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jedired's '98 XJ Build

10K views 50 replies 12 participants last post by  jedired 
#1 ·
Back in March of 2007 I bought my first Jeep. It's a '98 XJ with 96k miles on the clock.

I'm having trouble finding pictures of the car when I first purchased it, but here are pictures from my first project...

Krylon Fusion of the Side Moldings:











Followed by a little flexing...



And then some sort of wiring short behind the dash that I can't remember now...





 
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#17 ·
The bumpers came back from powder coating a while ago... Finally got around to working on the front of the Jeep. I started with putting on a new grill, headlight bezel, and running lights. When I removed the old bumper, there was significant damage to unibody. Nothing the grinder couldn't hand though. Cut some away and smoothed it out to get the JCR tie-in brackets to attach. For any of you in the San Francisco Bay Area needing powder coat work, AJ at West Coast Powder was great.







 
#18 ·
Last week I was up against the clock to get the rear bumper / tire carrier on before a Hwy. 395 Adventure I took with a couple friends. Here are the install photos:

OEM rear bumper and tow hitch off.


JCR nutserts installed.


Dry fitting on the XJ.


Tire carrier mounted.


If you get the Rotax cans, be sure you have the mount oriented the right way. I messed this up the first try.


Getting ready to leave San Francisco.




Glamor shot near Ubuhebe Crater, Death Valley.


Still some work left to do. I didn't have time to cut and fold the rear quarter panels and get the JCR armor mounted.
 
#19 ·
During my 395 adventure, we ran into some trouble with the rear left tire rubbing on the rear lower quarter panel. It turned out to be caused by a shift in the axle. Luckily, I was able to bump the tire on a large rock and get it back into place, and then re-tighten the u-bolt nuts. They had come loose on that side. Unfortunately, I also believe the pin that goes through the leaf springs was snapped on that side. Questions for the forum:

- If i remember correctly, that pin was welded to the axle spring perch. Is that correct?
- Can anyone tell me how difficult it is to replace? I'll also search the forum for some install instructions.
- With a new pin installed, it seems like everything should be lined up correctly. Is it worth taking it to an alignment shop? The XJ had no problem coming home on I-5 at 70 mph.
 
#20 ·
that pin is a bolt that holds the center of the leaves together. You should some how be able to take the nut off the top side to get it out. it really isnt hard to replace, that is depending on how it broke. I had to put a longer set on mine with my half inch blocks..

edit: no that pin does not change rear alignment.
 
#24 ·
Haven't updated this thread in a bit... time to catch up:

I couldn't help myself when I found this open parking spot:



I got the JCR 1 Ton Steering upgrade in the mail. After looking at the cost of buying a reamer, I decided to just take it to a mechanic. I needed to get my front alignment done at the same time after some used BFG AT 32x11.50's went on. What's up with those not being available anywhere right now?

Here are the pics...







After getting the car back, she was driving much smoother. However, the mechanic pointed out that I could use an adjustable trac bar and new front axle u-joints (they were really shot).

So this past weekend I was at a friends house with three projects for the Jeep. Replace the leaf spring center pins (which I was pretty sure broke on the last camping trip), replace the front axle u-joints, and put the adjustable trac bar on. No pictures of the center pin job, but they were totally snapped and I followed a writeup on here that made everything very clear.

Then on to the front axle u-joints. Oh man... I rented a press from O'Reilly and was following some YouTube videos / writeup I found online. I was pretty sure it should be a two hour job. Six hours later, we had snapped two of the cups on one of the spicer u-joints. So only one side was going to get done that day. After putting the left side back together, the bottom right caliper bolt threads in the knuckle were gone. This was turning into a nightmare. Not feeling safe to drive it in that condition, it was being towed to my mechanic in the morning. I had just reached my limit on frustration, and DIY Jeep wrenchin' just wasn't all that fun.

And the pictures:









In hindsight, I probably should have just waited on it a bit and done some research. Found a few viable options for fixing that caliper bolt problem, and could have just picked up another u-joint. Would have saved me a hundred bucks. Next time...
 
#25 ·
What's on deck for the XJ...

  • Install adjustable trac bar
  • Build switch box for bumper lights
  • Figure out what's up with my steering wheel (all out of alignment after the upgraded steering went in. the mechanic thinks the drag link needs to be shortened. not sure how JCR wouldn't have had it right the first time, so I need to do some research on alternative options.)
  • Keep an eye on front diff output shaft seal (small leak)
  • Keep an eye on transfer case (possible small leak)
 
#26 ·
Two nights ago, I went to leave a friends house and the Jeep wouldn't start. It had been struggling for a couple weeks with slow cranking before it actually turned over. Unfortunately it was not as simple as just cleaning the battery connections, ground, etc. The car wouldn't even start with a jump. Searching the forum, I saw that the NSS is often the culprit, but the car wouldn't start with the shifter in neutral. So I called a tow, and we took one last look before we hooked up.

Sometimes the car would have an extremely slow crank, but the majority of the time there would be one loud, single click upon turning the key. The tow driver was convinced my starter was stuck. So we tried banging on it while I turned the key. Still no luck.

So we hooked up and he towed the car back to my garage. A quick walk to O'Reilly, $100 starter (lifetime warranty), and an hour of my time. The Jeep runs again. I was surprised at how simple this fix really was. A couple bolts, a couple nuts, and a new starter was installed. Once again, searching this forum proved to be invaluable. Instructional threads that I found made this job a breeze. Thank you Jeep Forumers.

Old starter out:


New starter installed:
 
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