T1XJ

Been busy, added a couple new cars to the mix, a forester for the wife and another cherokee, a 99, black,aw4, sport etc with a bad motor that I picked up cheap from a friend. I have a 99 with a five speed same as my 98 shown in precious posts but the red 99 has no title. Plan is to swap drive train from red 99 to black 99, and converting the black one to a five speed in the process. This 98 build is definitely going to slow down for a bit. I did manage to get a little bit done.
I cut the control arm mounts off with a sawzall, removed rear carpet to fix upper shock mounts and future bed lining, made a plate to cover holes above shock bolts, tac welded and sealed it. Bottom shock nuts are MIA at the moment so I can't say I finished the rear shocks, but I almost did. Steering is loosely on, all brakes are on with new front pads, ubolts cut, couple little uninteresting things I did also.

Pics are of the ol' lady's new forester and a pic of the rear floor, no rust, I was happy. And the plate covering the shock bolts.
Exciting update, I know.

T1XJ

Here is the black 99 I just got, with the pops playing the 'shade tree mechanic'

T1XJ

Threw the front tires on and put it on its own weight to give myself a little extra motivation. Can't wait to drive it. Was quoted $200 to lengthen driveshaft so I'm thinking about that.

VTJeep

looks good man. wonder what its looking like these days.. good build so far.

T1XJ

Thanks, it actually looks the same as that last picture, I've been real busy on the black jeep and I hit a bambi with the subaru so i've been working on those quite a bit. I don't want to drive this 98 in the winter because of how great it looks underneath so I have essentially stopped working on the last few things it needs to be drivable.

I've swapped motors on the black jeep, and did oil pan gasket, oil filter gasket, new radiator, thermostat gasket, plugs and wires, fluids, and a light cleaning of the motor. after adjusting the timing and distributer to TDC, it started right up and ran great which was cool because the motor I put in hadn't been started in two years. Problem is, I think I messed up the front pump in the AW4 that came with black jeep by failing to seat the torque converter right. Never knew but now I do. So, I am going to swap in the AX15 from my parts jeep and not bother with the AW4 for now. I hate automatic transmissions anyway. I've never done any of this before so it is definitely a learning experience.

Sorry for the long picture-less post, i'll try to get some soon.
plans for black jeep are simple, motor swap(done) auto to manual swap (progress)clean it up, drive it for a bit, then sell it. it will probably end up with a 2" budget boost and a few other little things.

T1XJ

Got a few hours in on the black jeep today. Worked on the wiring harness swap, drilled for master cylinder, and got the aw4, what I thought was a 231 but is actually a 242, out. That was relatively easy, biggest issues were the E12 bolts of course. Once I lowered the trans they were easier though. Then it was off to split a trailer load of wood with the pops.

Pics:
1- jeep at the start
2- master cylinder holes, manual trans wiring harness with clutch plug and no tcu plug, and aftermarket cruise control
3- 5 easy enough to figure out
6- part of the 400+ craftsman tool set I bought to make life easier. It is awesome.

T1XJ

Found out I'm moving away very soon, so red 98 is going in storage. parts will be stockpiled for that one for when I get back. Black 99 is hopefully getting trans in this weekend (waiting for my dad to be available) so it can be moved around and loaded onto a trailer to go with me. I just need to get the master and slave cylinder bolted in, transmission and transfer case bolted in, drive shafts on, wiring harness hooked up, and console put back together and It should be drivable. Bugs can get worked out later.

T1XJ

It runs and drives! I put it all together saturday, and still have little things to do but at least it moves under its own power. I also put 2" coil spacers up front. Pictures tomorrow when I'm at my parents again (where the jeep is)

T1XJ

Worked on rear leafs today. I'll be using stock xj main and 2nd added to the original leaf pack. Only looking for about two inches, so if if isn't enough height I'll just put mj shackles on or something. Did a lot of wire-wheeling and painting on the leaf's and the brake drums. Looking for graphite paint in the morning as well as spring clips. Hope to have it on wheels tomorrow. Also going to get a new serpentine belt if adjusting this one doesn't fix the squeal at start up.
Not very exciting but progress is getting made.

T1XJ

Forgot to add to this, jeep is back together besides center console. Rear leaves are together but one side lifted 3", the other 1". I probably mixed up the order of the leaves. They will come back apart to try again, if they are still off, i have another set i can cut up. I've put the red jeep in storage, and moved the black jeep and all my other crap 450 miles away. At least the Navy paid for everything, and then some. I'll add some pics later. Oh, and the new place has a garage, which is real nice.

T1XJ

So, its been quite awhile since I've posted on this site, and not much has changed jeep-wise. I am still away from home for the Navy, so the red jeep is in storage still. I did sell the wheels/ tires off it because I decided I didn't like the look of the 33x10.5's. Then a truck I've wanted for several years that has been sitting in a friends garage finally came up for sale so I accidentally used the $$ from the wheels and tires to buy that. That has required some tinkering to keep going but I like it. My woman's car started to have a lot of problems so I benched it and got her a Mazdaspeed 6. I've been incredibly busy with work and most of my spare time has been spent getting firewood cut and split for the winter so I've been focusing my car repair time on getting the subaru going. it just needs the steering rack installed and then it will be done and sold. I would like to store the truck over the winter and drive the black jeep if possible, just need to get motivated/ get time to work on it.

To do list is about the same as before, however I did start it up today (battery needs to be charged) and put the interior back together. Ordering parts this weekend to work on the rest of it.

Here is the truck I have been DD'ing up at my parents land



And my current driveway, minus the truck. I can't wait till there are only two vehicles there.

T1XJ

Did some work on the black jeep, but missed some pictures. Ill try to get some if anyone wants them
-new main brake line from prop valve to rear axle
-new rear shocks. I had to cut through the floor to fix rear shocks as they were welded to the body, because a previous mechanic was too lazy to punch out the shock bolts he broke. Ended up welding a square piece (for strength) over the hole with a hole in that, dropped a bolt through and tac welded the bolt in. basically what it had before. put a plate over the holes, welded and sealed it and put the carpet back. here are a couple pics. don't those first few look like quality work from the previous mechanic?







-new u-bolts
-removed and shuffled leaf packs to hopefully fix lopsided lift. Ended up with 1/4" difference side to side, I can live with that for now.
-started a rebuild/ cleaning up of the front driveshaft because it was pretty well rusted, although it seemed to work fine. u-joint caps are rusted. just peace of mind or something.
- also started to build my own transfer case shifter linkage, but have a little issue maybe?


question on this. my jeep was originally aw4/242 and is now ax15/231. all previous transfer case linkage is non existent because I think the original design is silly and I figured i could build my own. i cut and flipped the metal piece that actually shifts the transfer case and welded some scrap metal to it as a prototype for mock-up.

correct me if I'm wrong, but i think maybe i have the front part of the linkage(it has the rod bearing zip tied to it) in wrong? It comes down from the interior basically straight down in the 2H position, maybe pointed back to the rear a bit. this seems to be a problem because the piece i made is only about an inch away from it.



then when I put the transfer case in 4L and push the handle to 4L, this happens. It makes me think the part with the rod end isn't attached to the shifter handle correctly? maybe it needs to be flipped? any opinions? the plan was to use two rod ends with an all-thread rod to connect them. similar to Boostwerks set up. It just seems like everything is REALLY close.



any opinions on those linkage pictures would be appreciated. I'll probably try flipping that front bracket this week.

anyway, on to some good news. I registered the jeep a little while ago and took it on a test drive after doing a bunch of work on it.
test drive went mostly well. no swaybars and possibly engine mounts need replaced. got a check engine light for an injector being stuck open that cleared itself after awhile, old gas I'm assuming. and the airbag light is on because the clockspring is removed. can't remember why, its been a year. and Im pretty sure my speedo is off. 3.55's, ax15, and 235s. took a couple pictures. even did some hardcore offroading! (just a joke)

figured out i had no brake lights and then I had permanent brake lights on because the brake switch wasn't plugged in, then the button wasn't touching the brake pedal once plugged, discovered it just needed to be extended. easy fix.










little by little, making progress.

T1XJ

I drove it to work for the first time today. I have missed driving a 5 speed Cherokee. I've been thinking I was having clutch issues/ pilot bearing/ throwout bearing something because of a bunch of squealing and noises that seemed to fluctuate with the clutch pedal, but I think I probably over diagnosed, I've decided it's just the serpentine belt or one of the pulleys up front. The starter does need to be lubricated since it squeals a bit on startup. I should be able to work on it tomorrow after work. I also ordered 3 u-joints and a centering ball rebuild kit for the front driveshaft that should be here in a couple days.

just a pointless picture

T1XJ

Replaced motor mounts, sway bar links, tightened serpentine belt, messed with 4wd linkage, .., now it sounds like I did nothing. Figured out why my engine felt like it was bouncing around, there was a bolt that was loose/nt attached on one engine mount but wouldn't come out. So I ground it off and replaced the bolt. No biggie.

T1XJ

Also I finished the prototype 4wd shifter linkage. I have a video of me trying t shift thru the gears but basically shows that I have everything but 4 low, so I am not finished yet.