I gave him three days

Spring stretching I'm not familiar with, but my XJ made a sort of wheezing sound in the cold for the first few turns. The issue is caused by a dry/cold rubber boot against the firewall that the steering shaft goes through. A little bit of silicone spray will help that out. It's nothing to be worried about.

Aside from the bolt that affixes the track bar (aka panhard rod) to the front axle, the steering is mostly ball joints in the form of tie rod ends, there aren't any bolts per se. The basic method of troubleshooting is to have someone sit inside and turn the wheel left to right while you take a look under the front end and look for a moving part connecting to a not-moving part. That sloppy component is the culprit.

This is from a Jeep TJ, but the parts that matter in an XJ are identical:

 

Pressurized it with the hose. Definitely leaks in the cab haha. Well guess a heater core will be ordered shortly. Dang.

 

@ Judy: Unfortunatly the infamous mechanic Ben Dover works everywhere. A pre inspection by you with help of a friend should help narrow it down.

Starting at the pitman arm, think of it as links of a chain. Does the arm move a lot before the drag link, right wheel before the tie rod/left wheel.
And just like the doctor, don't be afraid of 2nd/3rd opinion.
Maybe post general area you live, maybe someone near can recomend a shop if you are unable to do the repairs yourself.

 

my jeep has over heated a few times in the last couple of years, nothing wrong just been tampered with. BUT this last time caused transmission to leak. Can't afford to get transmission fixed so I purchased some Lucas stop leak, and bars stop leak, not knowing which is best. So now I come home, read my Chilton, which says do not use any of this stuff. Has anyone used it anyway? What happens if I do? I have oil leaks as well. Never leaked before. Any suggestions? I love this forum, I understand it better than my Chilton! thanks to all whom may reply.

 

I have never used the stuff but I would fix the engine oil leaks the right way. Also be careful running it so hot the transmission blows fluid, that is a great way to burn up your rig.

 

Basically, stop leak products harden when they're exposed to air. The problem is that there are very tiny amounts of air in your system all the time. So what happens is these snake-oil products 'cure' in all the wrong places. If you don't have money to fix something now, you don't have money to fix twice as many things in a couple months. Overheating could be a lot of cheap and simple items, like a bad radiator cap or bad thermostat... there's no reason to clog your radiator and heater core, and require an extensive flushing of the engine block and head. It's a lot of heartache and expense for no good reason.

The ONLY reason stop-leak products are useful is when you need to make it that two miles to the junk yard.

If you'd like to post some more information on your Jeeps issues we'd be happy to help. But please don't ruin it by pouring that crud into it.

 

Have someone turn the steering wheel back and forth while you observe. We call it noggin pokin around these parts.

 

We who plan on keeping our vehicles for quite a few years, need good information if we do our own work. Chilton manuals are a waste of money. A Factory Service Manual bought of off of Ebay is a better investment, and can also be sold when the vehicle is sold or traded off, to recover some or even all of it's cost sometimes.

 

It occurs to me the Cherokees are not the exception, but rather follow the rule that the rear shocks will be on opposite sides (one front; one rear) of the rear axle. This makes me think it isn't an issue of fitment, but rather to counteract a rotational force Is this correct, or is there some other purpose?

 

swapped engines in my 99 xj. swapped all parts including distributor. put it in time crank no start. pulled plug #3 held against valve cover orange spark? could this be my problem

 

Yes, spark needs to be bright blue. Your valve cover isn't exactly a good ground though. Try the block.

 

It finally started runs really really rough. I'm gonna change dist. cap and button and see if it does anything. Could a ground issue be my problem?

 

I have this combo. Been awhile since I've driven a stock jeep but I really like it. My mph's read about 10mph fast. According to grimmjeeper I need 30's to make it like stock.

I got this from swapping an ax15 into an aw4 jeep. Seems like a good combo to me. Feels pretty normal.

 

interesting.. I had 30" on stock 3.07's and it was feeling normal to me.

 

I have 3.07s and 35s on a 3spd auto. It doesn't feel normal