The background story: I purchased a 1991 Cherokee Laredo in July 2019 that my son saw advertised on an internet site. I have a 2000 XJ that I did a fair amount of work to and spent spare time during the winter of 2018/2019 working on a white ’91 5 speed my son insisted he had to buy from me. I had not planned on getting another Cherokee let alone taking on another project of any size but this one was Colorado Red with body and paint in very good condition for being 28 years old.

I had a weakness for a Colorado Red Cherokee, preferably a 1992 Laredo with tan leather interior and off road package. My father-in-law ordered such a ’92 from the factory with nearly every option and eventually sold it to my wife and me. I drove the Jeep many miles round trip to work for years and my kids learned to drive with it but eventually it began to get very rusty so I sold it. That is another story for a later time but there is a good chance some parts of that beloved 1992 Cherokee will make their way back to me and into the ’91 that is the subject of this thread.

This ’91 had issues that would take some work and investment to do correctly and the asking price was not a bargain. However that XJ had potential for being taken back closer to it's original beautiful condition and I hated the thought of it ending up heavily modified by someone. I am not big fan of most modifications and this Jeep had a terrible lift, cheap suspension parts, 31” tires and a modified exhaust system. Fortunately none of the sheet metal had been cut and the body was rust free. The floor pan looked to be in good shape but there was a lot of mud from the ¼ mile two track dirt drive at the end of which it resided. The lift was +4.5” front and +3” rear with sagging add-a-leafs and extended shackles. All the shock bushings were shot resulting in a terrible ride with lots of banging and bouncing. I knew the suspension needed to be completely replaced and high quality parts would add up quickly. The exhaust system including catalytic converter needed replacement. It leaked water from somewhere in the rear when it rained. Nice dent in the left rear corner. Interior needed a good cleaning and some repair. An included feature was a hole in the back seat that a crazed dog had dug. That one made me sad. Lots of maintenance, other miscellaneous parts and work needed. I added up all the costs just for materials and was hesitant but I know that these are getting hard to find in great condition. Cost was not a major constraint but what would be spent had to make some financial sense. I did a cooling system combustion gas check and engine oil analysis before I could seriously consider buying it. When those didn't give me a good excuse to pass on it we made a deal and it bounced and clanged it’s way an hour plus to a better home.

I had not initially considered doing a build thread but I am discovering lessons learned and tips that may benefit others so I thought I would share. This also encourages me to document what I have done. The project will not be a true restoration, more repair and conservation. The plan at this point is not to go back to 100% as it came from the factory, but close to that were practical. It may spend some time in Colorado so it should be moderate trail ready.

It will take some time for me to catch the thread up to where I am today. Progress is slow as I work on it when I have time and motivation to work in the garage during the cold winter months.

The '91 before purchase. Good bones and not hard to look at. ​

 

August 2019 at home freshly washed. Took 3 times pressure washing the underside to get most of the mud off. Rear dent repaired, damaged front fender liners out along with front flares. Early 90's fender liners seem to become excessively brittle with age. 8 out of 10 studs on fender flare retainers I have worked on break off during removal so all will be replaced with new.


Came with non OE lower control arms of unknown brand. Keep or replace?



Bad rear add-a-leaf springs. Springs and lift components will be replaced with Old Man Emu Ultimate Hybrid kit from DPG Offroad

 

Back seat with a hole previous owners dog dug. Cloth and foam are damaged. Seat appears to have been in great shape before that. Replacing or repairing this seat may be the hardest part of the project. The "Dark Sand" luggage cloth interior is relatively rare and I think I need a '91 through '92 or '93 cloth seat to be identical. I believe that material & design was used only on the Laredo model. So far I have found nothing. The older XJ's are becoming hard to find in salvage yards and I have yet to find any of the right year with the interior color I need. Same for internet search. If anyone comes across something please let me know. An aftermarket seat cover is not a good solution.

 

Before any work began front tires would rub a bit on the lower control arm near full steering lock. Tires are 31 x 10.5 BF Goodrich T/A K02 Baja Champ. Good tires and decent tread remaining but will have to see how everything fits after the new suspension is on. Expect to have about a 2" lift when OME suspension components are installed. May need to go with a slightly smaller tire. I know the stop can be adjusted to reduce the turning radius but I am reluctant to do that. Thoughts on tire size? I will be using stock fender liner and fender flares and no wheel spacers

 

Reason you're getting rubbing is those are stock wheels. Get some aftermarket steelies or whatever you like with more back spacing and you won't rub. At 2" of lift, 31" tires should fit no problem and without rubbing with enough backspacing.

 

I acquired the '91 with close to 135k miles and very little in the way of service records. I was uncertain what I would find regarding engine mechanical condition. It ran fine, sounded good, had good oil pressure and the other checks done prior to purchase didn't indicate any issues but you never know.* An early task was to replace spark plugs, wires, distributor rotor and cap. I was pleased to see the spark plugs looked decent and fairly consistent from cylinder to cylinder with a tan/gray color - a sign of a healthy engine and proper operating temperature. Gaps were on the high side so they likely had been in there for some time. They were replaced with quality NGK copper core plugs, FR5-1/7252. Standard Motor Products distributor cap with brass terminals and rotor were used. New cables are Belden. All are good quality parts at a reasonable price. Plugs were installed without anti-seize compound. NGK plugs, as are many others, are manufactured with an anti-seize plating on the threads. Adding anti-seize compound can result in a high electrical resistance in the ground path between the plug and head or tip contamination, resulting in misfire and poor performance.

 

I love the paint combination, there is one near me that I've been eyeballing for a while. I look forward to the build.

 

An early upgrade that I did was to replace the original type headlights with Hella Vision Plus conversion headlamps. Hella part number is 003427291, available for around $50 each. These are all glass, have replaceable halogen type HB2 bulbs are DOT compliant, a direct fit and a big improvement in light output and pattern. Hella claims 50% greater light output for low beam and 25% greater for high beam. At some point I will likely improve the headlamp wiring but for now these are a big improvement over stock.

 

The ’91 and ’92 Cherokees are my favorite. Part of my preference is that my extended family drove the same ’92 Colorado Red Laredo from the day it was new up to the present. Beyond that I prefer the pre ’97 body style, especially the front grill and the classic chrome accents of the Laredo. Mechanically before the 1991 model year there was the Renix electronics and fuel injection system, a bit less horsepower, problematic closed cooling system and vacuum disconnect front axle. Beginning in ’95 an air bag was added in a big blob in the center of the steering wheel.

Colorado Red with Dark Silver exterior trim along with Dark Sand interior is to me the nicest looking combination. I think Chrysler marketing thought so also judging by the prominent display of that color combination in the 1991 and 1992 “The Jeep Book” sales brochures. I probably would not have purchased this ’91 if it was any other color.
Below are from the 1991 and 1992 Jeep brochures. The color quality is poor on the third photo from the 1991 brochure but it is also Colorado Red.





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I have to tell 'ya, there isn't a single, new SUV in 2020 that pulls at my heart strings like that picture of the new, red XJ in the old ad. Everything about the proportions just looks right. A classic example of form following function and still being aesthetically beautiful. Not pretending to be anything; an honest utility vehicle.

 

Well said.

 

I worked on removing the original track bar from the front suspension today. Once the front undercarriage is cleaned, painted, new springs and shocks installed, etc I will be replacing the original track bar with a JKS adjustable track bar. The track bar axle mount bolt came out with minor difficulty. Got the cotter pin and castle nut off the frame mount end. There is not much room to work and the nut has a pretty high preload torque but it is doable. Then came the difficult task of removing the ball joint stud from the frame mount. I tried using my HF ball joint separator but it did not have enough depth to get to the stud. I hammered on it. I used an air hammer with a ball joint fork tool. I went and got a loan-a- tool pickle fork and tried that. Tried a crow bar. Tried the air hammer fork again. Zero success. So far this has been the most difficult part of this project. I considered that I would likely need to remove the frame bracket but it looks like the engine mount bolts gets involved so I was not looking forward to that. I decided that was enough for tonight and was wiping off the grease from the stuck ball joint. To my total surprise it just dropped right down onto the floor. Wish it would have done that a couple of hours prior!

 

This is what the track bar frame mount looks like with ball joint castle nut and cotter pin visible. Located near driver side spring. Interesting that the ball joint is not replaceable - the entire track bar has to be replaced if the joint is bad. This one looked to be original.

 

I recently finished up rear suspension work and was looking at the old leaf spring bolts that I removed and noticed something interesting about them. Note the differences in appearance of the two bolts in photo below. One bolt was especially worn and rusty - the last 6 or so threads have been almost completely worn off on one side. The others looked very good with no significant wear or rust. All are OEM type bolts. Given the relative low quality/cost of the lift an earlier owner installed I doubt any new OEM bolts were used.

I believe wear and rust was contributed to by inadequate torque on that bolt. Bolt torque, or preload, provides clamping load of the spring bushing in the body spring mount box to eliminate relative movement. Without proper torque things move around resulting in excessive stresses and what is called fretting wear. Fretting wear is wear that occurs at the contact area of components under load and subjected to small relative motion such as what occurs from vibration and spring eye rotation as the spring flexes. A loose joint results in fretting and high stresses that can result in fatigue cracking and eventual failure. Not being tightly clamped would also allow an opportunity for water to work its way into the spring bushing sleeve where the bolt goes, resulting in corrosion that can accelerate fretting wear.

Lesson Learned: Replace all critical suspension bolts or other highly loaded bolts with new hardware of the proper size and type, preferable OEM. Properly torque to spec and retorque later to verify proper clamp load is maintained.

 

And just guessing here but was the top bolt was on the passenger side?