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daily driver cherokee build

29K views 89 replies 17 participants last post by  Rytari 
#1 ·
91 xj cherokee build thread, 4.56, d30 arb, long arms, tube sliders etc.

first of all, correct when i wrote something wrong, not so good at your lanquage.

So... i must finaly come out of the.. not closet but...

been reading this forum for some years, finaly desided to join.. and write something...

Previously i drove and build chevys, but couple years ago i deside to find something different


in autum 09 i bought this, 91 limited xj, 4.0, aw4, 242, no abs, 8.25" rear etc.


first year or so i used it onroad purposes only, to work and back mostly, offroading was done with the blazer seen behind.


this one...



biggest "mods" in that time i made were some led reversing lights, replace worn out rear leafs and bored my TB.

In october 2010 i made first proper mod, changed the orginal brake booster to a WJ:s double diaphragm booster


Old booster was so useless when pulling boat trailer that we have at fire dept. so i studied forums and found that wj booster will work.


I found 99 wj booster and main from one junkyard wj, thats not so common in here.



Even when the size difference in distinct only part of the small lid on top of the boosters hole in firewall had to bend upwards to fit new parts.


wj main cylinder pipe fittings are opposite side compared to xj orginal so some pipework needed there also



heres the final product, difference in braking power is... difference like if you are trying to keep up with rowing against outboard motor :)



Also i made some rear axle maintenence, new bearings, seals and lock-right :)



all still fine here, shiny cherokee got nothing to worry about....



begining of year 2011 chevy was dead :(

had to think something new... sure everybody knows what happens next...

first i had to provide some parts...


made couple of these


found from ebay this.


almost every second day came something from the mail or some shipping company, example that shaf above and some 64 4-speed corvette yoke.

those become a sye-kit for my 242


Inside next shippment looked this, new parts for that 242... and some book for extra.



I also bought auxillary fuel heater and fitted it temporarily behind the front bumber.


Heater can be set on by its own timer or remotely with phone, timer next to mirror adjust switch, control unit for the phone remote on side of console.


http://forums.offipalsta.com/picture.php?albumid=2481&pictureid=75317

next i replace orginal viscous+ electric fan with 3 new electric ones.

first i removed old fans, cut 4 mechanical fan attaching bolts little shorter so those wont touch new ones, theres not too much room for those.

made new "shroud" from 1mm sheetmetal, cut 3 holes to it and fitted fans to it. shroud attaches same as orginal plastic one did.

continu....
 
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#2 ·



3 fans, one is connecterd to orginal wiring and operated like orginal one (AC, temp sender in thermostat housing) and for remaining 2 i fittend own sender to lower water hose...

sender is having 2 different termperature areas
82 - 77˙C / 87 - 82˙C
in f... dont know.. something...

so first runs one for a while and if its not enought starts the second one also... not seen all 3 running at same time.

again, delivery of some sort....



arb + compressor and install kit for d30



compressor found its home from the pass side firewall



front locker and compressor switch i fitted to overhead console.



more more... trans cooler, rear r&p + install kit, chromo shafts, some brake parts.

Timo 90xj was selling his old suspension fromhis xj project , price was reasonable so i bought it

3,5" lift, long arm kit and ome shocks.


march 11, now it really begins, i bought some spare wheels.



i drove xj in to my parents garage, small but roof and floor in it, better than outside,

lifted it up and took rear axle out.

http://forums.offipalsta.com/picture.php?albumid=2481&pictureid=77180
i rolled axle outside and went back under the xj




took out the TC


i did know theres some rust under the back seat but found that same beautiful material from the rear floor also.





blaah, too difficult, i rolled rear axle back inside, took it apart, cleaned, weld some truss, fitted new, 4.56 gears and painted whole thing.

http://forums.offipalsta.com/picture.php?albumid=2481&pictureid=77224
Also i throw away those lousy drums and changed those to zj rear disc



again something, title says "electric Blender"



long cable, and heavy, this is not any milkshake blender...


ep 9.0


i was little dissapointed, superwinch didnt provided any sticker with it, damn, it would been nicely fitted there.



back to work, fitted new bearing and seals to 242.


i took transfers rear shaft to work and cut it correct lenght for the sye, the drilled and tapped end of it.



heres my homemade "hack & tap" sye.
242 got also new chain nd i fitted it back to place



from timo came new leafs, and shakles, whit those i fitted rear axle back where it belongs.
 
#3 ·

welding.. must do some...



both sides under the rear seat looked like this.





i cut rusted areas out and made new pieces from some sheet.



did do some cutting to rear panels also.



i didnt want to use old bumber anymore so i purhaced some more material and made my own.

material in 100mm x 40mm x 2.5mm Rectangular steel pipe



some 3mm plate, 50x5mm flat bar and 50x50 square pipe used here.



flat bar uses all 4 holes where old hitch was bolted



on the sides on bumber goes also some 50x50 pipe toward the rear wheelwells

after welding i pressure tested the bumber, its used also as air tank for compressor.



painted and ready



next stop.. again some teardown....




out goes old trans braket and control arms...



in comes some t&T bellypan


and long arms.



also kit includes lowered and beefed tracbar mount.



front axle got amlost same treatment as rear, little truss, seals, bearings, and paint.



also i fitted that arb locker and cromo shafts+ 760x joints.






first flex testing with new setup.



during the days jeep sat alone in the garage it started to leak coolant, badly... so i had to change new waterpump before driving anywhere.



next step, tires.. 31" km2:s on original rims.



after i got tires and tested some flex and fittment i started to make some protections for the body, first rocksliders





then some axle cover armor...
 
#4 ·
Winch bumber.



i took some 6mm steel, made couple of bends and cut some holes.



took some more steel plate, 4mm this time and weld it on the sides of frame rails



this is some quickly made steering box spacer.



so i weld that 6mm winch bed to its place, took some 50x50x3 pipe and made some bumber around it.



new bumber is slightly lighter than orginal one + "bull bar" (chikenbar more likely) fitted before.



add some tow points to it also.



after winch on its place i made some pipework around to protect doors and fenders so it wont end up looking like potato sack (or my old blazer)




first test trip, bend my steering and lost my mirror



took some chevy TRE:s, and made new steering rods from thick wall pipe, those were strpng enoght for the heawy chevy, must keep up with this also.





with a winch taking so much power i had to fit 160A alternator


I fitted some switch panel to behind the shifter, first from the right is winch in/out, second is winch on/off, next is main power, i have fitted dual 95ah agm batteries in the trunk and i have electric main power cut out switch. left one is tiptronic/tcm selection

From this forum i found instructions how to made some "tiptronic" to my aw4 so i made braket for some 4 way joystick on the side of console for it.



worn out tranfer case linkage caused transfer case jumping out the gear sometimes so i ented shifter end little and made this one bar setup.



sometimes you can find something good from the japanese tosters and washingmachines they call cars also, 90s mazda seats, i like those, some side support, warm at winter, cheat..., no not cheap, didnt paid anything from those :)
 
#5 ·


now we have reached this year in my build... didnt have time or money to fit anything else so i just bought new rotors, calibers etc. for front before this years vehicle inspection.





winter came late this year, still we have enought snow( more than half meter, 2 feet many places) to stop my jeep going



and when the going stops, sometimes happens this, i broke my driver side front shaft, cross of the 760 spicer hold but cups came out from the side of the inner axle "ears", not the first chromo i have broke but definitetly first one on the road, with 31" tires :)


i have repaired my old header some 2 or 3 times but its been cracked some other place soon after so i bought new one some time ago... just havent got time to change it.

now i have ordered new camshaft from comp to it so maybe ill change header at same time than with it.


low end torq, thats what i want more, i miss my 350sb a bit, reason why i order that new camshaft in first place...

injector change, step one in project more torq, i fitted 4 hole injectors that i found from ebay lately.




allready that made noticeable difference, i took some "seat of the pants dyno testing" before and after injector change

from the 0- to... it is quicker and pulls at 1500 rpm now with same effort that i did 2200 rpm before... if you understant what i mead with it...

how to explain... difficult... 2000 rpm 4th some uphill an it drops 3rd w/ old ones... now it wont, dont even have to press more pedal to maintain speed and rpm. not even 1500 rpm 4th gear it sound like its working too hard.


heres the last one now, some more protection under the winch bed, snow and woodsticks are always trying to go between belt and pulleys so i made this plate to close gap between bumper and front axle.


its attached to the bottom of winch bed with 4 M6 sized bolts and 2 M8:s on both sides of front frame rails.
 
#6 ·


today i made some "cleaning the corners" work and found this, traction bar from the chevys old rear-axle, just what jeep needs.

some years ago i sold laser cutted traction bar mounting brackets that i provide from one local company, i had one pair, orginally for toyotas locker axles but with some cut and paste those became suitable for my lightly trussed 8.25"



old bar was already bend little, but in a good way, it pointed near the tunnel so just made some reinforcement from 3mm plate, weld it to the floor pan and attach bushing to it.

previously i had dense torque steer and rear axle was lively, beating hard, especially when reversing, i thought that fitting traction bar to driver side should even more increase that torque steer but none of that or jumping remains anymore.
 
#9 ·
Very cool... you have great ideas. glad to see you put it to use. I like you home made SYE. Have you had any problems with it?
 
#12 ·


Yesterday i got something different... looked like this.

Also been thinking about making some cowl intake, but not that type where filter is fitted inside cowl, too difficult to see, clean and change from there, THOR system feels better, but really dont know what size filter could be fitted inside cowl from firewall...
 
#13 ·
I'm sorry but even a years worth of work, you have been busy!! LOL. You have done quite a bit to your Jeep any way you look at it. It looks great. Maybe you should go with an external cage on that thing. It looks like you have been getting into the trees with the body.
 
#15 ·
some bigger meeting on weekend, called "winterwar safari" nice weather, snow, snow and snow... also evening whet it got little darker started to rain.. water...

here some pictures that somebody took there...

nothing much, dont know where are all cameras when needed most.

as you can see from those i was there also with my xj, all went well, i like the traction what those studded km2´s have but broke one tire, stone went trough sidewall, dont know if it could be fixed.


but time to move on, i drove jeep in to garage and start tearing it to pieces...

first i took out grill, lights the fiber front piece etc.



Next i took out radiator and trans cooler, ac condenser i just move as much to passenger side that i could without disconnecting hoses from it.
i took this picture just to memorize belt routine, i dont have orginal routine picture from it, its gone with the fan shroud to thrash.


After thousands of millions wires and hoses i finally got intake out and could see the header, its been leaking a year or so, been fixing it couple times before from the collector but still leaking.


old vs. new header comparison, you can see some white in old header.



some closer look, pipe is almost completely cut, only some half inch area on right from it still intact.



front pipe, 1st cylinder, same thing


rear one 6th, not so bad but not any better...

i have rad that header is prone to crack fot two reasons, bad motor mounts and bad luck :)



this is my motor mount from under the header.. not too baaaad :)

have to make new ones i think...



this is how it looks now, have to continue when i got more time, first i make and install new mounts and after that ill be maybe removing head or something like that.
 
#19 ·
scares you maybe but that is mostly only choice part shops sell here that is allowed to use for brake lines in europe, stainless maybe would be good (except galvanic corrosion) but steel not, dont want to make new ones every second year cause old ones are rusted away like steel ones always tend to do.
 
#21 ·
still i need more info about head milling, today i lapped valves and did some port grinding.



For exhaust i lowered short side radius, not much, and opened throat behind the valve, there was some differences on casting in every port, now all are approx pound ans same sized. And intake, there i only matched port entry to my gasket holes and last grind all port walls casting little smoother.


Earlier up there is picture of driver side motor mount on its place, this is the better one from pass. side.


I had couple of spare control arm bushings that i kept just for this mod, i took some 5x50mm steel bar, drill one 12mm hole and one M10 threaded hole to it fit M10 bolt to threaded hole, secured it from behind by weld, cut some more steel and result seen here...

I made new ones 10mm higher than old ones so ill be able to pull cam out without lifting engine.



control arm bushing is little narrower than original one so i cut couple washers from the old so it wont bend engine side bracket when tightening the bolt that goes to it.
 
#25 ·


There.

Yesterday i assembled valves and springs to head, fitted it in place and torqued to specs, some of seals for the timing cover still missing so i just install those "in and out breathing tubes" on side of it.

For the lifter preload issue... I made 12 washers, .022 thick and will be fitting those under the rocker bridges, hope that works well.
 
#26 ·


After some delay i finally manage to do something this week... one day i took oil filter adapter, cleaned and painted it and change all 3 o-rings, found those from local shop that sells bearings, agricultural parts, tools etc. stuff, cost about $5.



today i assembled all remaining parts, filled oil and coolant.


rotated oil pressure in the engine and started it... it took some time before it even try to run but i made few 5 second starts and it woke up.

I raised rpm over 2000 and kept it around 2000-2500 for some 20 minutes for the cams break in. there was some smoke coming out
(header wrap) like from the magicians tent but after first 10 minutes it stopped. after heat up temp remain nicely at 190f.


After break in i changed oil + filter and went to test drive.

its different. so much different, wery strong low torque, and pulling hard from 2k up to 4500rpm. after that seem some lack of power...or should i say lack of juice and it looses some power from top end.

trans is little annoying, nothing much i can live with it.

on low speed it upshifts every 10 feet when driving like normal peoples tend to drive :) and 4th seems too big for 25mph... i use 3rd instead of Drive like i been doing before.

but when i floor it, engine goes to rev limiter in 1st, sometimes also 2nd before trans manages to upshift, sound like some teen bmw mall racer (and looses some precious time during acceleration, so can loose in trafficlight race to one :) )

manually shifting from my "tiptronic" it goes better.
 
#29 ·

Some wheeling on weekend, broke side mirror, cut my winch rope and so on...
My rear locker, powertrax no-slip also quit working, sometimes it pulls one wheel, rarely both but occasionally not pullin at all... like advertisements says, its quiet... not any sound coming from rear :)


even when my rear locker is not working i still took out front hubs etc.



i got this new axle shaft so i change it...


...and fitted new u-joint to both sides, alloy usa joints, dont know if any better or what compared to 760x that i got previously but atleast those are greasable.
 
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