I’m bored, so i’m starting a thread on what i’ve done, what I plan to do, and what I actually get done.

This is the story of my 95 2.5L, 5-speed 2WD XJ

So far, I have done a lot of maintenance related work, like a full tune up, gaskets, suspension components, etc.

But before I get into what i’ve done, let me tell you about how I got my XJ.

Long story short, I went around a gravel road too fast, and ended up flipping my BMW. I was very torn up, because I had over 5k in that BMW in terms of parts alone. I had practically rebuilt the entire car, and that wasn’t very smart with me being 17 at the time. But you live and learn.

Anyway, I needed a new vehicle. And this time I wanted a manual vehicle, so I looked and looked. I had originally found a 96 XJ that was fully loaded, plus it had the AX15, but it was out of my price range.

So I waited about a month, and finally, my XJ popped up on my feed on FB Marketplace. I went out to see it, and it was barley running. Would only really keep an idle and if you mashed the throttle too hard, it would stall. I knew exactly what I was buying, and that was a fixer upper.

I ended paying 2k for a clean frame, and that was about it. Very first thing I did was replace the plugs, plug wires, cap and rotor. It ran like new. The old plugs didn’t show any sign of burning oil, but they were pretty much melted together from how old they were.

Next up was sensors. Every sensor I tested failed, and that included the TPS, IAC, MAP, and O2. Replaced them all, and my XJ no longer stalled on rapid throttle response, and it was able to maintain most speeds on most terrain, except hills where sometimes 3rd gear was needed to clear it.

My next course of action was to replace the valve cover gasket and the oil pan gasket. Both were puking oil, and I was loosing nearly a quart a week from both.

But wait. My transmission decided to loose every gear expect 4th while going up a hill on I-95. What had happened was that with the 31 inch mud tires on it, going up most hills in 5th gear was almost impossible.
So while going 70, I had to shift down to 4th. But it didn’t grab. Slowed down even more, still wouldn’t grab 4th. Eventually I slowed down enough to try 3rd, and it grabbed. I then made it up the hill, went to 4th, and went to 5th. But I was then greeted with this intense whining sound, and I knew at that moment that I was driving on borrowed time. Then, a very very loud bang followed by a sound that sounded like I threw a bunch of marbles into my transmission followed. At that time, I thought the clutch blew up, because my clutch was as hard as a rock. It wouldn’t move no matter how hard I stood on it.

So, I got it towed to my shop to take the transmission out and see what happened.

When I got the transmission out, I was greeted with a blown out throwout bearing. That sucker would spin for minutes at a time before stopping. I then took a look at the clutch and pressure plate, and they all seemed to look good. But, I decided to replace everything in there, just because I was in there. I also did the oil pan gasket while I was in there, but I didn’t do the rear main because it looked in decent shape and I was already making my boss a little upset with how much time I was spending on my XJ and not working

But this is where I messed up.

I didn’t think to check if I had any gears. I could’ve put it in whatever gear and spin the input shaft and see if the output shaft moves, but I didn’t. So when I put it all back together, I found out I didn’t have any forward gear except for 4th.

Oh, did I mention that it didn’t start after I put the transmission back in? Yeah. That took a few days to figure out. Turns out that someone cut the wires to the connector for the ignition coil and just wrapped them together. So I had to fix that before starting it up.

Anyway, I found an AX5 that had 255k on it for $250 in Virginia, so I went and got it, and put it back in. Cranked right up, went into every gear just fine.

To prevent something like this from happening ever again, I got some rims and tires off a WJ from FB Marketplace, and got some wheel spacers/adapters to make them fit. I then sold the original rims and tires back to the guy I bought them from for $300, which was pretty awesome.

I then got to work on fixing the oil leaks. The only ones left was the valve cover and front crank seal, and the front crank seal had to be held off because the harmonic balancer was seized. 3 different pullers couldn’t pull it off without snapping bolts. So that’s another project for another time.

Then I got death wobble after I changed a motor mount. The drag link was completely disintegrated, so changed that out and aligned it. Then the tie rods were the culprit, then the tie rod at the pitman arm was a culprit too. Then the control arms as well, which were a PITA to install because of how old the old ones were.

So, after getting the engine running right, the transmission shifting again and stopped the death wobble that almost caused me to crash, I started on getting the interior to my liking.

So, I started off with adding a center console since mine never came with one. I found a beige one out of a 95, and I like how it contrasts with the grey.

After I got that cleaned up and installed, I set off on trying to figure out why my vents never worked. I had figured out they weren’t getting any vacuum, so I ran some vacuum lines from the engine to the vents I want to blow air, and it worked for a while until I eventually figured out that the controller wasn’t controlling the vacuum anymore. 50 bucks later and it was working good as new.

I then decided to add cruise control, and as everyone knows, it works, but you have to have the set button down at all times. Still trying to figure out what’s wrong with that, and i’m leaning towards the PCM being at fault here.

Anyway, I got the clockspring, servo and buttons, and it worked, so some velcro solved my button issue.

Then, while I was at LKQ, I ran across a limited ZJ with a drivers seat that I really really loved, so I took that seat home, took off the power bracket, and bolted up the bracket from the old seat, put it in, and it works!

I ended up loosing about an inch of headroom, but since i’m really short, it didn’t matter. It looks nice and it’s really comfy to sit in.

After all of this, I decided to fix the exhaust, add a long tube header, and install a ported intake with the 4.0 throttle body and the opening bored to match. The intake was from a 96 2.5L, and those had a tensioner instead of the power steering pump being the tensioner. That took some work to get right. And, at the same time, the alternator bracket broke and made my alternator fling around and make a really loud racket while making my electronics do all sorts of weird stuff.

After that was said and done, I took it for a rip. The power difference was incredible. It had more torque, it can make it up all hills in 5th gear, cruising is so much easier, and it’ll actually get up and go when it wants to, as long as I shift before 4k, because after that, all i’m doing is wasting gas and not going anywhere.

Then, the last thing that i’ve done to Blue Betsy, is add 2 amps, 4 speakers, and a sub. Now, my music is crystal clear and sounds very nice, even better than most cars I drive at work.

So, that covers everything i’ve done so far.

The next item on my list is a top end rebuild. I have a lot of valve train noise, like a noisy lifter that clatters around, a few rockers that make that sewing machine noise and knock around, and probably a bent pushrod or two from how old it all is.

I’ve got all the lifters and pushrods, and now i’m waiting on my Harland Sharp roller rockers to come in so I can complete this project and see if they’re worth the $380 I spent on them.

This weekend, i’m also planning on lining my floors and doors and headliner with insulation that I got from Home Cheapo, to temporarily solve how loud Betsy is on long trips. I think i’ll be happy with how much quieter it’ll be, because this is some thick insulation, considering I have actual garage door carpet on my floor instead of actual carpet.

After my top end rebuild, i’m going to put some new leaf springs in the rear and some new shocks as well for the rear. My leaf springs are flat as a 2x4, so needless to say it bounces around and it’s not that great on the road.

After that’s all said and done, i’m going to shift my focus to getting rid of the clutch fan and making an electrical fan work right, put down new carpet, get my headliner redone, and then start working on the body because it’s all sorts of dinged up.

I also plan to convert the rear brakes to disk brakes from a Liberty, because i’ve heard that’s an easier conversion on the Chrysler 8.25 rear end. I also want to get bigger brakes in the front, but that’s near the bottom of list right now.

If I ever find the time to, I want to swap in an AX15 from a Dakota to have assurance that my transmission isn’t going to go kaput again. Even more so, when my little 4 cylinder gets around to knocking around a rod, I’m going to swap in a stroker 2.9-3.0 liter with all the current modifications I have on mine and start making some power.

All in due time. I’ll make sure to take pictures of what I do, and update this thread as need be.

Speaking of pictures, here’s some pictures:


This is when I first got it




This is today

 

Well, I knew my floorboards would be rusty, but this isn’t all that bad





I only took pictures of the passenger side floor board because it had the most holes, but it’s still not as bad as I thought it was initially.

Anyway, I got both sides line with insulation from Home Depot, and driving is a lot better because you can’t hear the road anymore. I plan to line the door panels with it, the headliner, and the trunk with this stuff. It’s pretty thick stuff but thankfully I can make it thinner by tearing some material off the top

 

I got my Harland Sharp roller rockers installed!

They took a while to get here, but when they did, I soaked them in a mix of break in oil and normal oil overnight.

I also took the liberty of installing new lifters and pushrods while I was in there.

I took a good look at my cam as well, and I saw it was a little worn, but not scored. The cam looked like it was old, obviously, but there wasn’t any actual damage to the cam lobes.

To get the lifters in and out, all you have to do is get a strong flexible magnet, and just pull it out and up. You have to be very patient, and with a little bit of a steady hand and determination, it’ll come out and the new one will go in.

Anyway, after I got the rollers torqued down, I doused some more break in oil on top of them, some down into the lifter valley, and put the valve cover back on. I cranked it with the ignition coil disconnected, built up some oil pressure, and then sent it.

Upon startup, it was a little noisy. It was idling higher than normal, probably because there was a little extra air going in and out than it was used too.

Once she idled down, it became very quiet. Almost like you couldn’t hear it running aside from the exhaust noise.

I then took it down the road, and man almighty. There isn’t much to gain in the lower end, but once you get up past 2.5k, it still pulls. Before, it fell off around 3k and just kind of reved and never went much further, but now it pulls all the way to redline. It also changed the exhaust note, and now it has a deeper tone to it and I love it even more.

These are worth every penny I spent and I absolutely think anyone who’s on the fence about them to pull the trigger and get it done.

Here’s all of them soaking in a bucket. Don’t mind the paint, it has been on this bucket since we used it for deck paint about 7 years ago

I forgot to take more pictures, but these were the first set I installed

 

keep up the good work buddy ! nice

 

Ah, the life of owning a 297k mile Heep.

So, this morning, my Jeep was making this odd sound with the A/C on. Come to find out, my clutch on the compressor was slipping.

So, I did what every Jeep owner does: Took the cheap route.

Spoiler alert: it actually worked.

Anyway, what I did was remove the clutch that was held on by a 14mm nut, use some screwdrivers to pull the clutch off, and then removed the 2 little spacers behind the shaft.

I made sure to clean it all up, got rid of the oil deposits and dirt and grime, put it all back together: and boom. No more squeaking, no more loud clutch engagement, and a little cooler A/C.

Clutch removed. Pretty dirty but it cleaned up nice

As you can see, my clutch is pretty worn out. But I resurfaced it lightly, cleaned it up and put it back together without any issues

These 2 little washers are what space the clutch from the pulley, so I removed them to draw the clutch further into the pulley to account for how worn down my clutch was

 

Well, the clutch decided to finally give up the battle. Had to pick up a new compressor and put that sucker on.

I also got to installing my leaf springs, as well as reverting back to OEM shackles.

After a very long battle with getting the axle lined back up with the leaf springs, everything went back together just perfect.

I also recommend doing one side at a time. Doing both at the same time is a pain in the ***. I mean it sucked major ***.

I wanted to drop my fuel tank down and replace the lines, but it’s 5 o’clock here and I’ve been at the shop since 10 in the morning. I’m burnt out.

Anyway, here’s some pictures of what I did



Rear right before new leaf springs

Rear left before new leaf springs

Gotta make sure the axle isn’t gonna crash to the ground

old leaf springs vs new ones

OEM shackles vs these drop shackles

Don’t do it this way. Just do one at a time.

Rear right after new leaf springs. Don’t worry, it’s not that tilted to the front. The camera didn’t really capture that.

Rear left after new leaf springs

How it looks

New A/C compressor about to go in

Old A/C compressor about to come out

 

Well, i’ve noticed some things after driving around with my newly lifted rear end.

First thing: It rides so much better. There’s less road noise, probably because the wheels are farther away from the frame, and the new springs probably absorb road noise and vibrations.

Second thing: I think my new shocks are almost maxed out. If I go over a big enough bump, there is a very loud thunk from the rear. Guess i’m gonna have to buy some rear shocks, again.

Third thing: My shifts are so much smoother. I don’t know if it’s because the driveshaft is lower to the ground and pulling down the transmission, or whatever the case is, but my shifts are almost butter smooth.

Fourth thing: The rear sway bar doesn’t really do anything. I removed it because I read that a lot of people do that because of how tightly sprung the rear end is, and they’re right. I don’t notice anything different, and even though it’s taller in the rear, it still feels pretty stable. My front end however needs some sway bar link bushings and the bar bushings. It also needs a new steering box that leaks and has about a 30 degree arc of play in it, as well as a new power steering pump that also leaks.

Fifth thing: My a/c is ice cold now. Before, right after I replaced it, it didn’t get very cold. But now it straight up feels like freezing air is coming out of my vents. And don’t worry, i’m within spec on the temperatures and pressures on both the low and high side. 210 high, 35 low.

Anyway, this has to be the best thing I could’ve done for my Jeep. It rides like butter, when the roads smooth. When the roads rough, it’s rough, but what I can do about that.

 

Well, i’ve come to a decision:

I’m buying another car to drive every day. I love this Jeep, but it’s not built to be a daily driver.

So, i’m gonna keep it. I’m gonna park it, and i’ll fix it completely. I might even swap in a bigger engine, maybe a 4.6 stroker or an LS. I don’t know at this time, but I do know i’ll convert it to 4wd at the very least. I’m also gonna fix the interior, pull the dash and replace the wiring harness with one that has an overhead console, and replace the heater core and the evap core.

Im also going to fix the EVAP lines near the gas tank, and do a bunch of other things to this Jeep. I’ll have plenty of time to build this to how I see it. If everything goes to plan, then in about a year or two i’ll have a completely different Jeep, one that would be able to go off-road and be driven on the road, reborn as something better

 

great job buddy

 

That is a nice looking 2 door. But I admit bias since I have one too

 

Well, you know how I said I was gonna park it and work on it?

Well, this happened on Tuesday, right after I bought another car






The fan clutch somehow worked itself loose and tossed itself into the radiator.

I was feeling this weird vibration when I was driving, and I thought nothing of it. It honestly felt like the driveshaft was wobbling, and I kept thinking “damn now I need some u-joints”, and then this happened. I have absolutely no idea why this happened. I haven’t messed with the fan clutch since I did the water pump, which was about 7 something months ago. My only guess is that the fan must’ve been very slightly bent, and overtime it wobbled more and more until the nuts came loose, and then it just went kaboom and took out my brand new radiator.

Anyway, she’s back at my house. I’ve decided that i’m going to build me a “poor man’s stroker” with a junk engine, use a crank from a 4.2, overbore it by 0.030, and use stock rod length from a 4.0. I know I need to swap the radiator, and in order to do that, I also need to change the hood latches, at least I think. But for now, i’m focusing on getting the Jeep cleaned out, so I can disassemble the interior, fix the floorboards, line some insulation, like what Dusty lined their Jeep with. I plan on keeping the 3 inch lift in the rear, but do a true 3 inch lift in the front, and get rid of the pucks. When I did my rear leaf springs, the extra lift ended up pushing down on the front, and made my springs compress even more. I have 3 inches of lift in the rear, and 2.5 in the front, when it used to be the other way around.

Im also going to convert her to 4wd, and since i’m using an AX15 behind the 4.0, it’ll be easier to find front and rear driveshafts. Only issue i’m running into, is that there’s not that many front axles with 4.10 gears. I might buy a re-gear kit and re-gear a cheap front axle if I can’t find one with 4.10 gears in it.

I also want to get some bigger tires, but having 17 inch rims is proving troublesome. It seems like the bigger mud terrain tires are more common on 15 inch rims.

For now, this is what I plan on doing. I don’t want to put a gigantic lift with gigantic tires on it, but I want something simple that I can take out to a trail and do some moderate off roading on the weekends.

 

Well, it was a long time coming, but my little 4 cylinder is out! It took about 3 hours to pull the trans and the engine, but I also had a lift and power tools. But as far as disassembly goes, it wasn’t that bad. I evacuated my a/c system, took the compressor off, took the alternator off, and just unhooked all of the sensors, which wasn’t much. There is a ground at the dipstick which I ended up ripping off on accident, and there’s a ground at the ignition coil that I didn’t mess up thankfully. The only other ground was at the rear right of the valve cover, I think to ground the dash. Only two sensors for the trans, and 8 bolts and the starter and it was out. Trying to get the shifter to unlatch from the trans was a pain, and I hate doing them.

But after a little bit of sweat and some blood from a very sharp corner of the frame, it was all out. Trans is going to the junk pile, because it’s done. I thought it had some life left in it, but when I drained the fluid, it was full of metal glitter.

Anyway, I haven’t set it on a stand just yet. We need the engine boom for putting a motor back in a Silverado, and then I can use it to put it on a stand. I kind of want to see what the internals look like on a 300k pushrod motor.

But I feel like I should tell y’all what my plans are. I’m not going over the top, like making it a stroker, but I am going to bore it over .0050 over and put a light street cam in it. It’s nothing over the top, but it is a decent upgrade over the stock cam, and it comes with pushrods, lifters, timing set and bolts. I’m going to tear it down and send it to my machinist and he’ll tell me what I need to order. Depending on why my engine was knocking will determine what’s damaged, but I think my thrust bearing was on its way out, because of how the knock sounded and the way the balancer was moving.

As far as the actual Jeep goes, I’m going to repair the harness to the best of my ability, and I’m going to do it right. There’s lots of connectors that are broken, and some, like the fuel injector connectors, don’t work unless you leave them in a certain position. I’m also going to de-grease everything, put a new steering box in, fix the rusted floorboards, put taller springs on the front, and re-do the interior, as well as some other things here and there. But for right now, my next step is the engine tear down.

Heres some pictures too.

This is the engine bay before anything was removed. Took a few more for reference when I put everything back together. It really looks like a rats nest

And this is the engine bay with no engine or trans. It’s still a rats nest, and I plan on pulling the entire engine harness and repairing it.

I actually like how the suspension sits without the engine. I guess this is what my Jeep will look like when I put 3 inch lift coils on it.

 

You've got a great looking XJ there...I like the hood/windshield area blackout...
And you're on the right track... Having another vehicle to run while you get this one done sure takes the heat off... And in general, you don't end up with your build thread looking like more of a maintenance thread between the good stuff like so many do..lol..
Make sure you keep taking pics of your harnesses and hoses as you pull them... Even something simple like routing and fastening can be forgotten until you get back to that point...
I'll be looking forward to the rest of your progress...

 

Honestly, the only thing I absolutely love about ol’ blue is the color. Apparently the aqua pearl paint color is sought out after, but for some reason most of them were sold as 2 door base models, with the same drivetrain as mine.

Regardless, it is nice to not have this as a daily anymore. It’s not too fun driving a rwd 4 cylinder around everywhere you went.

I also forgot to add that I want to take my dash apart and fix a bunch of long-standing issues, like the water leak coming from what I think is the windshield, the absolute horror of a wiring setup that the previous owner did with solid copper wire, replace my leaky heater core and probably plugged evaporator, and re-work the vacuum lines to the vents. Sure, this is a lot of work, but it doesn’t have to happen all at once.

My end goal is to get the wiring harness repaired, bay degreased, steering box replaced, engine rebuilt, hook up the AX15/NP231, and new front springs installed before the first day of summer. The rest, like the floor boards, dash and interior work will probably come later, as I am pretty excited to see what driving a brand new 2.5l will be like. Oh, and it will actually technically be a 2.5l with a 0.0060 overbore, coming out to be a 2525cc instead of a 2462cc. Not much more than stock, but still, slightly more agitated squirrels

 

Well, I got the engine on a stand, and discovered something interesting… this block was from 2011. It looks like a remanufactured block, so someone probably swapped one in for whatever reason.

Anyway, I got the motor on a stand and partially torn down. I got most of the brackets off, the valve cover off, thermostat/water pump, intake/exhaust, and the rockers out. I ended up snapping the harmonic balancer somehow when I tried using a puller, so that’s gonna be fun to try and get off.

I’ve got to get a deep 13mm 12 point socket for the head bolts though, which shouldn’t be hard to find. I’m about ready to get into the internals of the engine, and I dunno what I’m gonna find





You can see the date on here, 9/20/11, which I’m guessing means the block was made on that date? I’m not sure if a machinist put that there to let someone know it was rebuilt or work was done to it? My boss seems inclined that it’s just a reman block. It would make sense because the head has more rust in the water passages than the block does. Can anyone tell me more info about this?

Got most of the outside disassembled. I was planning on pulling the head today, but I need a 13mm 12 point socket to crack the outside head studs loose


Parts that I’m saving are over here. There’s another pile that has the radiator hoses, water pump/thermostat and housing, all of the gaskets, the balancer that’s broken into pieces, and the clutch and fan that are all getting replaced.