Frost50

Hey there! Been lurking the forums for a while, and a relatively new Jeep owner, but have a ton of ideas and plans and needed a place to organize them all. Bought my Jeep back in mid-February, drove it for about 3 weeks, then had a front transmission seal go out, and thanks to my near-zero knowledge of mechanics that took way longer to fix than it should have. Nevertheless, she's back on the road now and good to build!

A little about me:
I'm a broke High School/College kid(yes, I do both), from a little town in Oregon. I have a VERY minimal knowledge of mechanics/jeeps, so a lot of this is learn as I go and the internet is a huge help. I have a grandpa with some knowledge, so I get help from him when I can, but the biggest bonus he comes with is a shop with nearly every tool I need.

The Jeep:
'93 Cherokee Country. 4.0l 6. The PO were an older couple that did the basics to take care of it, but outside of fluid changes and brakes I'm pretty sure the rest almost never got touched. The one big "mod" that they did was a 3.5" lift(I believe RC). Bought her for 2600, which now that I know better was probably a little more than she was worth, but oh well. Came with 220k miles, the lift, a really nice roof rack, and almost new 33's. They put on some generic-brand lights on the grill and roof rack, but neither worked when I purchased her.


Things I have done since purchase:
- Replaced Spark Plugs/Lines
- Removed the 4 "extra" lights that didn't work
- Added 2 lights to grill (unsure on brand tbh, they were a gift)
- Lots of cleaning
- Replaced the front Tranny Seal
- Replaced (what I believe to be the factory) fuel filter

Pictures from the ad on CL



The day I brought her home and gave her a bath




The new lights I was given, took a break during the tranny seal switch to put these on

Frost50

The overall plan:
This is only my second rig ever(and a huge upgrade from my Ranger), and it's my DD. Because of this, I'm not looking to do any crazy build. As much as I would love to, I just can't afford to/justify the need for a "real" wheeler. My neck of the woods/places I go are a lot of old logging roads that are mainly just muddy. No crazy steep places, no rock climbing, etc. Really just want to get her clean looking and good for the occasional mud run.

Current Project:
Building a false bottom/raised bed for the back. I already made the part to go behind the back seat. Basically 2x6's on edge to form a frame, then a sheet of particle board over the top of that. Gluing a carpet down, and boom! Storage room underneath and still have my flat "bed" on top of that. Currently making a second one uses hinges to fold onto the first, so that way when I lay down the back seats I can flip the second part over and have a bed. Pics to come!!

Plans:
- 97+ middle console
- Paint
- Front Bumper w/ winch
- Roof Rack light bar
- CB Radio
- Outside speakers to make the CB a PA
- New front fenders (cut correctly)
- Sound bars in the back

bad_idea

Those are some great tires to park on a vertical hill face.

Frost50

Got the bed in! Had to fight the exact placement of the hinges, but happy with how it turned out. Will probably do some fine trimming/better gluing of the carpet later on, but works for what I need at the moment! When the back seats are up this folds over onto itself, and the supports fold down, giving me a near flat surface in the storage area, but retaining the false bottom.

Rogue4x4

Moved it for ya

Frost50

Thanks to School/work, haven't has a whole lot of time to do any work on the girl. Thankfully, graduation was last night and college finals are monday, so free time will *hopefully* be something I have again. As for now, I did get to go drive around with a buddies landcruiser a week or so ago.









I know I need to get an O2 sensor soon, and I'm wanting to do the injectors as well. Any tips/guides/etc anyone has for doing those? Thanks!

bad_idea

Taking the Jeep out is the fun part. Glad you got to take it out. Some beautiful country there.

Pretty straight forward work. The O2 sensor, cut the wire on the old one so you can slip a box end wrench over it. Spray it with PB Blaster liberally. If it starts to get tight taking it loose, STOP! At that point spray it with more PB and snug it back down. Then loosen it. Corrosion will build up in the threads causing it to bind. Snugging it back down clears the crud out of the threads. If it starts to get hot, STOP! Spray it with more PB. Use antisieze on the new O2 sensor threads, careful not to get it on the sensor.

As far as fuel injectors: Push the schrader valve in on the fuel rail to relieve the fuel pressure into a rag. Disassembly is pretty straight forward. Be careful not to drop any crud into the holes the injectors come out of, direct path to the cylinders. Clean the intake manifold where the injectors pop in. Use vaseline to lubricate NEW o-rings. Don't try to use the old ones, fuel is the LAST thing you want leaking.

Frost50

Huh, work picks up and suddenly a month goes by. As nice as the hours are, not having the time to tinker and lurk the forums kind of sucks haha.

Anyways, haven't done anything major since the last update. I went ahead and switched the injectors and the O2 sensor, and it made suchhhhh a difference. I knew that people said it would idle slightly smoother, but I noticed a huge difference in mine.

Outside of that its been a slow summer. Definitely have some questions for all of you though.

#1- Shifting is weird in this. It's an automatic, but my Drive is stuck in a high gear. To take off from a stop, I have to manually go to first, and shift my way up. Once I'm up in gear, I'm fine, but once I have to stop, I have to shift down again. Was told it could be the TPS, so I'm starting there, but definitely want some more opinions on other things to look at.

#2- I know Jeeps aren't made for speed, but mine seems really slow. I can get to 50-55 fairly easily, but anything after that is pushing it. And If I go up a hill of any kind, I barely crawl over it. Not even necessarily steep hills, but one of the main roads I go on around here I have to drop to 3rd and floor it to just do 45 over the hill. Was told that it is probably because the PO put the 3.5" lift on and never redid the gearing, but definitely want some more opinions before dumping that kind of money if it won't fix the issue. Thanks!!

bad_idea

I don't think the run issues you are having are due to the gearing. The gearing may be a contributing factor, but I think you have some issues with the engine.

I see you did plugs and wires, make sure they are all connected well. It is common to put too much dielectric grease on the connections and make things worse, not better. Dielectric grease is actually an insulator, it is to keep water and corrosion out of the connection. Not to promote a better spark. Verify you don't have a gob of dielectric grease in the connections. It should only be between the boot and the porcelain of the plug.

I have a 90, so things are a little different. Does the 93 have a distributor? I would suggest you replace the cap and rotor. Replace the air filter while you are at it (I don't see it in your list of replacement items).

Is the EGR system operating correctly? If it is stuck partially open, then it will impact performance. Should be able to find the test procedure for your engine on google.