89limited_hero

Couple years back I had a little car that I modded a little and would rally on back/ mt roads but was left wanting more and all my buddies had wheelers jeeps and Toyotas. A good old friend of mine (Odgreen89on35s) got me wanting a Cherokee after a couple wheeling trips with him. So I sold the little car for $800 and the next day we went to go get the what seemed like the 100th jeep I had called about on Craig's list. It was a 89 Cherokee limited ad said it had a rod knock. He wanted 750 for it. After looking at it. I got it for 600. Well the rod knock ended but being two loose rockers on #3 cylinder. Pulled the valve cover off and tightened down drove it like that home. It had an unknown lift most likely a bastard mix of parts. It had a 1" block and add-a-leaf in the rear and in front unknown coil with a coil spacer and rough country drop brackets stock control arms and a ghetto fab track bar. And some 31"all terrains.
First things done was removed the front flairs and lower valence and trimmed front fenders as I wanted some 33's. Found a set of mixed 33's on Chevy rim for 125. Sold the smaller tires and the chevy rims for 120 so I made my money back mostly. Then one day on my way to the local mountain I hit a pot hole and had the passenger side engine mount break the only bolt left holding it. I didnt realize till it was to late my clutch fan ate the radiator. So I like to upgrade when things go bad instead of keep it stock so I picked up a free open system radiator and since the trans cooler line fittings were messed up on the radiator it gave my another chance to upgrade. I went to the junkyard and found a big trans cooler out of a late 70's suburban. In the middle of the radiator and trans cooler installation it gave me a chance to take out all the a/c junk that I'm not going to use. As I plan on doing a oba set up. Also replaced the motor mounts which is how I came up with my camo paint job.
I walked the two mile round trip to the parts store and in that walk I seen 5 red lifted xjs and not wanted to be like the others and set mine apart after it was fixed I went to my local Wal-Mart and picked up 10 cans of paint for $13 5 flat black and 5 primer gray and gave the limited hero a job drive way camo job. Lol a little after that the neighbor across the street came over with some left over paint he had one can was a nice brown I ended up using that to break up the black, gray and red for what has been described as a fall/ hardwoods camo.

89limited_hero

I never really liked the drop control arm bracket as I seen them get hung up on thing out on the trail. I got some RE lower fixed arms and took the drop brackets out and put the lower arms in. That also fixed the issue I had with my steering stabilizer rubbing on the track bar bolt. Made for bad bump steer. In the renix years there is a recall for the abs unit. Not knowing if it was fixed or not I replaced the booster and master cylinder with a 92 setup along with the pedal assembly it connects differently.
I picked up a front bumper from a buddy cleaning his gargage out. It is a 1/4" c-channel with factory mounts welded to it. It was straight across the front I mounted it up at his place then ask for his grinder with a cut off wheel and cut the ends to about 45* it looked much better after I was done.
After about 8 months of driving my jeep the renix engine gave up the ghost well kinda it was fixable with a new cam and push rods and rocker arms. As i put two pushrods though the rocker arms on cylinder #2. But like I said why just fix when you can upgrade. So for about $70 more then the parts would have cost I picked up a '95 high output 4.0l. I did a lot of research on how to go about the swap I seen alot of people say just swap in the bottom end in or to find a wiring harness and do the full swap.
Well I ended up doing a hybrid swap. What I did was swapped in the h.o. using the intake and exhaust too. Swap my renix sensors over and front accessories along with my flywheel and starter since I am still using the transmission I have. I had the swap in the h.o. exhaust down pipe which I got off a zj. A 93 gas pedal they look the same but sit different. the throttle cable and fuel lines from the tank the fuel rail. When I did the install I put some 703 injectors in and a k&n intake on. I had to adapted the tps to run the renix tps on the h.o. TB. One option is the hesco adaptor for $145 or through my research I found a cheaper option on a Comanche forum. That total cost was $4 and about an hours worth of time.

89limited_hero

Since then I had been daily driving it. Couple repair in that time. I didnt have my trans cooler mounted and it wore a hole in my radiator. So I upgraded to a all aluminum 3 core from eBay. Pretty much a bolt in but had the clearance the radiator support for the radiator cap or I wouldn't been able to get it on or off. It came with two electric fans too. And not very good mount system.
I made my front doors removable and got tube doors for the front.
After I got my girls project car finished I was able to park the limited hero to work on get thing done to it that I have had been hoarding parts for.
Since it has been parked I have installed an oil catch can, mounted the trans cooler better and out of the way, mounted a electric fan I front of the radiator add some flat fender flairs and couple lights to the bumper.
List of things to do
Hack and tap sye
Remove block and replace with AutoZone shackles
Rock sliders
Rear bumper
Rock lights
Longer back lines
Zj disk brake swap in the rear
Few other things I'm forgetting

89limited_hero

So here is a list that I have done to my xj
Homebrew front bumper with stinger and lights
Swapped in '92 master cylinder, booster and proportion valve
Oil catch can
K&N intake
Swapped in 95 high output
Aluminum 3 core radiator
Dual electric fans
Trimmed front fenders
Tucked rear fenders
Flat fender flares
Removable front doors w/ tube door option
Removed carpet
Re located vacuum bulb
33x12.50x15 on 15x8 d-windows
Steering box brace
Adjustable track bar
RE lower control amrs
96 header panel with one piece head light bezels and grill

List of things to do/ coming
Plate track bar mount
Mount rock sliders
Mount quarter guards
Install rear bumper with swing away
Install shackles
Remove rear block
Install bar pin enlimintors
Hack'n tap sye
Front driveline for rear
Install CB
Install gauges
Adjust tps
Install 95 grand prix hood vents
And paint it again new paint scheme
mine has been copied locally since I have painted it.

odgreen

Jrozar

You are off to a good start....

89limited_hero

Thanks and with everything done so far and things to do I around $2000 in cost including buying the jeep.

89limited_hero

A little update made a deal with a guy at work. Since I kinda got a little problem with hoarding car parts to cars I've own but dont own anymore. Well I still had some little car parts laying around. He is going to take them off my hands in trade for the longer brake lines I need as that's what limits my down travel. So ill be getting
Driver and passenger 92 c1500 2wd brake lines
95 Dakota 4wd rear brake line
With help of the budget build junkyard thread and my own research with help of my AutoZone app I know these are what I need to address the short brake line issues with out spending much if any money.

89limited_hero

Got my lower portion of my dash back in place after installing couple switches.
The lower left one is for my lights on the bumper.
The first toggle on the right is my main electric fan
The second toggle with the flip cover is for the fan I mounted in front of my radiator.
I didnt want any mix ups with the fan switches.
I will be adding switch for some lights I plan to use for rock lights. Just haven't got that far with it yet.


Also I figured a picture of my cheap renix to H.O. tps adaptor would help if anyone was interested

89limited_hero

A little update got the rest of my parts horad moved to where my jeep is stored/ being worked on. So ill be able to get to the little suspension things I need to get done and disk brake swap.

89limited_hero

I found one thing i forgot to add to thelist when I made the list that will be done in this phase of my build is a zj back seat.
I like the idea of the split folding seat versus the whole seat folding since I have an 8 year old that likes to go wheeling with me and another on the way very soon. I like that I can fold a part of the seat down to help with whatever load and still have the kid in back.

89limited_hero

Got some more done yesterday. My track bar mount on my axle the mounting hole was egged out so I welded and 3/16 plate on the outside and drilled a new hole and welded the nut plate on the back side of the mount. Then installed my adjustable track bar with new poly bushing.
Welded some d-rings on the front bumper for front tow points.
Welded up the top driver hinge noticed it was cracked during summer when I was taking doors off for my tube doors.
And last I cut two holes in my hood. For my 95 grand prix hood vents just need to finish mounting them.
Ill get pics later as my phone was dead for my boy playing minecraft on it.

89limited_hero

Here are the pics of what I did last weekend.

89limited_hero

This weekend I finished mounting the hood vents.



The took the drive side tire off and worked on some of the small stuff. Like removed the abs wiring to the knuckle. Mounted my hard brake line lower.



Cut and folded the inner body seam it dont seem like a lot but it really opens it up.



And made a bar pin enlimintor out of a rear sway bar mount. Which is not a bolt up thing little bit of fab is needed. But I think it will work out.

89limited_hero

Happy thanksgiving everyone