Hey everyone,

New member and thought I would start here with my 1997 Cherokee Sport. I just picked this gem up two days ago...one of the cleanest and well taken care of Jeeps I have ever seen in person. Here she is as of this morning:





My plan is to leave it stock height at this time and only build out the motor and drivetrain where it can be improved on. Planning on using it primarily as a winter driver so that I can keep her this nice.

Future Mods:
Performance Curve Exhaust
Leigh TB
better downpipe - suggestions?
high flow cat
ZJ front sway bar

 

Wow, that is in really nice condition. Nice find.

 

wow. looks great

 

Hard to believe it has 160K miles eh?!

 

Hey guys...trying to tidy up a few things on the XJ; where can I find the arm rest covers for the both front sides? My interior is the grey trim if it doesn't convey well enough in the pics.

 

I swapped out the interior lighting for LED...went with lights from SuperbrightLEDs:

Pure White 561LL for the overhead lights (would probably go with warm white next time to retain the incandescent look a bit more)
Pure White 194 wedges for the footwells (again would go with warm white but that's my personal taste) I used the T3-1/4 base to BA15S adapters so everything was reversible and plug and play.

The light dispersion of these LEDs are awesome...far exceeding my expectations. Also at the minimal draw...I should be able to run my interior lights for days if needed.

Here are the results:

 

hey man loving the interior LEDs.... want to do the same for mine.. could you explain a little more the process also i like how u have them near the floorboard.. i have a 97 that im building right now.. just explain a little more the adapters etc thanks

 

Go to the website I mentioned above and search for BA15S for the footwell adapters. You will love the results!

 

Replaced the front shocks with some Sensa-Tracs...MUCH better ride quality. The passengers front shock was completely fuzzed...leaking oil all over. The drivers side was in great shape and appears to be a bilstein or a re-labeled bilstein. Here are the pics of the good drivers side shock...seems a waste to throw it out...perhaps we can find a buyer for it. BTW when are you allowed to post in the F/S thread?

 

My favorite color XJ. Nice

25 post count and youll be able to post in the FS section.

 

Just seen this last part..Are you actually meaning to say a ZJ tie rod? The zj tie rod is a direct swap for the XJ and is a decent upgrade...no point in swapping the sway bar lol.

 

Nice find! Like the led light upgrade.

 

I heard the ZJ sway bar is slightly larger. Since this is a 95% On-Road vehicle I wanted to make it's road manners the best they could be (within reason) I would think the larger front sway would decrease roll in corners.

 

I dont think there would be any noticible difference. Prolly a waste of time and money. I vote you keep the xj sway bar..and just buy a bushing set and replace all the bushings.

 

Took the Jeep in to get a block heater...finally will be able to somewhat prevent cold start damage/wear as I do not have a garage (which is funny cause I have five cars). The shop informs me that I have $1700 worth of repairs needed.
The breakdown:
1)Front/rear Diff fluids and T-case fluids are dirty (they never even checked them...diff bolts were untouched)
2) Block heater install and laboor
3) exhaust manifold is cracked and needs welding
4) Rear main is leaky (they claimed it was dripping but I know it's not as I have been under there multiple times in the last few weeks)
Anyway...told them the block heater is all I wanted.

Also installed my OBDII gauge reader...check out that one-way MPG...not too shabby eh?!