kurama49

Greetings from Canada! I recently acquired my first Jeep three weeks ago, and I've been loving it ever since! I picked it up for $700 from a lady who had drove it home from out west, so next to no rust yay! Its very dirty and was neglected though... The list so far of that I need to do:
Alignment
New brakes all around
Auto tranny filter
Rear main seal [Doh!]
And then the fun starts...
My plans for it:
2 - 3" lift [nothing too extreme since its my DD]
31"s with an aggressive tread
bumper/pushbar combo with winch
Snorkel
Roof Rack
5spd Conversion
And a cherry bomb glasspack.

The jeep currently has the 4.0L with a AW4 Automatic tranny behind it
it looks to have whats left of a 2" lift, because the rear is high, and you can see whats left of the spacers that were in the front..

Currently what I've done to it so far:
Put on better tires to replace the dry-rotted ones
Rebuilt the rear brakes that had fallen apart on me [but couldent afford new shoes]
Put in a Kenwood CD player
Painted my fender flares and door trim flat black
Flat black stripe in the middle of the hood [Cause that adds horsepower y'know!]

And added a C.B radio with bumper antenna.

Pictures!:








Give Ideas to keep my motivation going!

Oh also, a pic of what I used to drive and what happened to it :C





Also, I'm still a highschool student with no money, so this will be a slow build!

kurama49

Been busy the past few days, prom n stuff. Some random pics for all of ya's



My buddy's XJ hit the puddle too fast and died right in the middle of it..


Then this happened a few days ago..

But its all fixed now, I filled it with water for now, I got some anti-freeze just gotta find the time to drain the system lol

Also, is $50 good for a set of 2" front coil spacers? thats with shipping included...

xj wheeler

Looks like a good start and plan as well. Got a pretty clean one there.

Welcome to the site, i'm close with my bro too.

kurama49

New radio:

Painted headlight bezels:


Trim rings

Total look:


And I think I've come up with a name for it lol.. Panda

kurama49

Well, A little update: Exhaust broke off. Welded it back together with a glasspack replacing the muffler.
New 30x9.50x15 Wildcat AT tires
Rear oilpan seal broke... D:< replacing it tomorrow, Will post pictures tomorrow

kurama49

Well... the jeep took a crap today :C was running fine, pulled out of the driveway, it revved up to about 3grand, then all of a sudden it bogged down, and started tapping bad... and also started misfiring D: Help please? I'm going to buy a parts jeep tomorrow just incase I need to swap engines..

kurama49

Well, I got the valve cover off today, I was wiggling around the rockers... Some are tight and I cant wiggle them, and Some I can wiggle from side to side [front of jeep to back of jeep] Is this bad?...

kurama49

Well, with some help from a friend of mine [who is older and has more know-how] Turns out the sound is coming from the bottom-end... joy.

kurama49

Way past due update [sorry for the bump] Well the old XJ died last summer, that knock from the bottom end? turned out 3 of my pistons were cracked, due to my valves not seating properly. So what did we "try" to do? we tryed to swap out engines, got the engine out, but there was sabotage. While i was underneath unbolting the tranny from the engine, my friend who was put on the job of "disconnecting" all the wires, hoses, etc Decided it would be quicker if he just cut it all, and or yanked it all out. So we got the new engine in, but couldent figure out the wiring mess, and i didnt want to run new transmission lines... and buy new rad hoses... And he cut my brake lines aswell. In a stupid effort to try and get the jeep out of me for $100 so he could have a parts rig for his. So, in the end, I sold panada to the junkyard, which got me $500. But I lost one of the best rigs I ever had. I now drive a 2011 ranger, but I am on the look-out for another XJ. So you may see me posting in here soon again! [and also Sorry for the bump again just thought I'd let everyone know why I havent been active at all]

kurama49

Hey guys, I got a question. I'm currently looking at buying a 84 Cherokee. Its in amazing shape, relativity low kms And has a nice set of 31"s on it. But the one thing thats stopping me from buying it, is that it has a Carbed 2.5.. Are these decent engines? do they make enough power to hold their own? Because I used to drive my dads old 2.3L ranger, and it was a DOG on the highway... it was so under-powered it wouldent even do the speed limit... So thats my only worry on it. But so far the specs I've gathered from this jeep is:
1984
2.5L 5spd
Leather interior
New accell cap and wires,
31" Goodyear wranglers
Brand new shocks all around, with new brakes/brake lines aswell.

downfalls:
Very dirty.
Quite dirty.
And dirty.
oh and the bumper corners are twisted.
So heres some pics of it, hopefully someone will chime in and awnser my questions!, I really like the jeep overall, but would like to get some extra info, before i make the plunge. I've allready got $300 saved up of the $1500 he wants, and my grad party is soon, so most of my money from that will be going to the jeep.

kurama49

Welp, I finally got another XJ





She's a 87 Cherokee Cheif.
4.0L 5spd [Geared REALLY low o.O ]
Manual windows!
Invisible Air coniditoning!
Super awsome silent radio!
And a mismatched tire and rim...
But the good thing is that it only cost me $600, Its in AMAZING shape judging most cherokees here, It's been well taken care of most of its life [owned by a older man]
But that doesent mean it She dont got her flaws...

U-joints are bad i think.. They look original and when I take off and or reverse I can hear them popping...
One of the wheel bearings is bad, causing a humming sound from the front passenger
front brakes have a leak... Should be flex line because all the hard lines are new.
Reverse lights dont work, nor do the brake lights when the headlights are on.
And the most annoying one. Every time i go to start it, If i just get in it and turn the key, it'll crank and crank and crank and crank and crank and... yea. But, If i let off the key and turn it again it'll fire within 2 cranks. This happens every shot, Even if i crank the engine over once, let off the key then turn it again vroom. So the baisic plan now since I'm going away to work soon and will have lots of the green stuffs. :
Get EVERY fluid changed with fresh new stuff, tranny oil, diff fluid, brake fluid, oil, etc.
Get the whole front end re-done Tie rod ends, wheel bearings, ball joints and U-joints.
Fix the brakes [obviously, those are nice to have >.> ]
And then baisically follow the route i was going to with my old 89. 3" lift, 31"s roof rack, ARB front bumper, snorkel, winch, and Cowl/bumper mounted lights. Oh and a decent radio because lisening to WAOWAOWAOWAOWAO from the bad wheel bearing gets hard on the head. [I should know since i had to drive this jeep 220 kms home (about a 3 hour drive) ]
but other than that it feels nice to be back in a cherokee, gets decent fuel milage from what i can see so far, rides nice and soft, and feels tight.

My brand new ranger feels like a hunk of c**p compared to this, Ranger rides like a brick, everything feels loose and soft, and it has no get up and go. [its a 4.0L aswell] Oh and gets 13mpg with it being a 2wd


I might be stealing the 31"s and rims off of this for the jeep~ But I dont think they'll fit without a lift. and NO I'm not cutting the flares. Never really did like that whole "flareless" style. Anywho expect for me to be updating this whenever i do something to the jeep! I'm not going to make a new thread because I'm lazy lol.

kurama49

I got some more work done to the old 87 today :3
New stereo~


Painted my rims black

I think the air filter needs to be replaced...


Plus my buddy told me i could take the springs out of this XJ since they're not saggy, aswell as the steering rod i need. [the one that runs from the steering box to the passenger steering knuckle]




Oh and this happened today. I asked for a cheese burger and got this.

Do you see cheese? BECAUSE I SURE DONT >8C
.....
I still ate it anyways because i didnt want to cause a fuss inside.

kurama49

Morning stretch~



Couple of nice pictures I took down by the water



And mah mornin' Coffee.

kurama49

Not much to report today, Got my new wheel bearing / hub assembly



And I also found out my Co-Pilot loves vanilla soft serve She wouldent even let me take the cup when she was done ._.

kurama49

I added some Halogen offroad lights today, aswell as finally got rid of that Odd rim on the back lol.


[Mind you the old rim was so stuck on there we had to cut the rim with the torch.. ]
and my CB setup


Gunna try to get my new springs tomorrow, and go get my new[to me] 30"s mounted.

Also I found a few little problems I need help with.
1.: I need U-joints, but my jeep has a double cardigan joint at the T-case for the rear drive shaft? how would I go about changing these?

2.: I also found out my front axle is not engaging I checked the vacuum line and it seems ok, what else could be causing it?

3.: The rear tail lights are not working when i press the brake pedal, but will turn on with the park lights/headlights.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!