Alright, so I have been wanting a 4wd daily that I can also haul junk around/move trailers around exc.

I've been spending a lot of time out at my grandpas ranch recently too. My first car was a jeep wrangler for a whole 4 months :P and I loved that car.. I always loved cherokees and my uncle has a few of them. I took one of his from north texas down to his deer lease and fell involve with it.

SO after extensive bay and craigslist shopping... I bought this 1985 4wd jeep cherokee pioneer 2door 5spd. Cost me $700. It runs but the transfer case is making noise. The power steering whines and sorta sounds like chewbacca so my gf and I named him Chewy.

My planssss

fix the power steering
fix the transfer case
search and destroy all and any rust I find
3 in lift to fit 31 tires (recommendations would be nice
a snorkle
annd a safari basket roof rack of some kind
fix the lazy steering

And thats about all I will be needing for it. I wont be doing any crazy offroad stuff so I should be g2g without lockers and things of that nature. Already has a trailer hitch. The jeep was just sitting on someones hunting lease :laff: It had a bunch of shot gun shells, and I even found a ar15 clip with ammo in it under the back seat only in texas :P

just checked out the TC- and its is soo bad. has a big hole in it :P oh well still drives around for now. I found some used transfer cases for relatively cheap. As soon as I sell this semesters books I should be able to fix it. also I kinda like these stock wheels... I never like stock wheels. Im thinking of just getting off road tires instead of new rims and tires for now. Whats the biggest tire I can fit on the stock rim?

I just finished cleaning and shampooing the carpet. After cleaning all the dirt and dust the interior suprisingly looks pretty good. The seats are really nice with very little visible wear. The tac doesn't work which I will need to fix as well. The speedo stays at 15mph when it slows down but then picks up to normal speed once I go over that loll. Idle sticks 50% of the time when I turn it on... I just turn it off and back on and it usually fixes itself. I think it has some bushing that are done as well as the steering isn't exactly crisp. When I turn left it sorta feels lazy but turning right is great Ill get some pictures of the interior tomorrow.

All the lights work except the dash doesn't light up.. which I actually discovered sucks at night so I bought a sticky clicky light for the meantime from autozone so I can see my speedo. Anywho it needs some TLC but its a blast.

 

Does it have the 2.5 I4 or 2.8 V6? (85 was before the 4.0 sadly for you)

You should get custom fur seat covers made that look like Chewbacca for it

 

2.5 I4 Its definitely the slowest car Ive ever driven :loll: I haven't decided if that truly matters to me in this car yet. Maybe a big brown chewbacca sticker, or license plate?

 

Good, lots better than the GM made 2.8 V6. Even Chevy fans hate those engines for being pieces of crap. Jeeps aren't made for speed, gotta remember that. If I am going somewhere within 5 exits on the interstate, I take the frontage road because my Jeep sucks on the highway.

 

LIES!!! my jeep halls XD lol smoked a cummins 3.55 gears on 5 speed =

 

haha ya I didn't buy this for power. I actually really liked crawling around on the beach and through the mud in my dads old wrangler. It was a 4cyl too. I swear that thing would idle over anything

 

you wouldn't stand a chance against my cummins in any xj

 

Im having a hard time diagnosing a few problems. Because of the blown transfer case it makes so much undercarriage noise its hard to tell if any other drivetrain issues are occuring. I suppose that will have to wait until I get a new tc in there.

The most disturbing is my steering issue. For some reason the steering is very unresponsive. I can turn the wheel a good three inches before the wheels start turning. Its worse when turning the wheel to the left. Anyy ideas what the issue is there?

 

ok so as i understand it (i'm not an '84-86 guy) but you should have a carburated 2.5L with an AX-5 manual transmission and an NP207 (commandtrac/part-time t-case) with a 21-spline output.

when they introduced the 4.0L in '87 they switched from the NP207 to the NP231, but they didn't switch from 21-spline input to 23 spline until the HO motor was introduced in 1991.

so for your t-case you may be able to bolt up an '87-'90 NP231 which is a lot stronger and has better after market support than the 207....avoid '91+ unless you want to change your tranny too.....if you do a tranny swap i believe you can use an AX-15 from a 4.0L XJ which you would never destroy with your four squirrel engine

***research the t-case/tranny stuff before you buy one, i am not 100% on what will match up on those strange early cherokees

 

thanks for your time and knoweledge I've found a few n207 for sale on ebay, however the 21 spline np231 is really what Id like to do if I can find one. I think I might have sourced one from a member here. Do you know if it matters that its coming from an auto?

 

front drive axle is out so I can drive around with the broken tcase....
I think that it is dunskies also

also it appears that the pitman arm or tie rod is broken as I see weird movement under there when the wheel is being moved.

I still cant find where the gear assembly box is(steering box whatever) but when I find it I will try tightening it to see if that helps.

also my front driver side looks like its leaking, cant tell if its from the base where the brake line is, or this bolt looking area that is sticking out... but Can you use any brake caliper from any of the xjs? or does it have to be a 85? lines exc? same thing with the steering box does it have to be a 85? and if I replace one caliper do I have to replace the other if I use the old brake pads?

 

I replied to your other post. You need to find a front DS, np231, and rear DS (i think) from a 87-2000 XJ with a 4cyl or v6 (21-spline). It should bolt right in.

 

alrighty, just went to san antonio's pick n pull... And JEEEEZE is it a gold mine for cherokees. There were SOOO many of them. Unfortunately there were only three manual 87-91 model cherokees and only one had a tcase. There were however a bunch of 2door manual cherokees but they were all 2wd... weird...
anywho, I got a new rear diff cover and when I got home discovered it had a little hole in it. I got the rear drive shaft, front drive shaft, new front track bar, and a 231 tcase from a 89 cherokee. Soo out with bad and in with the better/newer.

I have been hearing a weird vibration/roaring noise strictly when im off the gas letting the motor slow the jeep. It kinda seems like it could be the exhaust rubbing on something.. but my other fear is it is something in the rear end. I did the rear diff oil and took a peak inside to find..... nothing loll. No chips, or metal shavings of any kind came out. soo not sure what the issue is?


new tcase
track bar



man its a pain to pull in a yard

I ordered new u-joints from napa earlier as well so thursday im going to tackle the job and hope everything fits. Tomorrow im going to do the tranny oil and front gear oil, bleed the brakes, and put the track bar in. Hopefully after all of that maintenance will be finished and on to MODDDING

 

well had some time to finish the tease swap, I discovered I also need the longer 4wd shifter linkage to complete the swap. I also made note I did not need the shorter rear drive shaft for somer reason (the stock one fit fine) and the new front drive shaft is too long. SOO back to pick n pull. But atleast the np231 is in the car now and the rest is easy

 

so this project died for a while as when I swapped in the np231 tcase I couldnt find a front driveshaft that would fit or linkage that would work to the tcase. ontop of that on my drive back from san antonio the transmission started whining really bad and seemed very hot. I dont have a place to work on it here and ive been afraid to drive it home in its condition.. but I figure Instead of th np231 tcase swap ill just throw a 207 in there and a new ax5 transmission. What do yall think?