I have a well used 1995 jeep cherokee sport, it's pretty stock other than a little wore out suspension lift. I am wanting to pull the body off the frame so i can overhaul it. Im wanting to use a chevy 350... and that's about all i can think of. I know i'm wantin to replace the axles, transmition, transfer case, lift, electrical, etc. And also i'm wantin to be able to run a 37 inch tire. but, i dont know what all i'll need to replace and i dont want to run into this without already having everything bought. so if there is anyone that has ever done anything like this that could educate me then i'd appriciate the help.

 

well....let me stop you right there.

the XJ is a unibody

 

Haha, gonna say, idk about that frame off resto... Haha.. Either way, the engines in our XJ's are pretty awesome, but a big ol v8 never hurt! So consider making sure its ready for all the engine by adding frame stiffeners, I think a company called TNT makes them? And at least one locker and some good tread. Other than that the XJ is usually solid. Just be wary of electrical gremlins!

 

why not just swap your axles out for a set of fullwidth 44's? or 60's or whatever. that would be plenty to run 37's and would require much less downtime than swapping out the motor/trans/tcase.

 

Yeah... Frame off resto's are Really hard to do on xj's.

 

I've been thinking about this too, seperate the body and frame, strengthen it, add bolts(4-5) on each side and add spacer, prob have to drop tcase and angle trans a lil though... A really great idea that us xj oweners will over come over time haha

 

The only way to do a frame off resto is to take a vehicle that does not use a unibody construction and maybe fit the XJ body atop the entire drivetrain= a whole lot of work for a vehicle that is not a true xj or any other vehicle for that matter. I think it would be better to sell the xj and get another project that you might be more familiar with and leave the xj intact for somone who wants an xj project. Not trying to be mean here jost my .02