My 1992 Cheekee Jepe Lardo
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 51
Likes: 0
From: NJ
Year: 1991
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0 I6
My 1992 Cheekee Jepe Lardo
No the title isn't mis-spelt I'll explain in a minute.
So I bought a 1992 Jeep Cherokee Laredo. It has 248k miles on it, an (I'm guessing) 3" lift that's at least 10 years old, and what I thought was a pretty good body condition with minimal rust rot....o boy way I wrong. I was also able to snag a dirt cheap donor 1990 Jeep Cherokee Laredo that I will use for all the parts possible and then have a very interesting project for…. Anyone looking for a working 4.0L Straight 6 out of a 1990 Jeep Cherokee Laredo with 214k miles on it? I’ll be selling it soon.
So this is going to not only be my first jeep but also my first time REALLY working on a car and not just basic stuff. This is also a weekend only project since my father-in-law is the one with all the tools I need to work on it and he's 1.5 hours away from my house.
So first thing… why is the 1990 a donor? Well because I can put my foot thru most of the body rot holes in it including both front doors and going into a good chunk of the front half of the unibody (he tried to use black duct tape to cover it up). Other then that, the engine runs great, and besides the brakes, brake lines, and a few issues with getting the lug nuts off the tires, it runs great. Unlike the 1992 which only has a few spots of body rut (only 1 being large but not on anything important), and the engine is the High Output but definitely needs some work. Also, although this will need to be replaced eventually, the brakes and brake lines are good for now.
Now onto the work. The first thing I noticed was that the engine ran a little sluggish and would need to be revved for a few minutes for it to not stall out when starting cold. I started with a basic tune up and o boy did those spark plugs need replacing. The engine ran a little better but not much and the starting issue was still there. I decided to temporarily put the engine on hold and went to the interior. I completely removed the entire interior with the exception of the bash (that’s gonna be done later). And noticed that the insulation under the carpet was soaked with water. Turns out all of the weather-stripping was either missing or cracked, and to top it off the previous owner (the only other owner of the Jeep) must have been locked out because the front driver side door was bowed out slightly at the top from where it must have been pried open to get back into the jeep. So the carpet is now junked but I wasn’t planning on keeping it anyway. Next was the passenger side rot issue. Everything for the exhaust past the muffler had been removed so all the exhaust was going onto the underside of the passenger side floor and condensing. This cause some nice big hole but luckily nothing major. So I cut out the rust and replaced it with sheet metal (forgot the gauge but about double the thickness of what was previously there) that I riveted on and sprayed with some undercoating until I get my bondo and paint. There is also so surface rust throughout the interior but that will wait until I’m ready to paint.
The back seat had to be trashed because the brakes were bent and the locks were rusted and falling off. Luckily the donor had an excellent back seat and that went in to take its place. The front seats are better on the 92 so they stay until I can afford some good aftermarket seats. Anyone have any experience with KOR Signature Offroad Racing Seats?
The next thing I did was fix my exhaust issue. I took the exhaust off the donor because it was fairly new but ran into a problem when I was taking the exhaust off the 92. The idiot had tightened the U clamps to the point where the pipe was severely bent making it impossible to remove so I had to take it from the square bracket just before the catalytic converter, which was fine on the donor but again, idiot, he welded the 4 bolts on both sides so I had to use an angle grinder and some finesse to cut them off. Put the new system in and I actually have a tail pipe now.
Now back to the engine. I posted on here for help with my starting issue and was lead in the direction of needing to replace my Idle Air Control Valve. I did so and luckily it was exactly the same on the donor. With the exception that the donor IAC wasn’t covered in sludge and it wasn’t stuck in the out position like the one on the 92. This lead to an issue with the oil pressure.
Before I replaced the IAC my oil pressure upon startup would be in the range of 20-30 psi and would then hang around 40 psi while driving. After changing the IAC I turned it on and it started great from cold and sounded better then even before. Only problem is my oil pressure shot up to 70-75 at idle and the second I took it for a drive around the block it went up to 80 (or above 80 who knows). I thought this was a big problem and again was helped and pointed to the oil pressure sending unit. I have not yet replaced it but after driving the jeep for another 10 minutes or so the oil pressure dropped back down to 40 and stayed there for the next hour as I was driving it around.
That is where I am at right now. My plans for this upcoming weekend are to get a new oil filter, change the oil, and while changing the oil replace all the gaskets including the oil pan gasket since I have a small oil leak somewhere and I’d rather replace everything since I’m changing the oil anyway. Then it will be back to stripping the donor jeep for parts since my father-in-law isn’t too happy about having TWO cars that aren’t his sitting in the driveway. Especially when one doesn’t run now.
I’ll be tracking my progress here, however slow it may be due to only working on it a few weekends a month and a limited budged (stupid mortgage).
O ya and the name. So I took off all the labels on the jeep since I plan to paint it in the near future and my sister-in-law (who’s been calling it a lardo instead of Laredo this whole time) decided to have some fun and rearenged the letters and placed them on my hood spelling Cheekee Jepe Lardo, hence the new name.
So I bought a 1992 Jeep Cherokee Laredo. It has 248k miles on it, an (I'm guessing) 3" lift that's at least 10 years old, and what I thought was a pretty good body condition with minimal rust rot....o boy way I wrong. I was also able to snag a dirt cheap donor 1990 Jeep Cherokee Laredo that I will use for all the parts possible and then have a very interesting project for…. Anyone looking for a working 4.0L Straight 6 out of a 1990 Jeep Cherokee Laredo with 214k miles on it? I’ll be selling it soon.
So this is going to not only be my first jeep but also my first time REALLY working on a car and not just basic stuff. This is also a weekend only project since my father-in-law is the one with all the tools I need to work on it and he's 1.5 hours away from my house.
So first thing… why is the 1990 a donor? Well because I can put my foot thru most of the body rot holes in it including both front doors and going into a good chunk of the front half of the unibody (he tried to use black duct tape to cover it up). Other then that, the engine runs great, and besides the brakes, brake lines, and a few issues with getting the lug nuts off the tires, it runs great. Unlike the 1992 which only has a few spots of body rut (only 1 being large but not on anything important), and the engine is the High Output but definitely needs some work. Also, although this will need to be replaced eventually, the brakes and brake lines are good for now.
Now onto the work. The first thing I noticed was that the engine ran a little sluggish and would need to be revved for a few minutes for it to not stall out when starting cold. I started with a basic tune up and o boy did those spark plugs need replacing. The engine ran a little better but not much and the starting issue was still there. I decided to temporarily put the engine on hold and went to the interior. I completely removed the entire interior with the exception of the bash (that’s gonna be done later). And noticed that the insulation under the carpet was soaked with water. Turns out all of the weather-stripping was either missing or cracked, and to top it off the previous owner (the only other owner of the Jeep) must have been locked out because the front driver side door was bowed out slightly at the top from where it must have been pried open to get back into the jeep. So the carpet is now junked but I wasn’t planning on keeping it anyway. Next was the passenger side rot issue. Everything for the exhaust past the muffler had been removed so all the exhaust was going onto the underside of the passenger side floor and condensing. This cause some nice big hole but luckily nothing major. So I cut out the rust and replaced it with sheet metal (forgot the gauge but about double the thickness of what was previously there) that I riveted on and sprayed with some undercoating until I get my bondo and paint. There is also so surface rust throughout the interior but that will wait until I’m ready to paint.
The back seat had to be trashed because the brakes were bent and the locks were rusted and falling off. Luckily the donor had an excellent back seat and that went in to take its place. The front seats are better on the 92 so they stay until I can afford some good aftermarket seats. Anyone have any experience with KOR Signature Offroad Racing Seats?
The next thing I did was fix my exhaust issue. I took the exhaust off the donor because it was fairly new but ran into a problem when I was taking the exhaust off the 92. The idiot had tightened the U clamps to the point where the pipe was severely bent making it impossible to remove so I had to take it from the square bracket just before the catalytic converter, which was fine on the donor but again, idiot, he welded the 4 bolts on both sides so I had to use an angle grinder and some finesse to cut them off. Put the new system in and I actually have a tail pipe now.
Now back to the engine. I posted on here for help with my starting issue and was lead in the direction of needing to replace my Idle Air Control Valve. I did so and luckily it was exactly the same on the donor. With the exception that the donor IAC wasn’t covered in sludge and it wasn’t stuck in the out position like the one on the 92. This lead to an issue with the oil pressure.
Before I replaced the IAC my oil pressure upon startup would be in the range of 20-30 psi and would then hang around 40 psi while driving. After changing the IAC I turned it on and it started great from cold and sounded better then even before. Only problem is my oil pressure shot up to 70-75 at idle and the second I took it for a drive around the block it went up to 80 (or above 80 who knows). I thought this was a big problem and again was helped and pointed to the oil pressure sending unit. I have not yet replaced it but after driving the jeep for another 10 minutes or so the oil pressure dropped back down to 40 and stayed there for the next hour as I was driving it around.
That is where I am at right now. My plans for this upcoming weekend are to get a new oil filter, change the oil, and while changing the oil replace all the gaskets including the oil pan gasket since I have a small oil leak somewhere and I’d rather replace everything since I’m changing the oil anyway. Then it will be back to stripping the donor jeep for parts since my father-in-law isn’t too happy about having TWO cars that aren’t his sitting in the driveway. Especially when one doesn’t run now.
I’ll be tracking my progress here, however slow it may be due to only working on it a few weekends a month and a limited budged (stupid mortgage).
O ya and the name. So I took off all the labels on the jeep since I plan to paint it in the near future and my sister-in-law (who’s been calling it a lardo instead of Laredo this whole time) decided to have some fun and rearenged the letters and placed them on my hood spelling Cheekee Jepe Lardo, hence the new name.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 51
Likes: 0
From: NJ
Year: 1991
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0 I6
O ya, I almost forgot. So I want this thing to be built like a tank and have some very interesting ideas for it. But most of all I am building a new front and rear bumper and rook rack. So I went to a metal junk yard by my father-in-law and bought a ton of steel at $0.35 a pound. Cost my around $200 for everything but I got some amazing stuff. I’ve been working on the roof rack and will be posting pictures of that after this weekend as well as some other pictures.
BTW, how the hell do I cut through steel that must have been heat treated to hell? I got 4x4x1/4 square tubes for the rock sliders I am building (they will be cut) and 6x6x1/4 square tubes for the new bumpers. I got a special metal cutting saw blade that cut thru the 4x4 no problem but after going about a foot on the 6x6 every single tooth broke off. I was able to convince them to give me a replacement and although the teeth haven’t broken off yet it is still taking forever to cut this thing… I don’t have a plasma cutter (neither does my father-in-law) so that’s not an option. Any other ideas?
BTW, how the hell do I cut through steel that must have been heat treated to hell? I got 4x4x1/4 square tubes for the rock sliders I am building (they will be cut) and 6x6x1/4 square tubes for the new bumpers. I got a special metal cutting saw blade that cut thru the 4x4 no problem but after going about a foot on the 6x6 every single tooth broke off. I was able to convince them to give me a replacement and although the teeth haven’t broken off yet it is still taking forever to cut this thing… I don’t have a plasma cutter (neither does my father-in-law) so that’s not an option. Any other ideas?
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 51
Likes: 0
From: NJ
Year: 1991
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0 I6
Sorry for the lack of pictures, my camera went bust and I’m having trouble uploading from my iphone, but I’ll get them on here eventually.
So here's the run down from this weekend. My blower motor was busted so no air in the nice 90 degree weather. So project number one was to fix that. I removed it out of the donor and installed it into mine. Took a while because the stupid clips that catch the threads of the bolt kept falling out even when I tightened them. I also discovered something else by removing the windshield washer fluid reservoir that it had a nice crack starting about 2/3 up and going to the top. Is there a way to fix this or do I need a brand new one?
So I finally had air but of course when I tried turning the AC on I get slightly cool air (cause the engine was still cold). I had a neighbor that has a HVAC company check it for me and remove the half pound of R-12 still in the system. Them I flushed the oil with an air compressor and filled it up with R-134a. Nice and cool now. It freaked me out when the thing first engaged because it sent a nice big spark out the front. That thing must not have been used in a looong time. Runs great now though.
Next was replacing the antenna (or should I say lack there of) so the radio can actually work. I removed the motor and bracket and disconnected it and took the good one off the donor and reattached it. It’s an aftermarket radio with a CD player so the antenna doesn’t go down but at least it works. Next project will be adding a hook up for my ipod. I also replace the one bad speaker I had with the 1 good speaker from the donor.
Next was actually getting stock tires back on this thing so it doesn’t rub. Currently it was sitting on 235 75 R17’s that rub on turns and whenever I hit a bump. So on went the stock tires from the donor….. or so I thought. Turns out one of the lug nuts on both the donor and my jeep were rusted on to the point that half the lug nut snapped off when trying to remove it. So a trip to Lowes and a $20 1/2" drill bit fixed that right up. Now, I’m on stock tires. Still death wobbling above 55 but that’s for later.
Next was a very well needed oil change. I’ve never seen darker oil in my life. I’m not sure if I should change the transmission fluid and antifreeze as well. Any thoughts?
Finally for the weekend I finished stripping the donor jeep of all the remaining parts. So next time I got up, which will most likely be in 2 weeks, I’ll be pulling the engine, t-case, and transmission. All of which is in good working order so again if anyone is interested….
Now for one of my next projects I need some help. Sorry for the bad picture but this is the only one I was able to find online. I was to cut out the area under the back seat, including the middle piece and square it off with new steel. Since the Jeep already has a lift nothing is in the way of me making this change but I just wanted to confirm if anything would be affected by me doing this. If I need to I will leave the middle alone but I’d like to do it all. It is the area in the picture inside the black square.
So here's the run down from this weekend. My blower motor was busted so no air in the nice 90 degree weather. So project number one was to fix that. I removed it out of the donor and installed it into mine. Took a while because the stupid clips that catch the threads of the bolt kept falling out even when I tightened them. I also discovered something else by removing the windshield washer fluid reservoir that it had a nice crack starting about 2/3 up and going to the top. Is there a way to fix this or do I need a brand new one?
So I finally had air but of course when I tried turning the AC on I get slightly cool air (cause the engine was still cold). I had a neighbor that has a HVAC company check it for me and remove the half pound of R-12 still in the system. Them I flushed the oil with an air compressor and filled it up with R-134a. Nice and cool now. It freaked me out when the thing first engaged because it sent a nice big spark out the front. That thing must not have been used in a looong time. Runs great now though.
Next was replacing the antenna (or should I say lack there of) so the radio can actually work. I removed the motor and bracket and disconnected it and took the good one off the donor and reattached it. It’s an aftermarket radio with a CD player so the antenna doesn’t go down but at least it works. Next project will be adding a hook up for my ipod. I also replace the one bad speaker I had with the 1 good speaker from the donor.
Next was actually getting stock tires back on this thing so it doesn’t rub. Currently it was sitting on 235 75 R17’s that rub on turns and whenever I hit a bump. So on went the stock tires from the donor….. or so I thought. Turns out one of the lug nuts on both the donor and my jeep were rusted on to the point that half the lug nut snapped off when trying to remove it. So a trip to Lowes and a $20 1/2" drill bit fixed that right up. Now, I’m on stock tires. Still death wobbling above 55 but that’s for later.
Next was a very well needed oil change. I’ve never seen darker oil in my life. I’m not sure if I should change the transmission fluid and antifreeze as well. Any thoughts?
Finally for the weekend I finished stripping the donor jeep of all the remaining parts. So next time I got up, which will most likely be in 2 weeks, I’ll be pulling the engine, t-case, and transmission. All of which is in good working order so again if anyone is interested….
Now for one of my next projects I need some help. Sorry for the bad picture but this is the only one I was able to find online. I was to cut out the area under the back seat, including the middle piece and square it off with new steel. Since the Jeep already has a lift nothing is in the way of me making this change but I just wanted to confirm if anything would be affected by me doing this. If I need to I will leave the middle alone but I’d like to do it all. It is the area in the picture inside the black square.
Last edited by getandistr; Jun 25, 2012 at 03:30 PM.
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