Beal

This is my first Cherokee. And boy did I pick a good one...

Goal is to get it running, driving, and inspected...

It needs a massive amount of rust repair. The engine is blowed up.
But hey its a 2 door, 5 speed. And its got a nifty visor...
Totally worth the effort.

Being that I need to do some welding, Im in the market for a welder. Im open to suggestions. Just looking for a small 110 unit.

craigjacob1

The visor is probably worth more than the car. I look forward to seeing the updates!

RegularGuy

pheeeew lad! I hope youre ready to work!
as far as a welder goes, check Harbor Freight.
I think it was Quadratec that had floorpans and cargo area floors. IIRC for the set it is like 250 bucks? if you do it RIGHT it should be good to go.

Better question is, whats wrong with it that it doesnt run? honestly youve got yourself a stout project here, and being a pretty broke guy id hate to spend the aforementioned hundreds of dollars on floors and a welder, if the motor or drivetrain is otherwise too far gone.


BUT it looks cool. Two doors are always kinda cool. Does the Visor leak?

Beal

Yup. This garbage is a project alright... Some things are worth fighting for. I hope this is!

Previous owner said a bearing was bad. We roll started it and it ran like crap and had no power. Bout half way home started up a hill the engine started screeching and losing what little power it had. Wouldnt turn over. After sitting a while it would turn over like it had no compression.

I have another engine for it however.

This will be a budget build. No new pre-formed panels for me. Plan for around $500, not including a welder or new tools. I think I can pull it off over time. Budget build as this is... Im not going to be cutting up soup cans to patch stuff. It will look half decent...
Was planning on getting another welder this year anyways...


Im not sure if the visor leaks, but I think there is a leak on the driver side somewhere.


Is there a cross section view of the rocker panels for these floating around somewhere? I thought I saw one somewhere but cant find it now.

Thanks fellas.


Im going to have to build some new braces for where the seat goes, between the frame and rocker. I think 1/8 would be good here?

Id like to use an L shaped piece of 1/8 to weld to the inside of the good part of the rocker panel. The bottom of the L would be the bottom of the rocker. The upright portion would give me something solid to weld the new seat/frame brace to, along with welding the floor to it.

The red is the rocker panel and door sill that I have to work with. Grey is what Im thinking will be made from 1/8 material. Does this look good?

RegularGuy

Sheesh! sounds like a lotta work indeed!

First off, what are your specs? im assuming you have a 4.0L. Model year? Mileage?
If you didnt know, you can go to Jeep's website and request a build sheet, it will tell you all the options that the XJ came with, so you know a little about where its coming from.

A bearing in the motor? how many miles/whats the condition of the donor motor? if it ISNT a bearing in this motor, you might be ahead to open it up and see if the problem is obvious- might be some stupid stuff and not really 'blown up'. Could save you the misery of a swap.

Im going to assume your skill level is high enough for all this fab work that seems to be required, which is great. I myself don't know how to weld.

If youre in the SE ohio area, i know a place to get you a front bumper, at the least.

Beal

Yes, its got a 4.0, year is 96... mileage... Im not sure of the top of my head. {edit} 209K on the jeep.
Im not sure about the extra engine. Probably high mileage.

Im going to drain the oil, and pull the head and see what I can see. Being that it wouldnt turn over after it started screeching and died, I dont think its a simple fix. I dont really know.

Id like to think I have the skills needed anyway... Ive never done any sort of body work but Im no stranger to welding. I took a year of welding and a year of machine shop at voteck and I worked at a machine/weld shop.

Actually, I have the bumper. Not knowing any better we wrapped a chain around it to pull it home after it died. We pulled it off... The bolt heads pulled through the slots in the bumper.

After all is said and done, Id like to fab up a set of beefy bumpers for it.

Beal

Well see how much I know... Cousin suggested looking at the bearinsg and crank before I pull the engine out. Might be able to run it yet if the crank isnt buggard up...
RegularGuy you were on to something.

Ofcourse with the thought of maybe running this engine more, the thought of building a stroker seems like fun. Or maybe slappin a diesel under the hood.

Somehow managed to tweak the body enough now the passenger door hits part of the visor. Thats not cool.
I think Im going to wait untill I have a welder and some metal before I cut anything else out. Ha.

Beal

Was suggested to me to check compression. Now any sensible person would have done this first. Ohwell.
I didnt check every cylinder. The ones I check didnt register anything on the guage. Thats okay because the head was coming off anyways...

Found a crack on the exhaust, how long would it last if I just slapped some weld over the crack?

Im also curious if anyone in PA has done a diesel conversion, how they got it inspected?

Thanks.

MagicMexican

As far as welders go, I've heard some good (and bad) things about the Harbor Freight welder in 110V, the brand is Chicago Electric.

I did some reading, and apparently it's just kinda 'bleh' out of the box, but converting it over to DC will turn it into a halfway decent welder. Just google 'chicago electric welder DC conversion'.

But good luck! These kinds of things can be fun if you've truly got more time than money and you plan on putting a lot of elbow grease in for every dollar you don't spend.

Beal

Thankss for the suggestions... though I think Im gona go with a Red one to match my stick welder.

This unit here at Home Depot. Unless I can find it cheaper elsewhere Ill probably get it from Home Depot.
Ill scour craigslist and the local classifieds for a while maybe snag something for cheaper. Ill look into used Miller and Hobart aswell.

Is there any reason not to use 1/8 to brace up the frame? I see frame stiffeners are generally 3/16.
This can of a Jeep probably will never see any serious offroading. More along the lines of a daily driver... so 1/8 should be fine?

thanks.

Beal

Can anyone tell me if this would be the same on a 4 door xj?
I was thinking I could cut this area out of a solid jeep... but theres only 1 or 2 doors at the scrap yard.

If I can liberate this area from a 4 door that would be great.

Thanks!

Beal

Got a battery powered angle grinder. This should make liberating some good metal from another jeep easier.

A friend had these tires an wanted rid of them... They look old, probably because they are... but theyve been stored inside, and got good tread, and hopefully hold air.

There is 2 sizes, jr78-15, and 235/75r15. Im not sure how close they are, they look about the same, 235s might be a little bit bigger....

Im thinking I should be ok with my 2wd/4x4 t-case? Unless its in part time 4x4, the diff in the t-case should prevent things from binding/breaking?

Ill be getting a few more when I have the opportunity, might get 2 more the same size as one of the sets I just got. They all looked about the same size.

Beal

Welder is ordered. Should be here in a week.

Can anyone tell me where to find a adjustable track bar that isnt Chinese or Mexicanese, or tiwanese, or packistanese, or any other kind of forign-ese? Please. I need one.

RegularGuy

hmm.. adjustable? how much so? not really my area of expertise

as for welding the exhaust, lots and LOTS of 4.0s crack the manifold, im sure many people have welded them but i couldnt tell you how long they last.

did you find out any more about the engine?

Beal

Well, I emailed a few places and found one from Rustys Offroad Products is made in USA.
Need one for my Grand Cherokee, its stock at the moment, but I figured an adjustable unit would be handy if I ever put a small lift under it..


I havnt even hardly looked at the thing recently... covered in snow at the moment.