g33tar

Hey guys, I just bought my first jeep today after having lowered vw's my whole young life. I needed something more reliable and something that can get me to Maine and back on the weekends..

In any event, I picked up a 98 Cherokee sport this afternoon. 1 owner, 100,268 miles, black, for 2600 including a 3 month / 3000 mile warranty. Im pretty excited, but I have a few questions as I've never owned a 4 wheel drive vehicle...

Firstly, I test drove it today on and off the highway. Tried the 4 wheel drive on the back roads to see if it worked. After being initiated, the car / transmission/ whatever sounded louder/dirtier. I realize theres more moving at that point, but should the 4 wheel drive be audible? Seemed to drive okay.

Secondly, on the highway the car is smooth up until 70. Steering wheel begins to shake. Is this the 'death wobble' that i read about, or more simply just a balance and alignment?

Thirdly, the car is in nice condition except for the rocker panels are toasty. I read quite a bit about them on here and it seems like there are 3 options. A replacement rocker panel, a gimmick rocker panel 'face', and putting 2x4 metal stock in there. Im not planning on taking this thing off road. If i were to cut the existing rot off back to the frame and put one of these rocker panel 'faceplates' on, while spraying rust resistant paint behind it, that would be sufficient? Are they structural? Seems like thin cheap metal to me.

Anyway, I realize these are nub questions, but I appreciate any help you can send my way. Im sure ill be spending a lot more time here.

Muaddib420

XJs don't like going above 70 lol. I'm only half kidding.

That's not death wobble, you may need an alignment.

Congrats on your new ride. Solid deal.

highmileage

4wd may need a fluid change, but yeah you'll hear it working. Watch the rear bumper brackets if you have rust in the rockers those brackets could be in not so good shape. No the metals not cheap just flat and flexes like a piece of paper. Yes what you want to do to the rockers is sufficient. Get an alignment and rebalance the tires. 80 is kinda the safe upper speed, after that its on you. 20 on the HWY about 12-17 in town(stock), doesn't get much better than that. Watch it in the rain some of us have issues with the rear end wandering even at lower speeds, an open tread design stopped that for me. congrats welcome and enjoy.

The Rooster

Get your tires and wheels rebalanced and get them road force balanced might have a tire out of round my jeep loves over 70 out of state where the speed limit permits it of course

g33tar

Wow thanks for all the great responses. Put my mind at ease a little bit after reading all this stuff on here about death wobbles. I did notice one of the bumper brackets is pretty rough looking too. Nothing to serious there though right? Just a matter of bolting on and bolting off? Looks like the rear exhaust hanger will need to be rewelded as well.

I noticed the rear leaf springs were rusty too. Any chances of those things just falling into bits? I felt like thats pretty common.

The Rooster

Any pictures of your jeep?

g33tar

Only the ones supplied by the dealer.

hickatron

Black xjs look awesome

playbass

paint that trim! beautiful xj though. My XJ does 80-85 pretty good, but out here in the desert the roads are pretty straight in between cities and the speed limits are high. Get some POR15 and paint the underside to prevent further rust.

g33tar

Yea that trim really pisses me off. Thatll be one of the first things to be done. cosmetically.

theyammieguy

Man, looks like you got one hell of a deal.

Radi

Being a unibody/frame hybrid, the rockers do contribute something to structural integrity, but not as much as in a true unibody. There are a lot of old XJ's on the road without them, still in one piece.
Mine rotted along the bottom along with much of the floors. I replaced the floor pans, then bent up my own sheetmetal rockers. I rarely drive off-road and if you do the box rails are probably the best option...but I've noticed no loss of stiffness or additional flex in the chassis with what basically amount to 'faceplates'. If the entire channel were gone I'd worry. Just the bottoms rotting, not so much.

88xj

X2

g33tar

Alright I finally got this thing home today and have been having fun going over everything cleaning it up. Ive got to start making some progress on this rust right away though.

I found these on amazon for the pair of rocker panel XJ replacements. Can anyone tell me about these? I see single rockers going for 150 dollars, and these are 39 for the pair, including shipping? Something must be up.

Thanks for all the help.