Had this Cherokee for a while now and finally getting around to setting it up the way I would like it. I installed a rough country 3" lift last month. New coils,rear leafs, control arms, Steering stabilizer and shocks. The rear spring had been shot for a long time!
Installed new Tom woods SYE and drive shaft today. I had planed to pull the case out and work on it on the bench. But after I got into it I realized how much extra work that would be so I split the case lying on my back! It took me about six hours. I took my time to make sure everything was right. What surprised me the most was how light the stock drive shaft was. The main tube feels like muffler pipe. Best of all no more vibration when I step on it! Just waiting on some 31" tires

 

I had a 85 CJ 7 before but when the kids got bigger they complained about no leg room in the back seat. Not wanting to give up the 4 wheel drive I got the Cherokee. I didn't like the rear seat not having head rest. I did a little searching on the net for some ideas. Got some junk yard parts and fabricated some supports in the seat frame.

 

I just installed a longer brake hose in the rear tonight. Was thinking about getting the stainless braided hose's for the front and rear. 80 dollars plus shipping no thanks. I ran stock hose's in all my other jeeps with no problem and I beat the hell out of them! If your interested the NAPA hose number is #38845. It is 3-1/8" longer than the stock hose and a perfect fit. Best of all the hose was less than 10 dollars!

 

Had new 32x10.50 put on yesterday. Went to the shop and installed longer front brake hoses today. The hoses I used are CarQuest #sp8440 and #sp8439. Somebody on Cherokee forum said they would work. They are a lot longer but I had to mill .040" off the end of banjo to get it to fit right!

 

interesting color and good progress so far...

 

I like those rear seat head rests. How much work was it to install/fab them?

 

I did the head rest in a afternoon. The hardest part was going through the junkyard to find something that would work. The seat comes apart pretty easy and hides all your welding good or bad. I found some basic plans on line and used the plastic adjustment slides that came with head rest. I don't remember what car or truck they came out of sorry!

 

http://jeep-xj.info/HowtoHeadRests.htm This is not the link I used but it might be helpful.

 

Thanks for the link. I assume you will need to remove the head rests to fold down the rear seat.

 

Yea you do have to remove the head rest to fold the seat down. Not a big deal though!

 

I just changed front wheel bearing hubs and front axle universals too. Going to Buckingham tomorrow to play in the woods, There should be lots of mud after all the rain we got here!