98 WJ V8 4.7L replacing parts after frontal accident
 

Hello,

I am a Jeep newbie, so please excuse me if I am not precise in my descriptions or if I say things that don't make sense.

I recently purchased a 98 Grand Cherokee Limited, V8 4.7 L (despite the year, it is a WJ of the 99-04 series) in quite good shape but unfortunately, a truck cut in front of me and I hit it straight on.

Luckily neither of us was going too fast but my poor WJ sustained most of the damage, and the bumper crossbar bent in badly, pushing the condenser and the radiator, which cracked. The fan shroud, which holds the electric fan, also broke, and the hood, although it didn't get hit directly, bent quite badly, pushed up by the latch on the upper bumper bar.

I got the frame pulled and straightened so that I could fix the situation with a friend.
I got a new grille/light holder, bumper bar, and a new radiator and I dropped by our local junkyard for the remaining parts (Fox Auto, with a well furnished U-Pull section) which had lots of Grand Cherokees, but just one matching year and version, but not color.

And here is my question:
Since there are many 98-04 Laredo's, would it be fine if I take the hood and the latch from them?
I spotted a '02 Laredo in perfect shape and exactly my color, but I want to make sure it fits my Jeep before I get it.

Also, I was looking at the fan shrouds (with the attached electric fan), but none seemed to look like mine.
The ones I have seen are round and go across the whole diameter of the shroud, while mine is a square "box" fan.
Can I use the shroud with the round fan on my model?


Thank you for your help and suggestions,

Clement

P.s. not related to the accident but something I wanted to change as well:
1. fuel tank skid plate
2. heating blend doors

Can I take the parts from the Laredos even if my Jeep is a Limited?

Welcome to the site Clement !

Good luck getting it a fixed up.

Thank you for the reply.
My Jeep is certainly a WJ of the later series (98?/99-2004), although technically it was built at the end of 98 (or at least so it seems from the documents), hence my post.
My perplexities are about the different versions (Limited vs Laredo, V6 vs V8) within the same same period (98/99-2004)/model (WJ).

Do the hoods match?
And the Fan shrouds?

Thank you,
Clement

Thanks :)

If you have a WJ, any of the WJ hoods should fit as well as the latches. FYI, many manufacturers build vehicles in the year before they are advertised to build up inventory and get a jump on the model year advertised. You really have a 99 just to clear up any confusion. IIRC the blend doors are different between Laredo and Limited. On has a single door and the other has two for dual temp controls

Thank you for the information. I am glad the hoods match.
I'll try to figure something for the blend doors and I've just find a video that might help me fix them.

Now I just need to find out about the fan shroud

Do you need the electric fan that goes inside the shroud. I think I have the shroud too

Thank you for the replies and sorry for my delay, but I was swamped the past two days.
I am planning on trying to fix things today (finally).
I'll let you know if I have trouble finding the piece so in case we can arrange for next week.

Best

Look at the label on the side of the driver's door. It should have the build date (month & year) of your vehicle. Usually anything built during July will be sold as the next year's model. My 2000 WJ was built in August of 99. In the beginning there were some changes made during the first couple of years of production when they found what worked and what didn't. For instance some 99's had a clutchfan as well as an electric fan. My 2000 only has an electric fan that's a single speed 2-wire one, but has a low speed provided by a pulse-modulated relay that's controlled by the PCM. Those relays get hot and are mounted underneath the right front headlight support and are difficult to get to. Later models had a 2-speed 3-wire fan with 2 relays in the PDC. Some idiot engineer decided to use a hydraulic fan in the 4.7 V8 jeeps in 2002 that was a PITA from day one! VERY expensive to fix or replace. It was driven by the power steering pump and usually leaked! I will provide a picture of that pulse-modulated relay in the end of this post.

The 99 model was the first to use the "clean block" 4.0 that is different from the earlier ones in the fact that the motor mounts have been moved rearward, the oil filter screws directly into the side of the block, and the cylinder head was redesigned. This is the infamous 0331 head that has a history of cracking. This is not to scare you, but to make you informed to watch for it. Not all of them crack, but the possibility is good.

The reason they moved the motor mounts was to balance the 4.7 V8 in the WJ and that required changing the block on the 4.0 so they could still use it in the WJ. They couldn't just drill 2 sets of holes, right? That would be too easy! So now the earlier 4.0's won't mount in the WJ without a lot of custom work.

A good reference for information about your jeep is wjjeeps.com. Here's that picture of the fan relay;
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...8d42b3bde9.jpg

I must be getting old! After that long post, I re-read the whole thread and realized you have the 4.7L! Oh well, you just increased your knowledge about WJ's!

Thank you, Dave.
Anything Jeep related is interesting :)
By the way, I am now having crazy electrical issues :( (https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f5/99-...-crazy-248682/)

Yea, model year and calendar year are typically not the same thing when it comes to the automotive world.

Crazy electrical issues can usually be contributed to dirty connectors or low voltages caused by bad grounds. Everything in your WJ is interconnected on a data bus where all the modules interact with each other. Not only that, but they operate on 5 volts which makes clean connections super important. All high voltage (12v) systems controlled by the PCM go thru digital drivers or relays. "This ain't you father's Oldsmobile" comes to mind. I'm 74 years old and have a good automotive background, but it took me quite a while to figure out how this system works. The major problem is I have yet to find any circuit diagrams for the digital stuff.