Hey guys i'm new to the Cherokee world, buy i'm liking what i'm seeing so far. So I bought my first one the other day. Its a 1990 4dr cherokee 4x4. I know absolutely NOTHING about this thing other than its got a 4 inch lift and 33's and the fenders are cut to hell. Oh and a 8000lbs. warn winch that's all rusted up. I'm hoping it just needs a motor. They seem to be pretty cheap on ebay. Anyway heres my question. My buddy's got a new black ops edition jk on 37's and loves to go rock crawling. He talked me into getting something to play with, hence the xj. My question is I've got about 3 grand to spend on it, and I need to know whats the best way to spend it in order to run with him on the trails. Here's what I've got laying around the house to throw at it: four 36x13.50r15 iroks (75% tread), five 35x13.50r17 nitto mud grapplers (50% tread), 12 bolt rear with 4.56's and detroit, 10 bolt frt with 4.56's and detroit, a 9 inch ford stock, and a high pinion 44 frt (full width). I'd really like to run the iroks since they're just laying around. The grapplers are on my dd. I've got a little garage to build in with some equipment (welder, torch, bandsaw, drillpress, etc..). I'm pretty handy at fab work, mostly cause i'm so cheap. So back to my question. How do i get the most bang for my buck? Keep in mind this will NEVER see the highway. Trail only!

 

get a rear coil conversion kit. fab up the 12 and 10 bolt put those things on there. u dont wanna run 36's on the stock axles. cage it. and u will out wheel the jk :thumbsup

 

up grade the coling system also the pressure bottle set up blows

 

No need to go coil in the rear. Maybe get some quality leafs if your current ones aren't up to par. To run the iroks you should use those axles you have and put them on the XJ. the rear will be easy but the front will take some work. If you don't already have an SYE then get one of those along with a new driveshaft. After all of that, tune your suspension. If it needs more lift, add spacers or taller coils. If it's still on short arms, fab up some long arms. Lastly, get some shock length measurements and buy some decent, appropriate length shocks (ie bilstien). Bump stop and trim accordingly and you should be good!

 

But coils are so sweet

 

Should I leave the 10 and 12 bolts stock length or cut them down? And what kind of cooling upgrade should I do? The guy I got it from put a manual switch on the a/c fan and it doesn't seem to run warm at all.

 

Front D44 (driverside drop) and a big bearing 9" out back

Don't bother with a 9" if its the small bearing.

With big rubber I'd avoid the 10 bolt.

 

This.. on my old 90 xj the best mod I ever did was converting it to an open style cooling system.

 

Ok how do i do that?

 

I bought a coolant reservoir from like a 94 I think, hoses and a universal filler neck from Summit. I think I had something like $80 in the whole swap. When I get home tonight I'll see if I have pics.