Hey guys, I pickeded up my first jeep about 6 weeks ago. My excitement to buy the truck got the best of me and I didnt realize she had a few issues that I soon took care of. Windshield leaking water, 1/2 all lights were inop, HVAC inop, front diff inop, high idle, rear main seal leak, oil pan leak. Well I soon realized she needed alot of work and she was finicky. The girlfriend said she looked like a "ruby", so thats how the girl got her name. Well all of those are now fixed, and now its time to get some fun stuff going. With that being said, I am doing this as a complete budget build so keep that in mind. Anyways, I got her like this:

1990 Cherokee Sport
199,000 miles
5-speed Manual
ARB front bumper





First plans were to do 33" tires and a 4.5" lift with LCA drop brackets instead of short arms. Well after some poking around I realized the car was fitted with what I belive is the 1.5" Old Man Emu lift kit (shocks, front coils, rear leaf). So I am thinking lockers, tires, and winch will get me further then just lift and 33's. This is whats done so far:

Carpet was stinky and dirty. So i Stripped it and bed lined it.



painted ($100.00 in paint and supplies):





Then I found some 31" BF Mud Kings (2-new, 2-50% for $210.00. thank you craigslist)

Before:



After:



Now its time to look for some Aussie Lockers front and rear, winch, lights, and then fab up some long arms with 4.5-6 lift coils (grandfather just gave us all of his milling machines and metal working tools. SCORE!)

thanks for looking! any suggestions are much appreciated. I am a service advisor so I have access to lifts. so any cool mods that I can do myself are worthy of posting. -Jace

 

Picked up some we speakers. Some 6.5 alpine s-types for the front doors, and some infinity kappa 4x6 speakers to install into the rear side panel. I'm fabricating some speakers enclosures for the sides. This is what I have so far:




I'll post up some more pics when it's all done.

 

Still finishing the speaker install...but I read a article about some OME spring/shock and spacer/shackle lift getting about 3"-3.5" lift. Since I have all the OME stuff already installed I decided to buy $55 worth of parts from schucks oreily's and lift her up:



The shackles were easy I install but required grinding a little at the bushing. The back flex alot easier and has better on road manners. Very very cool $35 modification. Then put spacers in the front for added lift. The rubber spacer seems I work fine but I may invset into a steel coil spacer later on for better lift. Flex didn't change as the stock lca's bottom out and so do the OME shocks...

A little wheelin made me realize how important a locker is. And yes that's me stuck. That was about 24" deeper then expected.

 

My first learning experience looked like that, too.
It sounds to me like Old Man Emu is worth the extra money, and the $55 might justify a little extra for the longer shocks when I place my order.

 

mulvey, if you are planning to do a simular set-up then i would suggest
installing longer shocks and eventually some better lower control arms. that will give you better flex. If articulation is not what you are going for, then i really like the way it rides now. even without those mods.