jk215cherokee

Vehicle in question is a 1995 Cherokee XJ.

Im a bit of a mechanical newbie so bear with me. A few months ago I had my first overheating problem. After a long highway drive (about 2 hours) I hit some really slow stop and go traffic. After a couple minutes my temp light came on and as quickly as I could I pulled into a parking lot to let it cool off. Let it cool off for a couple minutes with the hood up and got back on the road. After restarting the light wasnt on anymore and I managed to drive in moderate traffic a half hour back home with no problems. At this point I didnt know when the last tune-up/coolant flush was done so I put it at the top of my list.

As of earlier this week I got a major tune-up and a coolant flush. I had another long trip yesterday (hot weather about 90 outside) and like clockwork as soon as I hit stop and go traffic after the highway my temp light came on. Thankfully I was at my destination and turned off the engine. Fastforward to this morning and a cold engine I start up and do some local driving and everything is OK.

After doing some research it looks like it might be a bad fan clutch? I did the "spin test" and it didnt spin too freely so Im not sure how to gauge it. It seems like an easy fix so Im willing to just replace it. As Im checking out the fan I notice that my fan shroud is really ghetto rigged. Only one side has a bolt and the other has some weird metal bracket fabricated on there. So Im assuming I would have to deal with that massacre before getting to the fan clutch? If I have to go through getting a new fan shroud is there anything else I should check out or replace? Any help is appreciated! Here are some pictures below:

xjsnake

Well you are going to have to cut or drill those rivets out to get the fan shroud off.

You might just want to pick up a junkyard shroud and replace that one.

If you are going to replace the mechanical fan viscous clutch, look into upgrading it to the ZJ fan clutch.

Open google and paste this into the search bar "ZJ fan upgrade site:cherokeeforum.com" without the quotes.

Is the efan kicking on when the engine starts to overheat?

jk215cherokee

thanks for the reply will look into that upgrade. I'm not sure if the electric fan turned in or not. I have to make the trek home and might hit similar traffic. if I turn in the AC or defroster would that help circulate air if I get in trouble?

PocketsEmpty

Turning the heat on is going to help you more than anything. I know it sounds bad, but turn the heat on full-blast and it will help as the heater core is essentially a small radiator.

Turn your A/C on to verify that your electric fan is working. The e-fan will come on with A/C, and when the engine temp hits 218*. Sorry about that fan shroud--whoever riveted that should be smacked upside the head with a breaker bar!

RTorrez1

One thing you should know if you do up grade with a ZJ fan clutch it will be a lot louder then it is now. I put one on and went back to a new stock one because it was to loud.