Cap'in_swatkins

Well, i've been bitten by the bug, and so it begins.....
Bought my 1990 Cherokee laredo a week and a half ago, and i'm already tearing into it as much as I possibly can. here are a few pictures of her the day after I drove her to my dad's house (where all the tools reside).

sthon

Looks good. And only a 113k? Nice find!

Cap'in_swatkins

Oh, and while scouring CL for a deal on a Cherokee, came across this bad boy, full leaf pack Rusty's 3" kit, including drop pitman arm, t-case drop kit, trac bar re-locator, and adjustable LCA's for a low low three hundo....that's barely more than Shipping on an AAL kit would have cost me. SCORE?!?

well, the pic won't upload for some reason.... guess you will have to wait to see it until it gets put on

Dagostino480

cool man cant wait

sthon

Probably won't need that tc drop kit with 3".

Search and destroy

Or a drop pitman arm... I would just throw that stuff in the extra parts bin and save them for later.

Cap'in_swatkins

Thanks for the input guys, but I figured when in Rome, haha. plus I don't see how it could hurt, so on they went. simple with the right tools. Been doing a LOT of work this weekend, so many pictures to come...

Cap'in_swatkins

Well, the weekend began with a small paint-mod. I was getting wayy too tired of staring out over the faded hood, so i hit it with some tapework and rattle-can pant. Whole process took about a day, with a lot of side jobs snuck in there by onlookers/backseat builders but overall good use of a day

Cap'in_swatkins

Some close-ups of the shells and bombs:

Cap'in_swatkins

Today, seeing as how I was blessed with the }entire{ day of sunshine, decided to go ahead and tackle that lift. Here are some before photos, the height the fenders and roof sat, and the worn-out old leafs...they ARE supposed to bend upward right? haha finally, the lift that i've had for over two months and have yet to do....man is it going to look funky on stock tires, but I just can't seem to wait any longer.

Cap'in_swatkins

And the work begins, put her up on jack stands, removed the sense-less rear anti-sway (which you can see in the lift picture) and luckily pulled the shocks without breaking/bending/damaging a single bolt...PB blaster is my friend now haha. Got the springs, passenger LCA in, and wouldn't you know it, the other one is missing a bushing. had to come to a halt on that, installed the sway-bar drop bracket (what I was under to notion to be track-bar re-locator kit), and with a little pursuasion, the T-case drop kit. It's looking good but the rear spring bolts were being fussy, and I can't seem to locate a 13/16 wobble for the impact called it a day, and will hopefully have her back on the ground by next Sunday.

Cap'in_swatkins

so i've run into an issue, well a couple actually. First is that i'm addicted to the jeep already, second is a super stubborn pitman arm, soaked in PB blaster, heated, tension with a pitman puller (broke one already) and beating on it with a hammer to no avail. Additionally, the nut on the passenger side of the rear spring got pushed into the frame, dont really want to cut a hole in my floor if i don't have to (not exactly confident in my welding skills to repair the hole as of yet). Any encouraging words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. Haven't spent too much time on her with school and all but a plan of attack would be nice to have for friday.

Bulletproof

Dont beat on the pitman arm to much do to the fact it can break your steering box seals and bearing pretty easily. If you are replacing the arm with a new one take the grinder to it. Use a cut off wheel and make a relief cup straight down from the top to bottom. Dont cut all the way through it just about 3/4 through. Put the puller back on and it should come off no problem. I went through the same process trying to save the old pitman. Some jeeps it can be done and others you have to fire up the grinder. Hope this helps for you one issue.

Also is the nut the front spring mount or the rear shackle mount?

sthon

You really don't need a drop pitman arm with a 3" lift. As for your shackle weld nut... I just got done fighting those myself. I broke the weld nut on both shackles. Tried everything to get a socket on the nut, cut a hole in the floor on the passenger side, took my bumper off and made the hole bigger in the middle of the bracket, took a sawzall and cut the bolt flush with the rail... I still could not get a socket over the bolt and onto the nut.

Solution? sawzall and a crap ton of blades. I cut the bolt between the bushing and the shackle then pushed it into the frame (This was the side I cut a hole into from the cargo floor) then held the bolt in place with vice grips and cut it again inside the frame rail to pull the pieces out. My drivers side bolt I cut again between the bushing and the shackle, the bolt was stuck in the sleeve and was not coming out so I had to cut it again on the other side of the bushing, I didn't get as lucky here and had to cut the sleeve as well, this took a good hour to cut and chewed up 4 blades.

Good luck.

Cap'in_swatkins

thanks a lot man, sound.....daunting. I was thinking of just drilling in from the back side of the frame, but not sure how this would affect the integrity of the frame. Maybe a quick piece of steel welded onto the frame, similar to frame stiffeners would do the trick? that would be about a billion times easier.