[MyZJ98]

Hey guys, so after many loyal years of being a Grand (ZJ & WJ) Cherokee owner, and after having sold my last WJ and getting bit by the Jeep bug again, I decided to change things up a bit and crossed over to the XJ Cherokee side. It was a mix of curiosity of having never owned one yet but always hearing good things, and also a killer deal kind of fell into my lap. Here's the story:

In search of a good winter 4x4 (aka an excuse to buy another Jeep) I stumbled across what looked like a really clean 1996 Jeep Cherokee Country, 4.0L, aisin auto, NP231, 112k original owner miles, white on tan Country interior. They were asking $800 as it was "not running"... So I called them up and ran right over to check it out. Brought my jump pack and gave the ol' girl some power; it cranked well but would not start, neither in park or neutral, and not with a little carb cleaning into the TB. It had no belt on it, they admitted the alternator was shot (pulley frozen solid), and power steering wasn't great. I told them without hearing it run, I'd pay $300, and after some back and forthing and $300 later, I had the title and keys. Ran back to work, grabbed a buddy and the flatbed, and headed straight back. Picked it up, brought it back to the shop, and started going through it. Found all the spark plug wires on the distributor cap in the wrong order, so corrected that, still no spark. Test ignition coil; hardly any spark. Replaced that; POP! Fired up beautifully. Put in a new alternator (what a PITA!), new belt, new plugs and wires, and she's up and running perfectly. No skips, hesitations, nothing. So then I gave it the full going over and I was impressed that ultimately it only needs a main rear brake line (fixed) and brake bled (tbd) rear springs (saggy) a muffler (case rusted in half) and fresh fluids based on sitting and mileage (oil, trans, diffs, TC). Power steering is okay, although maybe leaking slightly; it was low on fluid, which i refilled and bled the air, but noticed the oil fluid i stirred up was rather murky so that will be getting flushed with BG Power Steering Flush. Found a like new set of 5 spoke cherokee rims with basically new no-name AT's for $100, picked those up and mounted them. Other than that, just gave it a SERIOUS cleaning and degreasing (filled with mouse poo and just mess from kids), and it looks a lot better, but still smells musty, so next will be removing the carpets, degrease and pressure wash and put them back in, wash seat covers, and then car bomb it after, which should fix that. It needed new speakers, so I order 4 new Polk DB 6.5's and 2 new Polk DB 6x9's for the rear soundbar, and got a new Pioneer BT headunit, and some cheapo 12" sub/box/amp combo I got a deal on at work for $110 brand new, so that's all going in soon.

For the future, I plan on removing all the lower exterior rubber door trim, and then respraying all the old gray lower trim in a fresh coat of TrimBlack black, new bumpers front and rear, re-do the front end (sway bar links, bushings, TREs, ball joints, the works) so I know its been done completely, lift kit (probably 3" on 31's as I want to make this a reliable comfortable daily driver. More to come as I get into rebuilding and lifting this thing.

What's a good story without pics, right? Here's what I've got so far:

 

[MyZJ98]

Oh yeah, my current running total on this Jeep:
Jeep: $300
Parts: $248
Goodies: $210

Total: $758 :grin2:

 

[MyZJ98]

What a steal! Looking forward to where this is headed and I can't believe how cheap you were able to pick it up for. :congrats:

Thanks! I know I kinda can't believe it either; all the guys in my shop keep giving me grief for it, as another kid just bought a newer model XJ for $300, and it's just a total train wreck.

My plans are for this to be a clean DD build, probably only a quality 2-3" lift like OME or Rubicon Express with new leafs (as mine are whooped) and some Bilstein 5100 series shocks. Already digging in deep taking care of all the safety items; just finished new brakes all around, new stainless steel brake line kit, new front sway bar links and bar bushings, new steering stabilizer. This weekend will be Moog problem solver lower control arms, TKX ball joints (uppers and lowers), and Napa premium tie rod ends and maybe a new track-bar (have a little play in my bushings), all followed up by a fresh balance of my tires and an alignment (bought the tires on craigslist on stock cherokee rims with some almost brand new AT tires), so this old girl should be driving tight and straight as an arrow and stops on a dime. Degreased the engine bay which looks a lot better, but I still need to dig a little deeper, so I'm gonna pull the valve cover and pressure wash it and replace the gasket, and take off the intake and TB, seal it up, and degrease that deeper too. I like things clean and shiny

Then the fun mods will begin!

 

[MyZJ98]

Clean looking XJ. Can't believe the low miles that's impressive! Looking forward to the progress. I to just got a XJ too. Unfortunately she's sitting in the garage with the T-case out. Thought I'd have to replace the whole thing when I discovered the drain plug was missing but upon disassembly the gears look good. I'll replace the chain, reassemble and install. Then continue from there. Sub'd!

Thanks and congrats on your new XJ also! Thankfully the NP231's seem to be pretty stout for the most part, so hopefully after a thorough cleaning and then refill with good atf, it should be good as new again.

I haven't posted much because I've been getting nothing but the boring stuff accomplished as we've just started getting snow so I've been staying focused on the safety and drive ability aspects for now. All new front end components, new lower control arms, new track bar, everything retorqued and tightened and greased. Every single fluid is flushed and new, new power steering pressure hose (good times lining those fittings up...) although still suspect a worn PS pump, and need to adjust some slack out of my gearbox via the locknut, otherwise replace it. Have all new HD rear leafs, hangers, and hardware just been soaking all the bolts inside the frame with PB the past two weeks to help that go smoothly, hopefully. Probably gonna wait on a lift until spring aka tax return time lol and do it right with the tires I want. Trying not to take any shortcuts on this jeep. Put in a brand new windshield and new LED headlights off Amazon, which I have to say might be the single best mod out there for these. The night visibility is fantastic without just blinding people (had my gf drive the jeep at me while I drove towards her in her wrx just to test the blinding issue, didn't bother me any more than a new cars HIDs) and a great price.

Still sorting a few small issues which I believe are related, have a battery drain issue and non-working power door locks that did used to work, so I have the fuse out for now until I have time to dig deeper.

Soon I'll be pulling the fenders off and remaining lower molding so I can remove the glue, sand it all, and spray all the lower "country package" trim black instead of tan, and then going to get the windows tinted, and spray the wheels black until I upgrade to newer wheels come spring.

I'll attach a few pics of the new headlights, not much more obvious progress, but some progress nonetheless!

 

[MyZJ98]

Thanks. Yeah as soon as I get a new chain it should be a piece of cake. Looks A lot like my to do list. Since I do not know the vehicles history, or how many people have owned my XJ. I'm assuming the worst and will be doing a lot of maintenance work. Question. When you installed the LED headlights did you do the H4 conversion as well? Ive read that the stock harness has a smaller wire that produces less power to the heads. It is the h4 conversion not needed?

So the ones I bought off Amazon were already plug and play with the original 6054 bulb harness. It also has a lead wire come off of it that you can wire to whatever signal you want for the outer daytime running lights, or you can do like I did, just tape the terminal ends and not wire them up, and they come on when you have your lights off, in essence becoming DRLs basically when your headlights are off (of course they're also on when your headlights are turned on, also). So far I LOVE them and have zero issues with them from the start. Great fitment, plug and play, and perfect light throw/beam with a decent cutoff. Here's the link to them:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06X...headlights&dpPl=1&dpID=61q+-fVZeDL&ref=plSrch

Love 'em.

And yeah I was in the same boat. I bought my old girl as-is, not running and took a total leap of faith on it, but seeing the overall condition I figured it had to be decent. Thankfully the odds were in my favor; needed nothing more than a new coil, alternator, and a belt to get her going. Being at just over a 100k, I figured why take a chance, and just use this as my major interval to get EVERYTHING done, so I did ALL fluids, flushed if necessary, all filters, all serviceable maintenance parts, and a new front end since the parts are available to me cheap (parts manager for a major dealership), and then handling the rest as it comes about. Needless to say my goal is to properly restore this jeep to 100% over the winter before I move into modifications. My goal is to hopefully build this jeep the "right" way this time, any getting it cheap helps to put the money into the "right" parts. Still trying to keep this jeep on a cheap budget all in however.