Roughcherokee95

"RUT *****" - 1997 Jeep XJ DD/RIG


This is my third jeep cherokee, and i couldn't wait to start messing around with it! It was a clean, 1997 Jeep Cherokee sport.. but that all got ruined! lol

Bought her, looking like this.. didn't stay stock for long.
I went with the Series II 3' Lift kit from Rough Country.
Very basic, and straight to the point.


had some troubles with the rear shocks, I am almost positive every XJ driver
has to deal with the broken rear shock bolts.. and going through the hastle
of putting new ones in. We got that done & Got it all put together..
she turned out great.
decent amount of clearance.. Smooth ride, nice articulation,
i'm satisfied!

After she got the lift, i was able to snag her some free shoes
Pro-Comp Xterrian MT's - 33x12.50x15's (40% Tread left) with american racing wheels which i picked up for awesome deal. 25.00 FOR ALL 4!! Couldn't believe the deal and got right on it... they have some surface rust, and some scratches.. but hey.. it's for offroading & also got a Flowmaster super 44 for some 55w hella Lights Fair trade.. i'd say!


Soon after she got those gifts, i hooked her up with a basic Cobra 19 CB Radio & a old Peterbilt fiberglass
antenna from one of my grandfathers old 18 wheelers. Works great!


Those free Pro-Comps.. didn't work out so well.. ended up blowing 2 front ones on the trail!
Wasn't too happy with that.. Couldn't find a picture of the old Mt's
but, i had to go ahead and break the bank. Got all new 33x12.50x15's Mickey Thompson MTZ's


They work great off-road, aren't very loud, and clean up really well in the mud.
They proved me good at Uwharrie, and took some nice chunks of rubber out from
the rocks.. but they are still chuggin along!
Things went well, until i went on a little offroad adventure one night
with a few buddies from our 4 wheelin' club. We went down to a
classic trail we all offroad on called Friendship..
I had hit the mud hole a few weeks earlier and made it without
problems.. this time. she didn't work out so well.
Stuck for a good 7-8 hours.. snapped a winch line off a
buddies nissan xterra, and a wrangler didn't have enough strap to pull me.
Finally got a TJ Rubicon to pull me out with the broken winch cable Lol.

After all that. i had to rip up some wet nasty, muddy carpet!

seats out..

carpets up..
Following that.. i couldn't leave it the nasty green/muddy/sandy etc
floor like that. so i cleaned it up and gave her some bedliner

Added some new lights to the bumper..
bought them from a user on here.
The stock TJ/LJ fog lamps

I had a buddy selling or parting out a old XJ that he had
bought from someone. he couldn't get it running but i was
luck to snag custom built rock rails for $95.00 beats retail for
some name brand rails!
i swore i had a pic of them before i bolted/welded them on
the jeep but i couldn't find it. This is them
mounted/painted on the jeep later that day.

also picked up another piece of armor from a
NC4x4 user for $40.00

Got lucky with this one.. I attended one of the 4 wheel parts customer
appreciation days and won my self a free SmittyBily XRC8!
So with that on the line, i needed a bumper.
I did quite a bit of research for xj bumpers because i heard mixed opinions
on some bumpers being bolted to the unibody, the strength of the jeep,
and how much force the winch will be applying. Along with that
it took a few weeks to set aside some money for a bumper being a fresh out of high school
kid!

the winch fresh out of the box.
After the saving & research I found a awesome company in Mt.Airy North Carolina
called L&LFabrication on Cherokeeforum.com (I'm sure alot of XJ drivers have seen him online)
Anyways, he got me a great deal for $225.00 With hardware. I saved myself some money
not having it shipped and rode up there to pick it up!
A Spray can of 3M bedliner & mounted the bumper up.


Following that was mounting the winch.... Now The only difficulties i had
with mounting the winch was it didn't fit snug on the bumper & against the grill.
I wasn't going to cut up my O|||||O so..
I went to 4 Wheel Parts and bought a Smitty bilt Winch Plate. I set that into place..
drilled holes through the bumper and bolted the back of the winch plate & winch on.
Following the bolts i welded the Actual plate to the bumper.

Welded each side of the plate and the bottom of the front..

Following that, I mounted those TJ/LJ lights to the fairlead..

The next add the old jeep got was some slightly new fender Flares..
In order to fit those 33's back in the day.. i needed to cut a little bit.
And oh did i hate those cuts. Not sure what i was thinking.. but i had to cover them up.
So i went to the junkyard and pulled 4 Flares..
Lightly sanded them down, put some primer & used that awesome
3M bedliner.
I predrilled holes into the flare and into the fender & used some long sturdy
self-tapping screws.. EVERYONE told me they wouldn't hold on and that
they would break. Well, i proved that wrong. They aren't going anywhere!


So far so good, until the old Chrysler 8.25 gave out!
Luckily, i was able to find a cheap 8.25 with low miles,
Just needed the drum brakes to be touched up! I know what everyone is thinking..
"why not go with a stronger, better axle" - - Well at this time i moved into a house with
2 room mates so i was tight on money. Not at bad axle for $80.00!
but here is the BIG DEAL. she went out in the wal-mart parking lot
where we have our 919.4x4 Club meets..
Oh well. why not swap it in the parking lot! hahaha
Got some tools to go! and went to work!
We got work to do...

Got her out!

No AXLE!


Old 8.25

After a few hours in the Wal-Mart parking lot..
we got the new axle in, Brakes bled, and tires on..
she was ready to go!
Decided to get a little fancy while looking around on the forums..
so i went to the autopart store and bought some basic
driving lights, small, 55w and RTV sealant.. I sealed around the lights
that way water didn't get in them. and mount them up.
I placed the above the area where the axle is bolted to the leaf package
and in the front i placed them beside the coils, on the unibody.
I used the brackets that came with the lights and drilled small holes.
I took small self-taping screws and screwed them into the frame.
these were very sturdy and have took a beating in the past few months.
I have currently moved the front lights to the lip of the bumper that way they
light up the entire under side, axle, coils,steering etc.
Front
'
Rear

Entire Body

Also, to match the rear windows.. i had the front windows
tinted with some 20% Tint

Now getting bored with 3'', i decided to go up a little higher
I called up rough country, and got 4.5'' Coils shipped for $130.00
and Daystar 1.5'' Shackles to add to my 3'' Add-a-leaf


4.5'' compared to the 3''

and the 1.5'' Shackles

What she looks like after the lift..

It did the job for now, i wasn't happy with the rear end.
has a slight sag to it. It could be sitting a little higher
and look even with the front.. Next thing is Full 4.5'' Leaves.
For some lighting, I added a light bar.
I took a stock roof rack bar and drilled 2 large holes for
KC Daylights, cheap and easy way to make a home made light bar.

It came out with a clean and even look.
I was really satisfied with it, and it got the job done!

(Not a very good picture)
Shortly after the light bar, i got lucky & removed a D30 for
a buddy and installed it after he got work to it.
My payment was either some cash or this awesome Roof Basket..
Couldn't pass this deal up for a $200.00 Basket..
Roof Basket & a better picture of the Light Bar!

A little off-roading.. putting that basket to use!

Roughcherokee95

Continuing on with the build, i have had the most pain in the ***** experience with this driver door of mine. You can ask all my friends.. and they will tell you i've had a bungie chord on this door sense the middle of summer time..


so, i finally scraped up some cash to buy myself a new one at the Junkyard..


The New door, out of a 2000 Cherokee sport, was a eletric/power door
with power mirrors,windows,speakers,locks, and 3 other door controls..
and now converted it to a manual crank door.





The materials:
Automotive Primer
Duplicolor perfect match paint (got my 2 codes from the dealership to match the rest of the body) "Emerald Green"





Sand Block (Cheap and easy to use)





Used the sand block to sand down the clear coat & a bit of the white paint off the new door.



Taped the badge down & also the lock



Got her all primed down.. ready for the "Emerald Green" Coat



And lastly, the new coat of Emerald Green..
Put it all back together, with the window, Mirror, Open/Close mechanism, Window crank & Panel..
GOOD AS NEW!!



I will post a picture of it on the jeep (Also bed lined the plastic panel on the door with 3M Rubberized coating)

Roughcherokee95

Got a few new updates with the old jeep.
Threw some new Hell Baja Spotlights that i was about to mount on the roof rack,
Took some metal tabs and bolted them up on the rack.





Mounted up



Lighted up




Next, decided to two tone the jeep..
I bought some 3M bedliner, auto Primer and a clearcoat



I taped off the few areas that i wanted to paint..



finish product..

Roughcherokee95

Wasn't getting the greatest gas milage due to a wonderful crack in my exhaust manifold..
so, i was able to pick up some used headers from a friend and mounted them up.


Crack...



Pulled it out



New one is in..



After installing these, i finally can go to the pump and atleast save a little gas!
Plus, i dont have the annoying exhaust leak noise that came with it!
Now she's got her nice flowmaster growl back!

Roughcherokee95

I have a few more updates on the jeep..
Got myself a Rubicon Express adjustable trac bar with a drop bracket
Got that installed, and aligned.
Along with some New drive works hubs & dana spicer ball joints.


Adding a few things here..


A new 4'' Drop pitman arm to make the drag link & trac-bar sit evenly together..



Rubicon Express Trac-bar & Drop bracket



New driveworks hub assembly & Dana-Spicer ball joints



Also added Rough Country adjustable LCA's but i have not
taken a picture of them installed...


got all these new parts to help with the bigger lift, and help with the death
wobble. Seemed to cure it 85% of the way but still had a little shimmy..


took her to Uwharrie this past weekend (April 13-15) to play around
with the 4WD club and she did surpringly well with all the new parts
& got to wheel her pretty hard..


Sadly, coming home from Uwharrie.. the death wobble is now back.
Just about as bad as before.. Back to the drawing board.. /:

Roughcherokee95

Latest URE trip with the club, 919.4x4




[media=youtube]uMCFeLj-jdQ[/media]

Roughcherokee95

Time to finally step up... and get myself a decent set of axles..
After researching around, and talking to a few buddies i was able to make up my mind
on the most affordable/Daily Driver friendly axles.


Ford 8.8 for the rear...
I searched all over craigslist, NC4x4, and a few junkyards when i finally came across
a Ford 8.8 Open Diff, 4.10s & disc Brakes out of a 96' Ford Explorer.
Got it for a killer price, $135.00 out the door from a local junk yard.





Opened it up.. Ring & Pinion looked great.. but the spider gears have a little wear to them.



Diff Tag (4.10s!)



Still have some work to do for it, Cutting off the old perches,
Brakes, Welding new perches and it should be good to go!


Got some work done today (May 9,2012) on the ford 8.8 axle..


Went down to the local auto part store and picked up some Wearever Rotors..
and some cutting wheels for out grinder... then went to work!!


Cutting off Sway bar Mounts



My buddy taylor helping me, cutting off old leaf perch.



Finally got the old Perches & Sway-bar mounts off.



Here they are...All cut off



Lastly, sanding down the axle a bit..
Getting it all smooth & ready for the Jeep Perches.



After all this work we got done today.. we decided to go ahead & give it a break.
Hopefully tomorrow we will be heading to our local junkyard to pick up some Calipers &
The Leaf Spring plate.

Roughcherokee95

The following day we started to get the axle ready to go under the jeep temporarly until we can get it towed to
4 wheel parts.. So i started by sealed it up and adding diff fluid.








Now that was all ready to go, we mounted up the Calipers & rotors to prepare for the axle swap.
Took us about 30-45 mins to get the old 8.25 out and ready for the 8.8 to go in.


Finally got it out










Now we took the old perches that we cut off and flipped them around that way we can temporaly mount
the 8.8 in the jeep so that it is ready to get towed off.
Got it in there, mounted it up, and lightly tightened down the U-bolts.





She's sitting in there!





Tires mounted up, you can see the caliper and rotor in there! Feels good to have some disc brakes back there!









Took a break for the weekend, and got right back to it on monday..
Took a ride up to my local 4 wheel parts and bought myself the Warrior products
Leaf spring Perches & the shocks mounts..








After getting those, i was able to set up a time to get my jeep into
4 wheel parts so that they could help me do all the welding, pinion angle,
and axle adjustments.


Tuesday Rolls around, and i get the old jeep towed up to 4 wheel parts!





Got it towed up there, rolled her in..
Put her up on the lift and it was time to start working!





We removed the axle from the jeep and i had to sand the entire thing down that
way we can set it up for the welding.





Got that done, moved the axle back under the jeep.
and it was time to set the axle in the jeep straight,
lined up with the leaf springs and had the perches tac-welded in.
Again, dropped the axle to finish the welds on the perches..







Tac-welding the perches up in there.





After that was welded in there and the pinion angle was set
we went to shock mounts and had those welded in.
Along with the brake lines temporally put in


Pinion angle









Lastly, after everything we setup in there ready to go
we went over everything with the last few welds.
Set up & bled the brakes and she was good to go.

Roughcherokee95

Wasn't sure if i had space in that last post to keep on typing..
but anyways.


The axle was good to go, in the jeep, and ready to drive home.
Ran into a few problems, my flowmaster muffler was rubbing the driveshaft so we had
to rachet strap it out of the way in order for me to get my jeep home & one of the junkyard calipers
i had pulled, the bleeder line was siezed so we had to bleed it from the banjo bolt.


now that i have gotten all those problems in my head i am going to try and redo my exhaust
and as soon as possible buy myself new Calipers/Pads so that i can have entire new braking system in the
rear.


Instead of leaving off on a bad note, i was able to pick up (5) 33x12.50 R15 KM1's for the jeep
you can seein the last picture of him welding, the new tires. Two of them have around 75-80% Tread
While the other three have around 45-50% Can't beat that when i only paid 180 for all 5!!


Heres a pic of them, after being mounted on.



Lastly, I will post pictures of the axle painted up and cleaned up under the jeep
when i have the time to get to it!