Hello All

We inherited a 1997 cherokee 4 dr with the 4.0 engine. My youngest son really liked it so we decided to get it up and running for his first car. This jeep had not been driven in 9 years, and was sitting under a carport in East Tennessee. It is a 1997 and it had 77,000 original miles i think it is a ZW? The owners had bought it for there mountain home and just got to old to drive it. I borrowed a big trailer and we went up and got it and towed it back to NE Florida. We have done most all of the basics, and have it running good. Of course we had to put a 1.5 inch leveling kit and black wheels and 31 inch all terrain tires on it so it would look proper for a junior in high school. We think the next thing that needs to be done to the truck would be to redo the front end. The steering has quite a bit of play so i was thinking of ordering him a front end rebuild kit. We do not need anything fancy, just a good price kit that covers most everything since the original stuff is 25 years old and i am sure all of the bushing and such are shot.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, along with any advice. Now that i see he really likes the jeep i think we are going to make it good for him for the next 4 or 5 years.

I will put a picture of it below, this was the night we got the tires and wheels on.

Cheers.

 

Man, what a nice dad! Congrats. I can't help much on the front end. I'm in the process of rebuilding my front differential and I'm pretty sure I will be knocking on $500 by the time I'm finished with it. And that doesn't include any new steering parts like tie rods, track bars, etc. Just hubs, u-joints, rotors, pads, ball joints, gaskets, sandblasting, paint, one knuckle, yoke...

Someone with more knowledge than me will be along soon to help you spend your money...er..make your son's ride right!

 

That would be a Grand Cherokee (ZJ) versus a regular Cherokee (XJ). The forum for the Grands is https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f5/

Before you start shotgunning poor quality aftermarket parts at it, crawl under the front end and do some noggin-pokin as some members here call it. Have someone crank the wheel back and forth while you look and feel for slop in the tie-rods, track bar, ball joints, etc. You're right that 25 years, the rubber bushings may be rotted, but at 77k miles I doubt any joints are bad.

 

Good luck with your truck. It looks like i may have posted in the wrong forum.

Cheers

 

Ok, that is good advice. I will move my post over to the correct place.

Cheers

 

Moved for ya