G_P

This morning i noticed that my rear drivers side is sitting a tad low.... Upon a quick inspection I noticed that my shock was severly rotted and looked like it had completely collapsed. I went to Napa and got 2 new shocks. I stopped off at my parents house to make a quick visit and my father came out and was looking at the XJ. He put his foot on the rear bumper on the drivers side and went to push down to check the shock and the damn bumper fell off!

Turns out that the drivers side mount was almost completely rotted away. After a quick fix with some channel iron and a few bolts I had the bumper secured temporarily. I went home and started jacking up the back end to do the shocks when i noticed that my damn drivers side rear leaf spring mount had snapped off!! I hate rust!!!

I dont have time to be fixing these things as the XJ is my daily driver so it now sits in the shop and im driving a pontiac i borrowed from my parents.

What else is going to fail? the front axle tried to rust off and fall out and now the rear did the same. I think this Cherokee is trying to kill me!

Oh yeah....my power steering pump is also making a whining noise too........

mobilecherokee4

wow that sucks man, but that sounds like life to me, ya never get a break, it's always somethin!

Oath

Didn't you just put an c8.25 from a 98 onto your current rig? Unless that one was rusted it seems pretty strange. Now you could always get rid of the stock bumper and get a stronger one, if it was stock. But, you saying this makes me feel pretty uneasy about my 91.

G_P

No the rear 8.25 was stock.

I swapped in the front D30 out of a 98 into my rig due to the pass side mounts rotting off causing the axle to nearly end up under my XJ. somehow the rear axle has survived pretty rust free with the exception of the diff cover which i have cleaned up and painted.

Rust really sucks. I keep finding it in the strangest places. The floorboards of my rig are fine probably due to a huge oil leak from the oil filter adapter that soaked everything under there in oil for years before i got it. The bumper is in perfect shape with no rust and the body where the bumper mount attaches to is mint with the factory paint still shiny yet the mount itself has rotted to the point that you can poke your finger through what looks like 3/16" thick metal. Living in new england sucks. Especially since CT switched last year to using pure salt on all state roads instead of a sand/salt mix.

If you drive with the windows down on a wet highway in the winter you can taste the salt in the air as if you were standing on the beach.......

I see you live in Middlesex county as well. If you see a dark blue Cherokee Country with a silver rear diff cover and 2 dump stickers on the back drivers window feel free to say Hi!

Destro

That really sucks man! Living in the midwest rust belt all my life it is just something I am used to. My XJ is rusted out in some places and looks near mint in others- very strange. Thankfully the XJs are pretty low tech- some scrap metal/tubing and a welder is all you need to get functional again. It sucks, but at least it isn't as bad as trying to replace the birdcage in my old C3 Corvette. :-)