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1992 XJ Build

6K views 52 replies 13 participants last post by  fedx95 
#1 · (Edited)
Bought this 1992 beauty with only 94,000 miles on it and in perfect condition for $2,000 off craigslist. I'll get 10 good years out of this thing for sure if I take care of it. But first I have to make it look good and get out there and put it to work. The rear leafs sag so bad, they literally bow the wrong way. But it does have the beloved Chrysler 8.25:D Has a tag on the back that says "Police Interceptor" Ha I think thats cool. Few little things wrong with it, but nothing mechanical. Roll down windows are missing the knob, but i rigged up a custom bolted knob ha, two different color door handles....at least its the same on both sides....idk.... theres gotta be story behind that. It's one of those Cherokees that if you hit it, it works, my rear running lights weren't working and i noticed this the night after i bought it. Went to the back gave it one good open handed slap on both sides and they've worked fine ever since. That is when i fell in love.
 

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#2 · (Edited)
First me and my buddies threw on my 3" Rusty's Lift with full leaf packs. Was pretty easy to install, my buds have put in a few lifts before so 4 of us got it done in under 6 hours. No real problems other than getting that freaking stock trak bar lined up, it was a great experience.

I had to go test out the lift, so it doesnt look that great casue i still have my whimpy 235 tires on there, gotta cut the fenders and through on some 32"s, also added front tow hooks.
 

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#3 · (Edited)
I found some 32x11.50x15 on craigslist, two of them have 90% tread and the other two have about 35%, got all 4 for $180! Sweet Deal, I ordered my brand new Cragar soft 8 rock crawler rims, 15x8 / 4" backspacing, they looks sweet and only $38 bucks a piece! Thanks you summit racing.

Trimmed the fenders a bit, but they look like crap here, so i did more later. My fron't coils are really really soft, they take dips and whoops great, but i'm pretty sure they're saggin only a month after, so ordered some 1.75" spacers for 30 bucks, that way ill get my 32's on there. The fron't coils from rustys are a little too soft, but the full leafs are amazing, my rear sits higher than my buds w/ a 4.5 rough country add a leaf. I don't know whats up with this thing's previous owner but when i changed the tires i seriously had 3 different sizes off lug nuts....and it wasn't like each tire had a different size either, it was completely mismatched and everything.... standard and metric, it was really odd. I believe it was 17mm 18mm and 3/4...weird....

So heres the rims and tires and a little mud too
 

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#4 ·
I have a Midland CB in there now and a 3' fire stick, also hooked up a PA speaker and that thing is awesome. I found a guy who makes bumpers and racks for XJ's on craigslist so i called him up and he fabricated me this nice rack for only $180 bucks.

I bought some lights for the rack but the tabs where on the inside off the rack so my lights wouldn't fit, so i cut off the tabs and welded them onto the front and grinded them nice and smooth. Got 4 6" 55w off road light and 2 back up lights off ebay for $60, I'm a bargin shopper. Also welded on some tabs for the reverse lights.
 

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#5 ·
Cleaned her up a bit, changed the oil, tranny fluid and filter, both differential and transfer case which really needed a change. Gave her a good wash and trimmed the fenders a tad more to stop rubbing when i flexed and made them nice and smooth.

Bought a brand new 60" Hi lift, $59 online with coupons, gotta find the deals! Mad my own high lift rack from home depot for $8 ha and drilled through a 1/2 bolt and put a little master lock on it so that hi-lift stays mine.

Pretty much done for now, might add an adj trak bar and 4.5 rough country coils, but for now i'm good, i can go over 90 without death wobble so no need to change the trak bar other than a little better flex. I need some bumpers though, that'll probably be next unless i find some stuff for really cheap.

So here's my baby as of now
 

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#6 ·
Just ordered a Lock-Right for my front Dana 30, should be here next week, along with two brand new BFG's. Gonna have a nice week of work ahead of me, gotta put in that locker and also going to put in new u-joints on my front drive shaft, I think thats where a small rattle is coming from, and one of them is a little loose actually. Finally get to work on the Jeep a bit, she's comein up on 100,000 miles, so in Jeep years i'd say he's hitting puberty, my boy is becoming a man this week!
 
#7 · (Edited)
The D30 Lock-Right is in! Took a little longer than expected and actually removed the entire carrier with the ring, but everything was marked and put in exactly how it came out, just finished tonight, so tomorrow morning I'm changing the oil and going to test out the locker! The directions where pretty vague in my opinion, I've never put in a locker before, but all the components where not labeled anywhere so i had a few small speed bumps but did get it all in in just over 2 hours, I gotta get my new tires now!
 

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#8 ·
The locker at work! Of course if you ever have taken a videos you know that video's don't do what your climbing justice, its always more brutal actually being there, but here's a quick video i just took. My rear tires are still bald, and it does look better full screen, I'm disappointed with how it turned out but I still think it's cool.
YouTube - Tom's Cherokee Ledge Climb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qooF4sSga5A
 
#9 ·
The 92 XJ finally broke 100k and entered the next stage of it's life, but of course something had to break so the crappy $52 battery decided to kill itself, finally. Just another reason to upgrade, Yellow Top! Of course it was freaking raining while I had to replace it haha
 

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#10 · (Edited)
I finally broke down and decided to get and adjustable trac bar. I picked up a rough country adj for fairly cheap, it took some real manhandling to get that old trac bar out ha. I'm excited cause now my axle is centered, my control arms are straight and my driver bumpstop doesn't rub on my coil anymore! Who-Hoo! Now i realize how off it was before and nice not to hear that dam bumpstop, and i greased the crap outta it too in case you didn't notice, next mod is gonna be some rock sliders! Lookin at ajs super rock rails they seem pretty darn solid for $300 shipped.
 

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#12 · (Edited)
I don't have a lot of pictures of me wheelin, but i do have some pictures of the aftermath of my trips. No, I do not pin it to win it, i just do things that i shouldnt technically be allowed to do. My control arms has seen better days, along with my crossmember. Everyone beats their jeep up a bit, so i decided to post a few picks of what has happened over my adventures. She still purrs and runs perfectly, dam tank.
 

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#13 ·
Some older pictures of me playing in the jeep. And the one photo is the same ledge i climbed in the video above, the video made it look wussy though. Someone snapped a good action shot in the mud though, can you say desktop background? Ha o ya.
 

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#15 ·
Ya I seriously need some skids, I'm gonna get some rock sliders within a month and after that I'm going to go down the street to the scrap yard, find some steel and attempt to weld up some engine, tranny, and t case skids that i can bolt up. All the designs i've seen are pretty simple and I have no problem with self tapping into the unibody, getting pretty excited, it's gonna be a tank sometime soon.
 
#17 · (Edited)
The "Police Interceptor" tag looks exactly like that one on the crown vics, my buds like to tell me the last owner snapped it off one and glued it on my hatch. But i like to tell myself it's legitimate, they did used to have police issue Cherokees and oddly enough one of the most common years was the '92. Either way i still think its badass. I don't seem to notice any difference from any other xj's but it does work my other buddies xj ha. Also, it only having 94k miles for a 92 when i bought it makes me think that it is possible that it just sat in a police or a desert yard for a few years and that it was only driven a few times every now and then. If thats the case, then this thing was probably beat to **** everytime it was driven haha, but boy does it know how to handle punishment.
 

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#19 ·
Got it off craigslist, a guy in San Diego was making them, he still has adds on there every now and then trying to sell them, if your in that area. Now he's asking 220 for it instead of the 180 i got mine for, he makes bumpers and stuff too.
 
#22 ·
Hit up Pick a part today, found myself a t-case skid and nice looking gas tank skid for $25!, put them on today and pics tomorrow.... I'm working on the skid issue I have haha, slowly becoming bulletproof.
 
#23 · (Edited)
Both the skids are in and look good! The gas tank is way stronger and way better than that stupid little plastic guard, I literally just ripped it off to put on the new one. I also decided that i was gonna replace my headliner fabric because it was sagging so bad and glue and push pins could only do so much.

So i was taking off all the outter plastic borders so that i could get the fiberglass out and re-pollster (with the fabric of my choice :shhh:) Regardless I ended up getting angry and ripping the fiberglass to pieces.... so now im sportin the bare metal look which i actually really like, I'm gonna throw a good coat of primer grey on there to match the inside and call it a day.
 

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#25 ·
nice jeep!! thats a clean rack! and have you driven with the front locker in snow yet?
 
#26 ·
Thanks man and no I haven't used the locker in the snow yet, I go up snowboarding in the mountains a few times a year and always make 330 mile road trip to Mammoth Mountain each year, took the jeep last year and it performed awesome, but ya there was no locker at the time. Kinda nervous but ill find out this season.

This pic was from last season, 16" overnight, put it in 4 low and drove around the parking lot, before the snow plow came haha it was a blast.
 

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#27 ·
Re-painted my roof rack and added two new 6" pro-comp spot lights and two older daylighters. All wired up and have my customized draw string as a switch ha, looking for a good set of 33's on craigslist now. After i find a pair gonna grab a 2" shackles and some RC 4.5 coils and use my 1.75 spacer too, getting excited.
 

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#29 ·
any chance you want to sell the cheapo lights you just replaced, or better yet.... do you have a link to where you got the new ones? XJ is looking SWEET! Just like everyone else, I love the rack. For the pull string....how about a little matchbox Jeep or something? or... lugnut.... or ...I don't know that eyeball is pretty f'n cool :D
 
#30 ·
I actually broke two of the rock guards on the older lights the other day ha after i bought the new ones, and i might mount them on the side somewhere ha running through ideas at the moment, so I'm not selling them but these are very similar to the ones i bought if your interested 4 55W DODGE FORD TOYOTA OFF ROAD FOG/DRIVING LIGHTS: eBay Motors (item 390222710193 end time Aug-05-10 16:47:43 PDT)

However, i would not recommend them, they sucked so bad, granted they looked cool but i rarely use them, they actually just made it harder to see because they shot short and so broad that it reflected off the hood and everything right back into your eyes, but the reverse lights are actually pretty effective, so i use them a lot. You can get pro-comp 6" spots for 30 a piece and those are dam bright, so I'd save up and get those for sure if I were to do it again.

Ha and i like the matchbox jeep idea, I do need to make a trip to Wallmart ha, might be taken a strol down the toy isle.
 
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