McF

Just make sure you look it over in person before you hand over the money.

kitsapfreerider

Its official. I am the owner of a 97 Cherokee country. It was in good condition. Floor pans are in great condition. Does need rockers bad. Other than that, with fender cut outs and some fiber glass I should be good to go. Oh and the best part, it purs like a kitten with an exhaust leak. So I should be ordering up some parts with in the week.

kitsapfreerider

Since it been a long time since I have done a jeep build I have some questions. Does anyone have any mods that are low cost. I'm fine with putting in time and tools. I'm trying to keep this in budget. I was thinking of cutting and folding the lower rear quarter panels, and lower front fenders. I also will need fender flares on the cheap. I will do the throttle cable adjustment tomorrow, and seafoam. Anything else I can do tomorrow on my day off? I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks for reading,

McF

Congratulations. Tj flares from a junkyard. Check out all your fluids. Check air filter. Get to know her a bit.

kitsapfreerider

I like the TJ flare idea, might stop by the scrap yard tomorrow. I did all the regualar maintenance stuff today except for radiator fluid and blinker fluid. I'll be parking it and stripping it for now. Air box is out and so vac lines that have a crack. Washed the engine also today. Most likely will cut out the rockers to get ready for some home-brew ones. Going to try to find a set of U-joints at a good price. Starting to soak everything in PB blaster in prep for the lift.

kitsapfreerider

Well, u joints are becoming more of a problem. I replace the back u joints. Its still making noises. Now on to the front... I'll pick those up tomorrow. Also picked up diff fluid, diff gasket, tranny and transfer case fluid, tranny filter and gasket. Also might as well cycle the antifreeze and recharge the ac..... so much to do. Remembering why I sold my first jeep. Good news is i'm still under budget for my vehicle with all these fixes. The fronts u joints might put me over. As soon as payday, ill be ordering up my fun stuff.

FISHIES848

Is the noise a wheel bearing?

kitsapfreerider

I have had both in the past and its not a whining sound but more of a grinding and popping like a u joint. We will see. I picked another set up for the front u joints and if I have time tomorrow, i'll try to get those in. One new thing I found is that the front passenger seat mounts have rusted through. So I think i'm going to grind out the rust and create a bracket to remount the seat.

kitsapfreerider

So i'm finishing up replacing the transmission filter and fluid for the second time. It needed a good run through of fluid. This time I removed the rust and painted the pan. Previous owner must have replaced the filter and not torqued down the gasket cover. The first fluid change had bolts that were almost hand tight... After I bolt things back up i'm going to do the transfer case and be done for tonight. Just picked up a washer fluid motor to replace the trashed one.

As things get removed, I have been priming and painting. Going for a mix of gloss black and bed liner. Pictures to come. I also found a nice fixed crack in the the fiber glass around the grill with some whitetail hair in between...

kitsapfreerider

Hello,

Just found a leaky vacuum line and I was able to pinpoint the bad u joint. Passenger front u joint. Also just replaced the tcase fluid. So all drivetrain fluids have been replaced. Here is that picture. It isn't pretty with everything plastic ripped off, but it will pay off in the end.

kitsapfreerider

A pallet of goodies came today!! Two more pallets coming tomorrow. I decided to go with 33x12.5's instead of the 31x10.5's. It was only a $128 upgrade and I saved $350 in shipping with going freight to work instead of ground. Now I just need to find a pool of PB blaster to go drive into.

Also an update is my buddy works for miller welding and is going to weld up some skids and rockers for me over the winter.

Thanks for reading!

kitsapfreerider

More add-ons!

kitsapfreerider

Installed some of the easy stuff today after work. Air tube and K&N filter took 15 minutes and the bumper took a good 45 minutes by myself. I'm going to replace the stock bolts with some grade 10.9 bolts I think. Installing the tie rod, exhaust and wiring lights tomorrow.

The lift and tires didn't come today Rustys said it would take an additional day to swap the new parts on the lift out. So hopefully I can free up all the bolts tomorrow enough to make the install really easy. Maybe Monday on my down time?

I'm thinking I should do a good tuneup on it too... It has a good miss in a cylinder and everything looks like it needs to be replaced. Also the engine bay needs an air compressor job.

kitsapfreerider

Hello everyone!

After three long days, a half dozen trips to my local parts shop, and a much needed tetanus shot my initial upgrades are finished! After become well acquainted with my new XJ I have found dozens of projects for the future.

Here is a picture of it after the mayhem. Let me know what you think. Like always, I am definitely open to suggestions. I just got a large property management contract with a local +1000 acre unfenced wild game farm. It's a rather large open expanse of "rustic" trails. I can see this XJ paying itself off quick.

Thanks for reading

Power73

that looks sweet! what lift did you go with? also what tailpipe is that?