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So, the last few weeks when I wasn't training all over the place, this has been my other job. So with any fairytale story (hopefully this is), it has to begin somewhere. I bought this last month for $1300. The kid said that it had an overheating problem. So when I got it, it didn't run either. . . . and that's where the project began.
Specs:
98 Jeep Cherokee Sport
4WD
12270
Green
So once I got it home, I immediately replaced the following:
New Battery
Thermostat
Spark Plugs
Plug Wires
Distributor Cap and Rotor
Crank Position Sensor
New Fuel Pump Assy
Air Filter
Changed the Oil/ Filter
Topped off the coolant
That night I ordered:
31" Treadwrights
Procomp 15x8 Black Wheels
Rusty's 3" Full Leaf Lift
Rusty's Adjustable Tracbar
Rusty's 3 degree shims
So long story short on 2 things. Once I did the tune up and everything, it still wouldn't start. The gauges wouldn't move when I turned the key on, and after some reading on here, I ordered an ECM from O'reily. Upon getting it, turns out that they can't flash them like they said, so I planned to get it flashed once everything else was done.
The treadwrights. . . . . well, they looked fantastic. Upon mounting and balancing them, the shop called me into the bay. ONE of the wheels balanced pretty foot at 2.5oz. The other 4 however, WOW. The closest to within spec was 11.75oz. The highest being 15.5oz. I wasn't impressed and immediately had them remove them, and I ordered 31" Cooper STT (WHICH I LOVE, more about them later). I called treadwright, and well, 2 weeks later, I' still waiting to hear back from them about how to return them. Spent an hour on the phone with a lady when I was on the range in NC, and no offense, but both ladies I spoke to didn't seem to know what they were doing. The last I heard, she was going to leave me a voicemail and email me with information on return postage for returning them.
So I got home from all of my training escapades last wednesday. A week before I left (for 2 weeks), I dropped it off to have the rear lift put on and the rims/tires mounted (I know I know, but per usual the rear shock bolts snapped off and the front leaf spring bolts were seized up, and I didn't have time to take care of it before I left). When I got back, I picked it up and drove it to the dealership to get the ECM flashed. Another thing, the front sits quite a bit lower since the rear hasn't settled yet, and the shop said it rubbed really bad, so I ordered 3/4" spacers for the front, and 3/4 shackles (for once it settles) from rusty's.
So yesterday, I came home from visiting the fam in Louisville and got it from the dealership. The manager informed me that it was still idling a little rough, and they couldn't diagnose the problem, but I knew what was going on. The Jeep sat for 8 months before I bought it and had around 2 gallons of bad gas in it, which I only had 3 gallons of 87 to put with it at the time. I went straight to the gas station from the dealership and filled it with 13 gallons of 92 octane, and she purrs like a kitten now.
Here it is this morning
So, last night the E-brake light was on, and it worked, so I figured it was due to low fluid of some sort. Since it was just lifted, I looked at the rear, and sure enough, the rear brake line was leaking. I topped off the fluid, and ordered a line from a 95 Wrangler, since it's longer, and so far so good. I also got new front rotors and pads, which I'm going to install later today. I also trimmed the front bumper, removed the side moldings (in the pics, I didn't get the adhesive off yet). Also installed a new radio (front speakers don't work, which I'm gonna take care of tomorrow). After trimming the bumper, it's much better, but rubs the rear part of the front fender, so I trimmed that too.
My only gripes so far, is that it does ride a little rough, so I might order some bilstein shocks/struts to improve the ride quality. Looking back, I wish I would have got the lift with the HD springs, but I'm still happy with it. Also, I have some driveline vibes between 26-32mph. I ordered some new u-joints, but I think I'm gonna go ahead and order an SYE just to be safe. The Coopers are seriously deceiving. They look like an MT and look aggressive, but they are the quietest tires I've eve had. When I had my 2011 JK with the 32" MT's, they were pretty noisy, but these are crazy quiet. They ride really well too.
Things on my list now:
SYE
Bushwacker Flat Flares (depending on how it sits after the spacers/shackles)
New headlights
Read disc conversion
Speakers
Possibly front/rear lockers (I'll see how it does this winter)
Thanks. My plan for next week is to buff the crap out of it and then wax it. Then, going to beeline the bumpers and the flares (until I get new ones. Still a toss up between Flat Flares of the other style Bushwackers)
I also had 31x10.5 Treadwright Wardens for all of about 3 weeks before I got sick of them. They required about 11-14 oz to balance properly. The tread width was barely 9" and they made the steering feel really weird, like any tiny steering input would feel huge. It would dart all over the place over 50mph.
I ended up getting rid of them and buying a set of Duratracs on black Friday for over $200 off with all rebates included from DiscountTireDirect.
Also worth mentioning that a 31" Treadwright is 52lbs, while a 31" Duratrac (which is actually slightly taller and over 1" wider) is 42lbs. The drop in weight made a dramatic difference with my 3.07s.
Well one update, when I went to bleed the brakes, the hard line ruptured about an inch above the fitting so I ordered a hard line from an online OEM store.
Nice. Love it. Definately get the flat flares if your going for bushwackers. The other ones look super goofy unless you run a minimum of 35in tire. I like what you did here so far. But honestly I think that oem flares look the best on a Jeep with 31in tires unless you need the flats for clearence.
Last night my spacers and shackles arrived at my door
Just ordered new headlights and front floor mat's (nothing cosmic here, just creature comforts)
Also ordered a pair of front sway bar bushings.
Talked to my shop, gonna drop it off to have the 3/4" spacers installed once I get the rear brake hard line installed (should be here tomorrow or saturday). I'd prefer to do them myself, but my jack isn't enough to get it up (so to speak) to install them.
Talked to TomWoods (who by the way were super pleasant even though I asked a bunch of questions). Gonna get my measurements and order an SYE kit today to correct my driveline vibrations (25-35mph)
So, today, my brake line came in. Not too bad to replace unless its a chilly, rainy, ****ty day and you're gonna be working in the driveway. The old one came out pretty easily. Wanted to upload some pics to help out those who replace this in the future. One note, is that this process was performed back to front. I removed the rear brake hose, then started releasing the line from the plastic clips that hold it against the frame rail. I don't think you have to, but I found it really easy to remove the 2x 13mm bolts holding the e-brake bracket in place to free up the work area. That helped a lot.
The one thing that was a little bit of a pain was the fitting at the union(just under the brake master cylinder). The fittings for the lines hug the side of the fender as seen here. One thing you can't see in the picture, is that the intake manifold only allots you the room to really get one hand in there. So trying to get 2 wrenches in there to loosen the fittings is gonna be like a monkey f***ing a football.
The best way I found to get it off (so to speak) was to remove the line completely from the master cylinder via this fitting.
Removing it from there allowed me some play in the line so that I could manipulate it a little more to loose the fittings. When I installed the new line, I routed it in from the rear (this has all sorts of unintentional innuendoes), above the cross member, and then up towards the master cylinder. The biggest pain in routing the new line is right where it makes a turn for the master cylinder. In that spot, there are a few fuel lines that it is entangled in. Just take you're time, and if you can't get it the first time, spit on it.
Looking good man. I noticed on one of your posts you're from Terre Haute.. so am I, there are a couple other XJ guys around here. I'm 100% stock at the moment, parts are being ordered as we speak and the plan is to do everything at the end of the month when we get some time off around Xmas and New Years (4.5" w/ 33x12.50s)
Make sure that you upgrade the headlight harness with one like the "Putco" it will even improve the stock lights by as much as 40%, But real must item with upgraded headlights.
So today, I got the headlights installed. They're the Rampage H4 upgrade. Pretty self explanatory on the install. Not a phenomenal amount brighter, but better than stock. I'll be ordering a new harness to reap all of the benefits of them. The kit is pretty quality, the housings are glass, and pretty well made. They some with a rubber boot to seal the new bulb too, kind of a cool feature. heres some pics.
Heres a picture of the old bulb next to the new housings.
Heres a picture of the rubber boot it comes with
Also ordered a SYE kit from TomWoods, so that should be in sometime next week.
Been a while since I've update my build. Been on leave and spending some time with the family. So, heres my updates
Got the front coil spacers installed. It totally evened out the wheel gap. The rear hasn't settled yet, so I opted not to install the 3/4" shackles until it does. Heres a pic as we were raising it up to do the SYE.
My Putco harness arrived, as well as my TomWoods SYE kit. Yesterday, my buddy allowed me to use his shop to install the SYE. Took about 2 hours. Wasn't too bad. Made a HUGE difference. The driveline vibrations are almost all gone. Still have some at 60-70mph. Going to get some 4 degree shims tomorrow from a local jeep shop in Louisville. I didn't get any pics, as we weren't trying to keep my buddy at the shop all day.
Doing the SYE made me remember that the speedo is off. Remembered this as I was removing the speedo sensor. Gonna get a new gear (31T) tomorrow as well.
The Putco harness was super easy to install. Took half an hour to get it all put in and clipped together. Once I turned them on my first reaction was "holy $hit!". These make a HUGE difference. The harness along with the H4 conversion is insane. Went to the back of the shop to aim and adjust the beams. This is last night on a dark country road. The overpass was about 200m away, and the brights were on. The bulbs are the ones that came with the Rampage kit, the 55/60W ones. I'll let the picture speak for itself.
Today was a bit slow. I installed a new serpentine belt and new shocks for the rear lift gate. Also, I tried out a little trick my buddy showed me. The fenders were the typical faded gray. The trick, is you get a heat gun and run it close to the fender flare. The heat gun heats up the plastic, and causes it to melt the surface which re-blackens the plastic. I will admit that it requires a good amount of patience. The end product doesn't look amazing, but it looks better than it did before. Pictured is me starting the driveside front fender. I'll get pictures of the fender flares tomorrow once it's bright out again. The orange spot isn't the fender, it's a reflection of the heat gun.
I'll get some updates and pictures tomorrow when I get some more new parts. Thanks for looking.
12-03-2014, 03:06 PM
My build. . . thus far (A long read)
Once I did the tune up and everything, it still wouldn't start. The gauges wouldn't move when I turned the key on, and after some reading on here, I ordered an ECM from O'reily. Upon getting it, turns out that they can't flash them like they said, so I planned to get it flashed once everything else was done. 
The treadwrights. . . . . well, they looked fantastic. Upon mounting and balancing them, the shop called me into the bay. ONE of the wheels balanced pretty foot at 2.5oz. The other 4 however, WOW. The closest to within spec was 11.75oz. The highest being 15.5oz. I wasn't impressed and immediately had them remove them, and I ordered 31" Cooper STT (WHICH I LOVE, more about them later). I called treadwright, and well, 2 weeks later, I' still waiting to hear back from them about how to return them. Spent an hour on the phone with a lady when I was on the range in NC, and no offense, but both ladies I spoke to didn't seem to know what they were doing. The last I heard, she was going to leave me a voicemail and email me with information on return postage for returning them.
