yamichi

My woman has a 98 cherokee 4.0 manual with ~120k on it. it's her baby and even though we're engaged, I'm pretty sure she still favors the Jeep over me.

As part of her xmas present, I want to go grease monkey on the Jeep and do a lot of the routine maintenance. On my list of "to do" so far:

Change fluid in both diffs
Change fluid in tranny
Change oil/filter
Flush the radiator
new plugs
new plug wires
new air filter
New serp belt

What are some other bits of routine maintenance that I could do to help keep this car happy for a long time. Her truck kicks so much *** and we'd like to keep it in the family for a long time.

CobraMarty

Trans filter
rotor and cap, along with plugs and wires
transfer case oil change
use bosch engine oil filter
wiper blades
WD40 door and rear locks
Chevron tectron gas treatment/cleaner for 2 tankfuls
then add some Marvel mystery oil to tank- lubes pump and injectors

yamichi

Thanks, Marty
We put the Chevron stuff through every fifth tank or so. She's got some California emissions package that puts up a dummy light if we don't do that periodically. Though it is time.

Transfer case is different from the diffs? I feel dumb just asking that so I'll search/google first but I'll look at that also. The idea was to do all the fluids so... yep

Wiper blades are a good idea and I had stumbled across the cap on Amazon. I'll check out the rotor too.

Thanks again

75/90 for the diffs, correct?

mitchlikesbikes

transfer case takes ATF.

i'm in the process of doing all of your list on my 96 i just bought with 225,000

i've also done brakes, struts, upper radiator hose, fan clutch, and parking brake adjustment.

WD40 the hood latches and cable too when you do the doors

oh and a fuel filter would be good too

yamichi

She says her brakes are pretty new and they still stop like champs so I'm not worried about them right now. And I've vowed to never touch drum brakes again.

ZINGGG

Clean the throttle body, grease all zerks in the front end, maybe change out the coolant, refresh all grounds and battery terminals

yamichi

Cleaned the throttle body when I replaced the TPS last month so we're good there (it was freakishly clean, btw), flushing the radiator will require new coolant so I agree there, WTF is a zerk? and I replaced the grounds when she was having some electrical gremlins this summer. I'll do new battery terminals though. That's easy peasy and can't hurt.

ZINGGG

Look at the bottom of one of your tie rod ends. You'll see a little nipple (or zerk fitting) on it. Get a grease gun and shoot some grease in it. You'll find those zerks on all tie rod ends, upper ball joints, front driveshaft, and maybe control arms if yours are aftermarket

yamichi

Thanks, Sport! I'll grease those bad boys too

salad

Sounds like your lady has her priorities straight! They only made like 2.8 million XJs, but there are billions of humans walking around and more being made every minute! :P lol

A Haynes manual is a good thing for some of these maintenance items.

In addition to what's veen said about greasing, some of the steering linkage has rubber pockets that the grease goes into. When you pump the gun they will swell or firm up. Firm is good - exploded is not.

You may also be able to grease some U-joints in the axles and drive shafts. The front drive shaft should have a grease fitting near the sliding section. The rear drive shaft's slip yoke should be lubed every so often too - to accomplish this feat you need to remove the rear drive shaft by popping off all 4 bolts that hold the rear U joint onto the rear differential, then it just slides off the transfer case.

Since you mentioned she has a manual (AX-15 is stock) beware the type of oil that goes in. Don't use API GL-5 gear oil and don't use motor oil. Stuff like Redline MT-90 is best but Pennzoil Synchromesh works great if you can find it.

Also, check for rust! Always always always

yamichi

For the stock manual (it's all stock other than the struts, I believe), I think I have some Redline Shockproof and some Royal Purple Synchromax from a Supra tweak- any thoughts on those?

mehoff_400

seafoam

Bbasso

Brake fluid flush, easy to do and rewarding when the brakes work even better.

yamichi

Not a bad plan there. I've got like three gallons of DOT4 sitting around. Can't hurt to flush them.
I've never tried the seafoam. I think for my own safety, I'll do it to the Saturn first to make sure I don't hurt her baby

And damn skippy her priorities are right- there may be 2.8 million XJ's but how many manuals? eh?

salad

I keep hearing that about 5% are manuals lol. Pretty rare beasts.

DOT3 is the magic stopping juice for these beasts. Same for the clutch system. RP Synchromax is a bit thinner but will work fine. Shockproof isn't really appropriate, you could dump that into the diffs though.