Red

DirtBagMike5150 — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:26:44 GMT

This is my first post and the reason for it is my hope that I can get support and advice with my current project. I'm a self admitted newbie who, at the age of 50, decided that it was time to learn how to work on cars. That was two years ago and at the time I had never even done an oil change without supervision.. Moving from San Diego to Tahoe with a two wheel drive Compass meant that I was pretty screwed my first winter, which happened to be the worst winter in 65years, until I found Bertha. Bertha was a co-worker's project 1998 Cherokee Sport SE that had recently received a 6.5" lift, a Smitty built offroad bumper with 12K wench, and 35" Patagonia's. I instantly fell in love with the 4x4 beastie, and bought her for $3k. My co-worker was going to help me work on her but before we could start working on the first main issue, (Death Wobble), he moved to Vegas. Since I didn't know the first thing about cars, let alone classic XJ's, I took it to a local shop. Two weeks later I was told she was ready to be picked up and that my bill was $6k! A month later the check engine light came on for a code P0740 - Lockup solenoid short so I took it to the local transmission guy and he "fixed" it for $1600. The transmission guy told me that it couldn't be the solenoid he replaced and that it was likely that I needed a new Torque Converter. He quoted me $2500. Pissed off, I decided to fix it myself, vowing to never take the XJ back to another shop as I felt like I was getting ripped off. YouTube and the internet became my teachers and after six months, I finally fixed the transmission issue after successfully replacing my shift solenoids, lockup solenoid, valve body, TCM, and transmission wire harness. I rebuild the drum brakes and front disk brakes. Insulated the entire iterior, removed the back seat and built a custome sleeping platform with pull out drawers, aux battery, and recovery equipment storage. Added a aux trans cooler, oil temp and pressure sensors, coolant temp sensor, and sensors for transmission send and return lines. Installed a roof rack with full sized spare tire carrier, and brand new Patagonia M2's. Mounted and wired up 10 off road aux lights. Needless to say, I was hooked, and me and my dog had 4months of trouble free adventures with Bertha. Then on icy morning in March, I hit a patch of ice on the way to work that put me into a 720 spin eventually hitting the burm on the side of the road which rolled us. The roof was crushed, windshield and front doors were destroyed. But she started right up once she was wheels down, and I drove her back home. The damage to the A pillars was extensive and was told I'd probably not be able to get a windshield put back in and without a roll cage, would be a death trap if I ever rolled again. I had over $10k invested into this $3k XJ and wasn't going to give up that easy.

So I bought "RED" for $2500. RED is the same year and model as Bertha, a 1998 Jeep Cherokee Sport, with a poorly installed 4" lift, Bald 33" tires, ****ty paint job, and almost the exact same milage as Bertha at 238K. The plan is to pull everything, and I mean everything, off of Bertha before sending her to the great junkyard in the sky. RED will receive her entire drivetrain, (4.0 Engine, AW4 Transmission, and 231 Transfer Case.), along with her HD Steering Kit, 6" Lift, and 35" tires. Bertha's PCM and TCM will likewise transfer over, along with her interior trim, front seats, offroad front and rear bumper, aux battery set up and what aux lights I can salvage, along with the Brexhaust cat back exhaust kit with Super 10 muffler, fuel tank, and power window regulators, and ignitnition / door locks. My albums will show my recent successful Drivetrain pull, as well as exhaust and fuel tank swap. Windows are fixed and RED has been rekeyed. I've already pull the entire interior trim and every single wire harnes with every single connector labeled and completely intact should I decided to install them into RED. I'm doing all of this in my driveway half of which has a Temu carport in which I've been stripping Bertha, and RED and my Compass are on the other half, exposed to the elements, and for the last two weeks that has meant Snow! Oh yeah, my driveway, is on a steep hill and is bumped and cracked from tree roots growing under it. (Super sketchy with the cherry picker engine pull!)

My next move is to pull the HD Steering kit and then the suspension from Bertha and have her towed away. With her 4.0 on an engine stand, I'm researching and purchasing all the seals, freeze plugs, oil pump, water pump, valve gasket, rear main seal, front crankshaft seal, head gasket, oil pan gasket, and do a basic refresh on it prior to installing it, which won't happen until I put the suspension and steering front end components into Red. I'm most certainly going to have questions, and could really use some advice with this endeavor. Hopefully this intro will provide some context for when I reach out for help and with any luck, some of you out there will be willing to share your wisdom and knowledge with a newbie who is clearly in over his head, but capable of learning how to swim.

THanks in advance!