'88 budget POS build!!!!
 

Hey everyone, not sure if my last build thread i posted got deleted or not, and please mind my misspelling, im coming inside at 1 o'clock AM from working on the jeep all day. Well anyways i sold my wrangler for $2000 and bought me a cherokee for $300. All thats wrong with it is it needed a new battery, transmission cooling lines are shot and driver side front brake hose ruptured. SO.....its a work in progress. I stayed up the other night and spent $1200 of the $1700 i had left. Tires, muffler, tailpipe, ford 8.8 brakets, all kinds of stuff. Plan is to make this a kind of bug out go anywhere cept up mountains type vehicle. Thinking about 31's for right now just cause of gas mileage. Im keeping it a 3:55 gears right now until i have enough money to get the gears lift and locker(s). The engine has 95k, drivetrain is great. 4wd works like a charm. 4.0 dont even knock. But yeah here she is.

So the other day i drove 2 hours and got a 8.8 rear end for $150. Got one side of the brackets cut off and polished. I pulled trhe ring and pinion to do an inspection. That was all good. The leftover diff fluid was metal colored but i didnt see any metal shards or anything. Again im thinkin g about keeping the 3.55 gears with 31's for right now. Until i can afford a lift, tires, gears and lockers all together. But yeah cutting those brackets of aint to bad. Just got one question. How do you guys who have done this swap attach the brakes. Ive looked around on the forum and other websites, but no one has any pics or gives a description on how to attach the brakes. I saw how to do the e-brakes. Several people have said stuff about those. But again not the normal stopping brakes. How do you guys think 3:55 gears will run with 31's?

Add a little info about the build. So got my 8.8 brackets in the mail yesterday. These things are HEAVY DUTY !!!!! Changed the spark plugs now it aint running, trying to diagnose this problem. Ill send some pics out today. Had to fix the brake line on the front left tire. Getting through the master cylinder to the proportioning valve is a pain. Specially since these have been touvched in 20+ years. But yeah the brakes are fixed now.

Well todays update. I diagnosed the problem with not starting. Its was the cps. That was a pain in the *** to get out. But i did it by jacking the front end up and climbing under. I used a 7/16 stubby and my fingers but it finally came out. After my help left i started taking the flares off for the trimming of the fenders so i can fit those 31'' pro comp xtreme a/t's. Other than that, thats all i accompolished today. Oh got 5 boxes in the mail today, including tail pipe and muffler, u joint for the rear 8.8 yoke adapter. and a couple other things. I ordered a new cps and it should be here on saturday. Ill add more posts as the days go by. TY

Nice

Love to see an XJ get saved / resurrected from a slow death. Progress, making some progress every day is positive.

Keep us updated, toss up tons of photo's of your progress. The 8.8 brake issues, can't help with that, I ended up swapping an 8.25/29 spline instead & did the disk conversion. Direct swap was easier for me.....

Good luck

Ok so i got the new cps and installed it, by the way what a pain. Anyways now thats done tried starting it up and it still wont start. Im thinking its either the starter or the starter solinoid. Is there any testing for how to figure out whats going on? I have like 5 days to get this fixed until i have to start school. Please any info would help out.

Which spark plugs did you put in? Did you replace the wires too?

Ok so i ordered a set of Autolite AP3924 platinum. They went in pretty well, i didnt change the wires cause they looked like they were good. ive been having to tap the starter in order to get it started. So im leaning twards the starter or starter solenoid going bad. Any of you guys heard of just cleaning the starter, so i dont have to fork out $60 to get a new one.

Does it crank over? It might be your battery cables or a connection between your battery and your starter.

Yeah it started to crank over. I think i need to charge the battery due to me trying to start it a bunch. Not sure if there is any other sensors or anything that could effect the starting of the jeep. Hopefully i dont have to buy new spark plug wires.

Autozone will test your battery, starter, and alternator for free. They hook up a magical box to your battery and it gives a status of those three parts. I recommend stopping by and trying that. The only problem is you have to get the Jeep there. :) On second thought, you may be able to rent that tool?

Maybe replace the battery to starter cable (POS) and/or the battery to block cable (NEG)? Since you have Renix you may not be grounded well enough, so upgrade your grounds can't hurt. Check out Cruiser's tips for Renix engines here: https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f51/cr...x-tips-153657/

Also a decent amount of information here: http://www.kelleyswip.com/
That guy offers a ground upgrade kit if I'm not mistaken.

Hope this helps in some way!

Hey man thanks.

Alright so here is whats happened in the last few days. Got my 31" tires today. I changed the spark plugs jeep wouldnt start but would crank over, then i changed the cps and the jeep wouldnt crank over, so i looked at all the renix tips and checked out the grounds and all that crap. Cleaned em all up and cleaned up the starter and guess what........it cranks over. So now, i wanted to check the spark plugs and sure enough the brand new spark plugs i just bought i broke 2 of em pulling em out. Its like the damn jeep is nickle and diming me. Ordered some tranny cooling lines and advanced auto sent the wrong one. Got to send that back. but thats been it so far.

ok so what would make you think the CPS was bas if your now thinking the starter or solenoid is bad? first question from me is does it even turn over? CPS will have nothing to do with turning over or not. the starter either turns or it doesnt right?

keep us posted!