PecanMan

Hey fellow Jeep owners. My name is Jim and I just wanted to stop by and introduce myself. I live in the ‘Borderland’ and have recently found/joined this forum. In June I got married and my wife was driving a POS 1999 Ford Explorer. I had a 2005 GTO that I loved (key word there was HAD). I only drove the car about once a month and tinkered on it as I got the time( 05 Duramax is DD). I felt bad that I had a nice car parked in the garage that I never drove and decided to trade it in on a 2011 Equinox LTZ (wife’s choice). So, there I was not having a fun weekend vehicle. All my buddies go on trail rides through the desert about twice a month and I was always stuck riding *****…lol. It was last week when I started thinking , “Hey, you know what, I need to get a Jeep on my own and kill two birds with one stone”(no more riding ***** and weekend vehicle).

After only web searching for about an hour I ran across the perfect ride, a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It was perfect with the 5.2 V8, only 110K miles, 4x4 and Limited trim model. I had one in high school and always loved that thing. Even though it was 1995 GC Laredo 2wd, it was a blast.

Well I called the dealership that had the Jeep and made a trip up there to check it out. WOW, it was way nicer than I had imagined. They were asking $6k, which was way too much for a weekend beater, so I decided to go out on a limb and make a ridiculous offer of $3500 just to see their reaction. To my surprise they salesman looked at me dead in the eyes and says “Deal!” I was shocked but managed to keep that to myself! I immediately called the wife and had her run a car fax report. When she called me back I was again surprised that it came up perfectly clean.

I chatted with the salesman for a little bit and it turns out he grew up in the town my family was from(real small town). So he took it upon himself to take the Jeep back to the shop and told the service manager to check this Jeep out and anything wrong with it to fix it. Only thing they could find, and myself included, was bad front rotors, pads, and windshield wipers. So as I was waiting on them to finish the Jeep the salesman handed me all the records that were in the car from the previous owner. Turns out she had the Jeep serviced about every 3000 miles there at the dealership, all documents proved that. He told me the lady was an older lady and was very particular on who even worked on her car at the dealership. I guess she had some select techs that she trusted.

Now on to my plans for this Jeep. I picked up a 3.5 inch suspension lift and a safari style roof rack over the weekend. I was thinking about also purchasing 2in spacers for a little extra height. I am not sure how that would work, I need to do some research. If any of you guys know please shoot me a PM or let me know where I can find out. Same thing with the treadwright.com tires.

I really look forward to gaining knowledge from this site! Thanks in advance guys, take it easy.

Gee oh Dee

Nice find! Welcome!

Toss up some pics if you can!

PecanMan

Thanks alot! Here ya go:

Gee oh Dee

Wow, thats super clean! And for $3500 with the V8?

Sweet deal, man!

OverlandZJ

Very Nice! Congrats and welcome to CF.

You have a few good parts already that you'll find usefull.. the transfer skid plate and rear receiver.

What transfercase do you have? The 249 would have just 4WD HI and 4WD Low. You really do not want to run too big a tire/lift combo with the fulltime transfer. But there are swaps you can do that arent very difficult to eliminate that issue.

At anything over a 3ish inch lift you'll want to get an SYE.. which eliminates the slip yoke and driveshaft for a fixed yoke and dual cardan shaft. This will eliminate vibes associated with the lift.

There is not an SYE kit available for the 249.. so a 5"ish lift would beed the transfercase swap i mentioned earlier.

Keep in mind the taller you want your Jeep the more costly it will become to do it correctly.

x91j

Yay another zj!! Welcome to CF!

ol"blue

Welcome to CF. Great deal on a great looking ZJ.

PecanMan

Thanks man! Yeah, I have noticed not many ZJ owners on here...mainly cherokee guys. Its cool though, throughout all my rading so far it seems everyone here is really helpful. I was on LS1GTO.com when I had my GTO and there sure were alot of jerks on there. They for some reason thought their **** didnt stink. Oh well, done with that site. CF-FTMFW!

PecanMan

Well, it's been a while since I have had time to let you guys know how the project is coming. So far I have added:
KOR winch bumper with stinger
RC 9k Winch
2-4 inch HID lights
Roof rack
6- 7 inch roof rack lights (HID converted)
Safari Snorkel
7 inch IRO Premium Long Arm Kit
IRO OTK Steering upgrade
35x12.50 KM2's
15 inch black powder coated Steelies
CB and other nick-nacks.

Here are the pics as it sits now. Let me know what I should do next. I have an Aussie locker for the rear to install. Trying to decide on gear ratio to install. Give me some input if you guys can. Thanks

MUDRUNNER AZ

With the 35's you can go 4.56 or 4.88. I am going 456 in my 98 5.9l. With the v8 power it should be fine. My xj i had 35' and 4.88's for years and was good. Alot depends on how you plan to use it and how much stuff you pile in.

PecanMan

Yeah, even now with the 3.73's and 4lo I have plenty of power. Just looking to upgrade and give my self a weekend project. Do you know of a write up for the d44a and d30 gear install?

1slo_camaro

the kit you have is that their 1500 front Long arm only kit? ive been looking at it ALOT and really realyl really like it! how do your tires ride? rub? any cutting? what else did you do with the kit? obviously SYE and longer front DS but anything else? hwo do you like the kit?


sorry lol like i said i really like the idea of it and what ive seen, if im dropping a decent penny i wanna make sure i get all area covered and ANY other pics would be amazing!!! ecspecially some with it on flat ground so i can see how it looks

PecanMan

No. It's not the 1500 dollar kit. It's the front and rear long arm kit, of think 2500.

The tires ride great, especially with the long arms, nice and smooth.

I actually did some minor trimming on the rear quarter panels and hammered the front pinch welds in the fender well flat so I didn't rub at full lock with max flex. Both were easy and not a big deal at all with the 4inch backspacing.

No SYE was required or different front driveshaft. I spoke with the guys at IRO and they said it was a direct bolt up kit even with the 249. I was a little werry about that, but it turned out they were right. To my surprise with the 249 it was a direct bolt on kit. Only thing I added to the kit was the OTK steering because j did not want to mess with putting a bend I'm my steering with a press. So I upgraded that as well. I do mostly sand and rock here in the desert and I have not had a problem. I love the kit! You get what you pay for and this kit is the ****! I had never installed a lift before and I had zero issues. Let me know if I can help you Any more'

1slo_camaro

yea i would love to do the full Long arm kit, but im a broke *** and cant afford another 1000 dollars lol not right now atleast. and with what you said its making me wanna order it right now!!!! and i forget who it is but someone has a FULL steering kit for like 350 or something and its for a 6-8 in lift i think and thats what i plan on doing and prolly do a SYE while im in there anyways, only a few more bucks (in the grand scheme of things lol) and a pretty easy swap....


the best thing i want is some more pics. LIKE alot lol your jeep is JUST about exactly how i want mine.. im not exactly sure where your located but i have a rear bumper that matches your front

PecanMan

Here is one on level ground. My little cousin is standing next to the ZJ and he is a little under 5ft to give ya some scale. It was before I aligned the control arms so the front and rear a little swished together.