1993 Cherokee Country re-build
 

Bought this thing pretty cheap. Was on 35" tires, has 5.5" RE Longarm kit and SYE. That in and of itself was worth the $2500 I figured.

I've only had a tacoma in the past for wheeling which was a 3" lift on 33" tires - and I knew I wanted a bit better clearance for where I like to go play.

So, my to-do list:

already threw in a stereo and some rear speakers. Have the highlift, tools, air compressor and amp/sub, cb to throw in.
needs a spare tire and rack (plan to weld up my own front bumper and rear rack for the home-made bumper.

Went to 4 wheeler Supply and they checked it out.
purchased:
Rear ss braided brake line
6 bushings for long and short arms (only needed 4, I didn't know the tops were heim joints)
lower shock mount bushings
front sway bar quick disconnects
Track bar bushing
transfer case rear seal.

needs:
front ss braided brake lines (current are hacked together)
currie hd steering rack (all tie rods are bad)
front drive shaft rebuild
rear drive shaft rebuild (yoke is shot)

needs new cross member up front to shor up body/frame.
center crossmember is smashed up - needs to be straightened
right long arm attachment point bent all to snot

lots of gussets and grinding

sliders to help shore up the body as well as protect it

interior electrical work (locks, windows. motors are ok on windows, not sure if locks are solenoids or switches or both

etc etc etc

Looks like about another $1500 in parts and a lot of labor:) until my axles pop then we'll add d44s to the expense!

last weekends progress:

Removed rear swaybar
Cleaned up front sway bar, welded up bracket for passenger side, chopped off a bit of the plate for the steering support and bolted on to frame.
Dropped the smashed crossmember. Center is bowed up about 2 inches... that can't be good
attached driver side of swaybar - looking for a place to mount the stowing pin.
Changed lower long arm bushing and upper short arm bushing.

This weekend I should have some help, plan to finish up the passenger side swaybar and bushings, as well as control arm and drop the drive shafts and transfer case.

This AZ summer heat whooped my butt last week - hopefully this week it's more of a draw!

I want to be out wheeling and camping by fall!

Wow, lot of plans. Sounds like you know what your doing. From your list it seems like your going to have a sweet xj. Pics? I can sympathize about the heat, were getting over a hundred with max humidity.

Yeah, the humidity is kicking my butt.

I have a bunch of before pics, but not much is fixed yet for an "after"

need to set up a folder on my website and throw them up there.

This weekend I had some help, got the bushings for the passenger side long and short arms replaced. I think those heims need to be serviced - don't have the tool for that, need to get or fab one:)

Got the lower control arm bushing replaced but that upper heim is sloppy - and found the small arm attachment bracket on the axle to be squished in the center - pried that apart and will be welding a 1" piece of square tubing in the gap to strengthen it.

Pulled the drive shafts and got those into the shop for rebuilds today, should have them back tomorrow.

Dropping the transfer case off for rebuild tonight. Not sure how long that will take.

Here we go - Uploaded some photos

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/member.../jeep-rebuild/

:gunsmilie:

Looks sweeet! I like the color, and it has some nice mods. Do you like the stickers?

those stickers were a definite selling point...

specifically that they were vinyl and peel off easily ;)

Small progress this weekend - rebuilt the upper heim on my track bar, swapped the motor mounts out.

I got my driveshafts back from the shop, and tonight I go to pick up my transfer case. Hopefully saturday I can get that put in, then it'll at least be drivable again to pick up my own parts.

Got a few things accomplished this weekend.

Put the transfer case back in, drive shafts back on and everything bolted back up. Able to drive it now - have the new steering kit in the back sitting for this weekend.

I talked to a fabricator about bending my upper long arm brackets back into place and he suggested it would be cheaper and easier to just get new ones from Rubicon Express now that they are back in business.

He's also suggesting frame stiffeners - not just rock sliders that squeeze the pinch weld. My welding skills are such that my welds are ugly, but hold - not sure if I can weld stuff like that in with a 110 wire-feed MiG welder... Luckily I have a lot of flap wheels ;)

Work completed this weekend
Not much, got the old steering kit off of there and put int he new currie hd system. Seems pretty solid. Bit of advice to anyone using it - check where the grease fittings point to make sure the tie rod isn't backwards ;)

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/member...teeringold.jpg

Definitely a lot more stout.
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/member...teeringnew.jpg

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/member...teeringold.jpg

and the new
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/member...teeringnew.jpg

Hopefully my new crossmember kit will come from Rubicon Express tomorrow and I can swap that and the upper long arm mounts out.

With this icture - if anyone is following this - I have frame stiffeners coming and I'm not sure if they cover where the old short arm mounts are. If so - do I just hit the four spot welds it looks like they were welded on at in this picture with a grinder and it falls off - or is there a lot more to it than that? Do the HD Offroad stiffeners even go that far forward?

Also visible in this kit - the sway bar disconnect kit. Waiting to see how far forward those HD stiffeners go up front before mounting the keepers for the sway bar - don't want to have to mount them twice.

Also still need to redo the brake lines.

Another problem - after the tcase got rebuilt and put it back together I have no speedometer/odometer. The plug is connected, but nothing. I think I need to do as the Haynes manual suggests and jack up the rear, get the tires moving and hit it with a multimeter.

On the plus side, when I got this jeep the steering wheel was off by a quarter turn. Between changing out the bushings, bending open the passenger side mount on top of the axle (short arm mount?) and welding some bracing in there, and changing the steering, I've gotten rid of the death wobble and it is only off by about a 1/16th of a turn now.

Hopefully the upper long arms being straightened out will fix the rest - that will give me a chance to service those heims as well.

bit of a setback last night.
Got gas for the mig, and was heading home when things got really loud and vibrating. and then "clang" "whump" and no power to the wheels.

coasted over to the side of the road and my rear yoke had lost it's little tooth that holds the bearing race for the u-joint, and the freshly rebuilt drive shaft dropped, bounced up and crushed my muffler

so, i got it towed home. Have ordered a new yoke, got the nut, new seal and need to grab a crush spacer and u-joint on the way home today. Hopefully the shaft isn't bent!

also, the RE 9920 came in yesterday, which is the whole crossmember kit as int he picture - but not the crossmember itself! so, ordered the re9922, which is just the cross member, and it will hopefully be here by friday.

the HD frame stiffeners also showed up yesterday. but only the middle pieces - hopefully the front and rears are just in a separate shipment!

Been a busy week - every day after work I'd do a little bit.
I see how the yoke was bad now
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/member...d-changing.jpg

Got the old yoke and dust seal out on tuesday night
wednesday I got the old skid plate out again and started taking out the 40 or so bolts holdign the small skids. spinning nuts on nut strips drove me a bit batty

By Friday night my new yoke came in as well as all the new stiffeners.

The yoke and dust seal were fairly easy to install.

Unfortunately, I'm still waiting on my parts to put a 220 outlet in the garage so I have to do all this again to put the stiffeners on:)

This morning started out well - after about an hour or so I got the skids all dropped
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/member...most-there.jpg

Awfully dirty under there...

then i hit a snag. Tried beating these bolts out, no dice - then tried pressing them out and it bent the mount
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/member...bent-mount.jpg

so I went over to 4wheel parts to confirm, and they sell a rebuild kit for these uniballs. I love my angle grinder
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/member...ke-already.jpg

ordered new uniballs, need to get the bolts from ace. I'm heading out on vacation, and the new ones will show up while I'm gone - So they'll be waiting for me.

I wanted a side by side comparison
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/member...any-issues.jpg

btw - love these work gloves - you can get crappy immitation ones at auto part stores and hw stores, but these suckers are BA. stay grippy even in oil, but doesn't stick to itself, and a lighter material in back. I like a work glove I can easily tie my shoes in. You can get them from grainger for like $3 or $4 a pair - part #2WTN8

sadly, these will have to wait some more.
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/member...-have-wait.jpg

I think taking off the old skids before my vacation, then camping when we get back, was a mistake - I should have waited. But I really had no idea how much trouble I was going to be having here.

No posts for two weeks - hope everyone has a fun and safe labor day weekend!

Got back from vacation and my parts were waiting for me from 4wheelparts. Bought some bolts, got the long arm mounts installed on Wednesday night, and that went a lot easier than I thought it would. I also rebuilt the uniballs.

Last night got some help from my wife and got the new belly pan in and got the long arms back in. kind of a bear since this thing is sitting on my sloped driveway and the truck had shifted forward about 8 inches. chocked the front wheels and back it up to pull it more in line.

between using a ratchet strap and bottle jack was able to set the distance for the driver side long arm and get the bolt in, but the axle had some serious forward rotation. I put the mounting bolt in the axle for the passenger long arm, and was able to get a 7 foot weight bar in there for some good leverage and lift. That rotated it back enough to connect the top short arm (not even sure what that's called).

Passenger side went easy as pie after that.

Now ready for a dirt road, but not wheeling yet. Still need to redrill the holes that pass through the uchannel for the crossmember/skidplate.

Then I can wheel it around and see what needs fixed next. Almost to a point to take it in and have the engine looked at closely for repairs that will be needed.

Oh, and the speedometer/odometer still doesn't work :)