Kayle

Hey all,
Not sure if this is in the correct section but here goes, been wanting to get another jeep after selling my j20 a decade ago but wasnt able to for one reason or another. I have been looking for the past year off and on for an XJ 92-97 2 door stick. just for mellow trails no serious crawling just build it to be mild but dependable and handle low to medium difficulty trails.
plan on a mild lift 3" or so decent a/t's and see where i go from there.

Finally found one tuesday night that was in my budget and went out and bought it about 90 miles away from where i live.



Lesson 1. never by a vehicle at night! When i test drove it the right front sounded like the brake tabs were rubbing the rotors so no big deal i thought. no smoke shifts fine high miles (204k) but whatever.

Its a little rough, headliner is falling down has driverside fender and hood replaced. ugly rims and tires again no big deal already has a cold air intake and aftermarket exhaust plus i was able to talk him down to $700 so i was happy.





Gotta love buying a jeep from the ghetto love the wipers and the sticker residue from the "V6" , "TURBO" and fake vent badges lol

Anyway, i had a friend following me to make sure it wasnt running dogtrack or smoking. everything was going well for about the first 20 miles or so and i noticed that the steering was getting real squirelly. just jerking in what ever direction i eased the wheel in. we had a prearranged stop for a cigar break at a gas station about 30 miles from home and when i pulled into the right front was popping as a cv joint would in a sharp turn. i jacked it up and was shocked that i could weeble woble the whole wheel so i had it towed.

today i finally go a chance to get it on stands and start in on it. first thing i noticed was the awesome coil spacers!


wow is all i can say. here is a link to a very short video showing the amount of play in the hub/steering knuckle
AWESOME!!!!! lol

so starting from here

lotta fun had to go buy the 36mm 1/2 dr socket to remove the hub then comes the real carnage


notice the amount of shavings and the scraping on the backsplash



and here is where i said wow the steering knuckle and half shaft are toast



heres whats left of the hub



trying to show the amount of play and how bad the bearing is shot



so i also am going to have to replace the tie rod ends, steering knuckle, hub, half shaft, rotor, and brake pads at least. wish i only paid $500 i will be updating and posting pics as i go thru this. ran out of light tonight to go further. gonna be replace the upper radiator hose sunday night sprung a leak yesterday when i moved it

its obvious it was hit hard in the right side so the plan is to get it on the road and down to the shop to see if the frame is bent at all. if it is, its going to the auction and i will start looking for another much wiser and more aware. i hope as i go thru this someone will learn from all of my mistakes and save themselves some hassel.

untill next time
cheers!!!

MiNi

Eh, it looks bad now as far as work left to do, but after you do it you know your xj will be very sturdy and you know if it messes up then it cant be this part or this part or this part etc cause you replaced those with new ones.

and i believe i need to replace either my bearings axle ujoints or just all of them together cause i will be taking it all apart anyway so why not? haha. its actually a pretty good looking jeep though man.

SGT ABN XJ

I still think you got a good platform from which to achieve a good trail rig/daily driver/wheeler..Body appears to be pretty straight, any rust/bondo ? Got to love my fellow TWO door XJ's...

Kayle

thanks mini, its still fun ya know?

SGT ABN there is some minor bubbling under paint by the roof rack and one other small spot, but so far no bondo.

So today way an extremly productive day! i went to ecology auto wrecking and was able to buy a steering knuckle, wheel hub assembley and half shaft off a 92 4 door for $80.00 plus tax sorry that im missing pics but here it goes!

on the steering knuckle i found that tapping it top and bottom with a 2 1/2 Lb hand sledge dropped it after 4 or 5 whacks and left me here,



remounting the new knuckle was just as staight forward as you would think no problems or suprises. i will be replacing all cotter pins but i could not find them tonight so it will wait till next week.

after wire wheel brushing the rust off of the new wheel hub assembly i was back in business and learning from the experince i applied a heathly amount of anti sieze to the threads so it wont be a nightmare next time.




again i will be replaceing all cotter pins next week, i also am going to be replacing the brake rotor and pads. i was planing on replacing two of the tie rod ends but i was dark and cold so ill get that done next week as well.

i then moved under the hood to replace the upper radiator hose. it had sprung a leak at the thermostat housing the morning after i bought it.
here you can see how off the existing hose was. its on the bottom the correct hose is sitting above it for comparison.



Now for the shocker the ID comparison. i have no effing idea what the guy i bought this from was thinking.......... old hose on left correct hose on right what an amazing difference!!!




nice and correct and neat now!




While fixing that little doozey i noticed this!! DOH!



see that? coming off the positive side of the battery? i guess at some time it had an amp i found the other end under the back seat. instead of using a proper fuse for the amp he electrical tapped one in! YAY! FTW! lol
so i get to fix that now.

took it for a test drive and all seemed well at first had a strange popping noise from the left front when i engaged 4x4 at first. i then went from neutral to 4 low put in reverse for about 2 ft then back into first gear and no noise. im going to netsearch the proper procedure for engaging 4x4 im sure there is a right and wrong way.

I also noticed that occasionally when depressing the brake pedal i can hear a vacum leak. there is also now a slight serpintine belt squeal.

next is going to be alignment on tuesday morning and that could be it for this if the frame is bent at all. then it goes bye bye!

if all is well the next repairs will be checking the front and rear diff changing the fluids. oil change, new serpintine belt, wash and oil the intake filter. balace the tires. charge the A/C if no leak. take it to the audio shop to have the wireing checked. the radio was stolen and im not sure how bad the electrical was damaged in the dash.

Im going to figure out what year grand cherokee alternator is a bolt in upgrade and then the dreaded headliner. yes mine has fallen down like everyone else's and im not looking forward to that.

i have also decided to find some jeep 5 spoke steel wheels i really hate the rims that are on it now. then maybe a new stereo and install a cb.
lights on the front bar maybe but i dont care for it that much so it may go bye bye as well who knows?

unill next time

CHEERS!!!

daklander

Busy night Kayle.
I hope the frame is not tweaked.

Z400Rider

looks like a fun build man, making great progress!!

cherokeeaddiction23

haha thats one jerryrigged jeep, hopefully you can keep it and bring it back to a "respectable" status lol, it doesnt look to bad though other than the few little things that you took care of, i love the coil spring spacers, those are from autozone if anybody is wondering lol, i had a guy try to sell them too me once he heard i had a lifted jeep, i just told him no thanks i only use real suspension stuff to lift my jeep haha

Kayle

Had an extra hour today so i yanked the drooping headliner out and took it for another test drive.

some serious poping noise in left front if i engage 4 low. the only way to engage 4 low without the noise is to ease the clutch and apply no gas whatsoever. probably going to need some motor/trans mounts.

anyone else notice how loud of a ride it is without a headliner?

have a 10 am appt at the alignment shop so ill have the frame checked and i shall see if this project is going to continue or if its going down the road and i start looking for another one!

CHEERS!!!

Irongrave

1 where in the heck do those "spacers" come from because there have been at least 3 XJs with them on here in the last year. i only ask so i can kick the guy in the nuts

other then that for 700 its a project and looks like your off to a good start.

alloutperform

score i want a 2dr stick bad.....some hakery but not too bad....put something under your jack in that sand though

cherokeeaddiction23

autozone lol, they are like 20 bucks

Geo Fry

Subscribed, seems like an entertaining build to watch. Keep up the progress

daklander

There are jack stands. You can see one of them in this pic.

Kayle

today was a good/bad day, frame is fine but somehow i missed the now boomerang shaped right outer tie rod i will post a pic tonight.

first thing tomorrow its off to the san bernardino junk yards. gonna get that and some truck springs for the front if im lucky, extra dash and trim screws, hopefully a rear cargo light.

back to alignment shop next week or thursday at the soonest. found that the driver door top brace at the body weld is cracked will get apic of that up tonight as well.

more later tonight

cheers!!!!

Bluemax

Here ya go dude! http://www.harborfreight.com/automot...set-66299.html