I am a new owner of a 96 Cherokee Country 4liter engine, Auto trans 4x4. The front seal is leaking pretty good on the engine. It looks as tho I can get to it fairly easily, by removing the radiator and tranny cooler. Are there any tips for this project, and will I need any special tools?
There are plenty of other issues with the truck, but this seems a good place to start.
Next will be the vibration that is felt anywhere over 60mph. It's not in the steering wheel, but can feel it thru the floorboard. It gets louder the higher the speed as well,
I can't hear it nor feel it under 60mph, But it gets pretty bad at highway speed.

 

Fluid runs down hill make sure its not valve cover ...Other then that its pretty straight forward removing raditors not 100 percent necessary.

 

No need to remove anything other than the harmonic balancer. You will need a puller for the balancer.

 

Removeing belt first of course...lol...

 

Make sure the harmonic balancer is good before you reinstall it...make sure the two concentric pieces are perfectly in-line with each other...the rubber between them deteriorates over time and they begin to separate. You will need a puller for the harmonic balancer such as Performance Tool W151P or similar. You will need an installer tool to put it back on such as #27144 (available at AZ). The seal is a Timken 321460 or SKF 17806... use an appropriately sized socket or pipe coupling or something similar as a tool to fully seat the new seal. Torque for the crank center bolt is 80 ft-lbs.

 

Uh, yeah. Ooops.

 

Good info there^^.
Here's an example of a bad balancer.

 

Make sure to get a new timing chain tensioner. Better change it while you have the cover off. They crack pretty easy i think.

 

Don't know where you got that info, but the 4.0 uses no timing chain tensioner, and in order to get to the timing chain area, there's a whole lot more involved than what the OP needs to do.

 

The plastic piece in the timing chain cover. Believe it's called the tensioner. Sit's in the two slots and the timing chain runs against it. Always falls out when you pull off the cover.

 

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/tim...nsioner-44885/

 

And why go as far as to change the crank seal and not change the timing chain cover gasket/ front part of pan gasket? Wait till he finds plastic in the oil pan and realizes there actually is a tensioner( whatever you call it) and it's broken and he skips a tooth?

 

Because the seal is what's leaking and many of those have been replaced on their own for years. Why are you encouraging him to do something totally unnecessary?

A lot more work for the novice to pull the front cover than just changing the seal.

And, of all the 4.0s I've torn apart the "plastic" tensioner as you call it, which is really not plastic, has at the most 2 small grooves in it after over 150K miles.

 

Only reason i mentioned it is because mine cracked and fell out around 200k. Took me forever to figure it out. I am also a novice at best, but it was super simple. Changed the chain and gears while i was in there too.

I guess the words would be " mechanic by necessity."

 

Yours was an unusual failure. I'll bet the OP will do fine with a seal replacement and harmonic balancer inspection.