thanks for taking the time to look. my suspension setup is similar to what you run because your thread is where i got the idea, haha. so thanks for all your write-ups. & thanks for the rec on the track bar.

re: the lights, at first i liked them because i had never had bright headlights before. but i don't really like how they look, and of course they are worthless in the snow because they don't put off any heat. i would like to get them to something non-LED at some point in the future, it's just low on the priority list.

 

this is what i have loved about this forum. anyone will help out anyone. thanks for you taking the time to peruse and weigh in on my "build" (aka documentation of learning routine maintenance, haha).

i've read about pinion angle, but it is still a little confusing to me. i think it would behoove me to try and measure and see. i've seen people talk about shims, but i have no idea how those work or where they even go. so again, i should look into that. thanks for asking.

 

Well my "build" thread is mainly just me b****ing about stuff lol
Is your pinion pointed at the tcase output? The shims are little steel wedges that go under the leaf springs.

 

looked into it a little more and in short, my pinion angle is abysmal. i took off the drop kit and had it raised back up to stock to see what my angles were like and the pinion is like nearly 0 degrees to the shaft. so measuring and shims will be in order at some point. i was a little bummed to see that putting in the shims required taking apart the spring pack (if i understood correctly). probably won't be able to do that til summer. i am also unsure which direction the wedges go. it seems like if the fat end is toward the rear (like everyone says) it would only serve to rotate my pinion further upward. mine needs to rotate downward.

 

this feels like a stupid write-up that i should have figure out a long time ago, but i just kind of thought 'well these things are slow metal boxes so get used to it.' should have taken some pictures for this.

so i had been trying to figure out my my engine felt so sluggish for as long as i've had it. i couldn't get beyond 3k rpms with the pedal all the way down. second gear was especially weak, so low in the power band. could barely push beyond 2k in second gear. i would be struggling to get beyond 25 mph on a hill with the pedal all the way down. it didn't seem normal to have to drive like that, and while i know this isn't a V8 i thought the 4.0 was supposed to have a little more pep than this, especially given how light cherokees are. so i did some digging, and read about guys redlining their jeeps on dunes and whatnot. this really had me scratching my head. I couldn't get this jeep anywhere near redline (not that i wanted to) no matter how hard i tried, so i started to think there was a real issue.

so I started investigating TPS, throttle body, and the cables around there (actually with the help of Chatgpt). it turns out my throttle cable was adjusted to where it had not nearly enough slack. it was actually limiting how far i could press the pedal. so it felt like i was 'flooring' the pedal, but the throttle lever was only rotating about 40-45 degrees. when i took off the air intake hose, i saw that 'pedal to the metal' was only rotating my throttle plate about 35-45 degrees. So i reset the throttle cable and wow! i can actually rev. I'm not trying to blow this thing open (or kill my gas mileage), but it is at least nice to have the rest of the power band available now, rather than being mechanically limited by the cable. I'm wondering if this will mean that i can actually maintain 65mph on the highway even on hills.

 

You don't have to completely disassemble the leaf pack.
Unbolt the u bolts, clamp springs together, cut the center pin, and install the wedge with a new center pin.
The fat part of the wedge would be towards the front to point the pinion down.

Good catch on the TV cable. I did that too, didn't realize the newer ones don't ratchet out like renix did.

 

Been a minute. I did end up installing an adjustable track bar. I got the cheap-ish one from RC. Then finally went for an alignment, which ended up revealing that my ball joints are in bad shape (quite noisy now). So that's something I'll have to get to at some point. But the story of these two updates is that usually it's the little things that make a car feel enjoyable once again.

The real update is i finally fixed the noisy driver's door. Had the click/pop (honestly this feels conservative--i was just waiting for the day when the force of the pop shattered my window or something. It got to where i was avoiding driving places). I tried just replacing the bracket and pin, but that actually made it even worse. So I had to open the door panel and change out the whole door check strap assembly. Seemed like it wasn't as hard to get it in and out as some people had said? Wish I had grabbed a picture of the old one--as soon as I pulled it out i realized that's what the problem was. It looked like it had been run over by a commercial lawnmower. There are a bunch of options, and i read a lot of reviews. Seems like for the price OEM wasn't worth it. So I ordered . They came pre-greased. I also put a new bracket and pin on, and applied some white lithium grease to that side. Voila! People no longer stare whenever i close my door in a parking lot.

But also! finally a cupholder! I've seen like 2-3 options: the one that limits your parking break grip, the one that hangs off the side of the center console, and a DIY drill a hole in the lid of the center console. Didn't like any of them. but this guy on Etsy posted in a facebook group about these ones he 3D prints so i ordered. kind of pricey but they're sturdy and IMO better than the other options. Absolutely love it.