This is my first post and the reason for it is my hope that I can get support and advice with my current project. I'm a self admitted newbie who, at the age of 50, decided that it was time to learn how to work on cars. That was two years ago and at the time I had never even done an oil change without supervision.. Moving from San Diego to Tahoe with a two wheel drive Compass meant that I was pretty screwed my first winter, which happened to be the worst winter in 65years, until I found Bertha. Bertha was a co-worker's project 1998 Cherokee Sport SE that had recently received a 6.5" lift, a Smitty built offroad bumper with 12K wench, and 35" Patagonia's. I instantly fell in love with the 4x4 beastie, and bought her for $3k. My co-worker was going to help me work on her but before we could start working on the first main issue, (Death Wobble), he moved to Vegas. Since I didn't know the first thing about cars, let alone classic XJ's, I took it to a local shop. Two weeks later I was told she was ready to be picked up and that my bill was $6k! A month later the check engine light came on for a code P0740 - Lockup solenoid short so I took it to the local transmission guy and he "fixed" it for $1600. The transmission guy told me that it couldn't be the solenoid he replaced and that it was likely that I needed a new Torque Converter. He quoted me $2500. Pissed off, I decided to fix it myself, vowing to never take the XJ back to another shop as I felt like I was getting ripped off. YouTube and the internet became my teachers and after six months, I finally fixed the transmission issue after successfully replacing my shift solenoids, lockup solenoid, valve body, TCM, and transmission wire harness. I rebuild the drum brakes and front disk brakes. Insulated the entire iterior, removed the back seat and built a custome sleeping platform with pull out drawers, aux battery, and recovery equipment storage. Added a aux trans cooler, oil temp and pressure sensors, coolant temp sensor, and sensors for transmission send and return lines. Installed a roof rack with full sized spare tire carrier, and brand new Patagonia M2's. Mounted and wired up 10 off road aux lights. Needless to say, I was hooked, and me and my dog had 4months of trouble free adventures with Bertha. Then on icy morning in March, I hit a patch of ice on the way to work that put me into a 720 spin eventually hitting the burm on the side of the road which rolled us. The roof was crushed, windshield and front doors were destroyed. But she started right up once she was wheels down, and I drove her back home. The damage to the A pillars was extensive and was told I'd probably not be able to get a windshield put back in and without a roll cage, would be a death trap if I ever rolled again. I had over $10k invested into this $3k XJ and wasn't going to give up that easy.

So I bought "RED" for $2500. RED is the same year and model as Bertha, a 1998 Jeep Cherokee Sport, with a poorly installed 4" lift, Bald 33" tires, ****ty paint job, and almost the exact same milage as Bertha at 238K. The plan is to pull everything, and I mean everything, off of Bertha before sending her to the great junkyard in the sky. RED will receive her entire drivetrain, (4.0 Engine, AW4 Transmission, and 231 Transfer Case.), along with her HD Steering Kit, 6" Lift, and 35" tires. Bertha's PCM and TCM will likewise transfer over, along with her interior trim, front seats, offroad front and rear bumper, aux battery set up and what aux lights I can salvage, along with the Brexhaust cat back exhaust kit with Super 10 muffler, fuel tank, and power window regulators, and ignitnition / door locks. My albums will show my recent successful Drivetrain pull, as well as exhaust and fuel tank swap. Windows are fixed and RED has been rekeyed. I've already pull the entire interior trim and every single wire harnes with every single connector labeled and completely intact should I decided to install them into RED. I'm doing all of this in my driveway half of which has a Temu carport in which I've been stripping Bertha, and RED and my Compass are on the other half, exposed to the elements, and for the last two weeks that has meant Snow! Oh yeah, my driveway, is on a steep hill and is bumped and cracked from tree roots growing under it. (Super sketchy with the cherry picker engine pull!)

My next move is to pull the HD Steering kit and then the suspension from Bertha and have her towed away. With her 4.0 on an engine stand, I'm researching and purchasing all the seals, freeze plugs, oil pump, water pump, valve gasket, rear main seal, front crankshaft seal, head gasket, oil pan gasket, and do a basic refresh on it prior to installing it, which won't happen until I put the suspension and steering front end components into Red. I'm most certainly going to have questions, and could really use some advice with this endeavor. Hopefully this intro will provide some context for when I reach out for help and with any luck, some of you out there will be willing to share your wisdom and knowledge with a newbie who is clearly in over his head, but capable of learning how to swim.

THanks in advance!

 

Up Date on the Swap - Bertha is dead, may she rest in pieces.... I ultimately decided to strip every last screw and wire and bolt off of my donor 98XJ. I removed all the windows, the doors, weather strip, hatch, hood, dash ...... literally EVERYTHING down to the unibody. And to day I took a Sawzaw and began the chop. WIthin 20 mins I had the upper half of the XJ cut off at bottom of the window level. Tommorrow she will be cut into small enough pieces to load into a trailer and take down the mountain to the junk yard. And then I move Red Into the carport and prep for surgery.