Post by tchase on Mar 26, 2011 3:48:48 GMT -4
All right, got some work planned for this thing over the next while so I figure it's about time it gets a build thread on here. Not planning anything wild here just a simple, reliable rig that is comfortable as a daily driver and still plenty capable off-road. Much of the work you'll see here will be basic stuff your average newbie might be able to handle at home, while a few other projects are a little more in depth. So let us begin I guess:
The Victim:
Should also mention that another goal of this little adventure is low cost and nothing helps that more than the right Jeep to start out with. If you're going XJ (which I personally think is the best choice for someone looking to get into wheeling on the cheap) I don't think you can start out too much better than this:
Never mind any oddities like the color or the funky grille, what this really is is a 24 year old XJ that is virtually unmolested and has far less rust than most XJ's 10 years newer. I think rust is probably the number one expense/project killer with an XJ from around here, followed a close second by having to "unfix" years worth of previous owner's hackjobs. Rust on this jeep is limited to some holes in the front floor pans and some very minor surface rust on the sills and upper body. No holes in the sill, no holes in the wheel wells, no holes in the body anywhere, framerails are mint. It hasn't been smashed and there are no previous hack body repairs to re-do ;D. Damage from the previous owners is almost entirely limited to the interior, which is butt-ugly anyway. Good thing they actually managed to destroy the whole thing, not one piece isn't broken, cracked, torn, cut, drilled, screwed, glued, dog chewed or just simply missing. It's really quite remarkeable when you look at it because it doesn't really look all that bad at first glance but I think the only thing salvageable is the only wagoneer specific part in the whole interior: the woodgrain dash surround (oddly enough they didn't cut this when they istalled an aftermarket stereo at some point, didn't hack the harness either). The only immediately obvious hack job on the outside that would need to be repaireed was a horribly designed homemade hitch that some moron had seen fit to weld to the uni-body (not sure at what point, if ever, it occured to them that they would now have to remove the rear axle if they ever had to get the gas tank off
).
Details, by the way are as follows:
- 1987 XJ Wagoneer
- 4.0L
- Peugout BA-10/5 5speed
- NP231
- Dis-connect HP D30
- Non c-clip D35
- 3.07 axle ratio
Hardly the ideal drivetrain to start out a project with but with rusted out donor XJ's a dime a dozen the excellent shell far outweighed the crappy trans and gears. Add in a purchase price of under $500 (with 1 dead cylinder and a crankcase full of gas) and I think we got a really good starting point for a nice Jeep.
Part 1: What's already been done:
Very first thing was of course to address the "blown motor" which had resulted in the low asking price. Drove it to the shop on 5 cylinders and figured we'd start with a compression test. Number 1 plug came out in 2 pieces
. Set of plugs and an oil change and we've now put nearly 20,000km on that blown motor.
So with the engine running properly we decide to head for home from the shop in a blizzard in our completely untested new project (picture above was taken the next morning). Seller advised us that " these jeep's always got problems with the front axle but you don't have to worry about that on this one, we already took care of that". Uh-huh So after a significant battle to get up our road in a foot of snow with the front axle locking and unlocking at random we did manage to get our prize in the driveway. Next day I pull the disconnect to discover the shift fork completely missing and a plastic cable tie around the axle shaft holding the collar in place. This would be one of those "fixes" you don't need on your project Jeep. So I dealt with that by installing a new fork and locking it over with a piece of steel tube around the actuator shaft.
Moved onto the interior next. First up was some tunes as the seller kept the stereo that was in it. This turned out to be more hassle that expected as unlike any other XJ I've ever encountered, you can't get that woodgrain dash surround out without dropping the steering column
. Also '87 model XJ's use a different wiring color code than later XJ's. You can find the right color codes for early XJ's here: www.modifiedlife.com/1987-jeep-cherokee-car-stereo-installation-diagram/ ( check it out if you done many car stereo installs, it's good for a laugh if you can imagine me pulling my hair out trying to guess at those speaker wire color pairings, seriously who came up with that?).
Next up I addressed the broken, leaning original cloth seats. Tossed those in favor of some power leather Cherokee limited seats. For the first time in over 15 years working on XJ/MJ's this operation resulted in no broken bolts at all
.
Back to the outside now it was time get the thing off road ready. Installed an OEM gas tank skid and rear reciever hitch. this required cutting off the original homebrew hitch as well as repairing a small crack in the unibody where it was welded on (morons). Also mounted up the front tow hook bracket.
Shocks were all toast and the rears had some funky overload coils on them making for less than pleasant road manners. Kim installed the nearly new KYB's off the old '90 Limited on the front and a new set of RS5000's on the rear. All the upper rear shock bolts came out, anyone ever had that happen?
And that was it to prepare it for Trail guide duty at the 2010 Jam where it performed flawlessly all weekend.
Baseline RTI score of 682 (within one point of the last stock XJ we put on the ramp).
Since then we've done some basic maintenace stuff (track bar, one hub, brakes) and a couple other projects.
Swapped out the grille for one that wasn't broken and fixed a flaky park light:
And most recently swapped this stuff off of her original '89 XJ:
That's a pacesetter header and the intake has 5.0 ford injectors on it. Significant increase in power and driveabilty, 5th all of a sudden became a useable gear.
So that gets us up till now. Here's a few more before pics before we move onto the next phase.
Part 2: What's next?
- Lift. Front spacers/rear add-a-leaf going in within the next 24 hours
.
- Tires. 31x10.50R15 BFG M/T's mounted on rims ready to go on after lift.
- floor pans. new direct fit stamped pans will be ordered next week and installed.
- Interior swap. It's all going. If it's purple, it's gone. Full grey XJ Limited interior will be installed. (Probably do most of this when we do the floor).
- Rockers. Hate to do it but I'll be cutting out the perfect origianl sills and fabbing some rockrails. Gonna try something a little different than the usual rectangle tube. Watch for a thread in the fab section when the time comes (soon, before jam).
- Rear D44 swap. It's here as are most of the parts to freshen it up.
- Re-gear. 3.73's eventually but we may re-gear the d30 to 3.55's for now to match the 44.
- AW4/NP242 swap. Parts are here. Happens whenever the puke-goat blows up.
- hidden front reciever for removeable winch. Winch is here, plans are being worked out, look for this in the fab section as well.
- And lastly, in the garage under a blanket lay the following parts: Renix era 4.0 block, 7120 casting HO head, '91 intake, 4.2 crank, 4.2 rods. You figure out what those are for ;D
So that's it for now, should have some pics of a slightly taller Wagoneer tomorrow.
The Victim:
Should also mention that another goal of this little adventure is low cost and nothing helps that more than the right Jeep to start out with. If you're going XJ (which I personally think is the best choice for someone looking to get into wheeling on the cheap) I don't think you can start out too much better than this:
Never mind any oddities like the color or the funky grille, what this really is is a 24 year old XJ that is virtually unmolested and has far less rust than most XJ's 10 years newer. I think rust is probably the number one expense/project killer with an XJ from around here, followed a close second by having to "unfix" years worth of previous owner's hackjobs. Rust on this jeep is limited to some holes in the front floor pans and some very minor surface rust on the sills and upper body. No holes in the sill, no holes in the wheel wells, no holes in the body anywhere, framerails are mint. It hasn't been smashed and there are no previous hack body repairs to re-do ;D. Damage from the previous owners is almost entirely limited to the interior, which is butt-ugly anyway. Good thing they actually managed to destroy the whole thing, not one piece isn't broken, cracked, torn, cut, drilled, screwed, glued, dog chewed or just simply missing. It's really quite remarkeable when you look at it because it doesn't really look all that bad at first glance but I think the only thing salvageable is the only wagoneer specific part in the whole interior: the woodgrain dash surround (oddly enough they didn't cut this when they istalled an aftermarket stereo at some point, didn't hack the harness either). The only immediately obvious hack job on the outside that would need to be repaireed was a horribly designed homemade hitch that some moron had seen fit to weld to the uni-body (not sure at what point, if ever, it occured to them that they would now have to remove the rear axle if they ever had to get the gas tank off
).Details, by the way are as follows:
- 1987 XJ Wagoneer
- 4.0L
- Peugout BA-10/5 5speed
- NP231
- Dis-connect HP D30
- Non c-clip D35
- 3.07 axle ratio
Hardly the ideal drivetrain to start out a project with but with rusted out donor XJ's a dime a dozen the excellent shell far outweighed the crappy trans and gears. Add in a purchase price of under $500 (with 1 dead cylinder and a crankcase full of gas) and I think we got a really good starting point for a nice Jeep.
Part 1: What's already been done:
Very first thing was of course to address the "blown motor" which had resulted in the low asking price. Drove it to the shop on 5 cylinders and figured we'd start with a compression test. Number 1 plug came out in 2 pieces
. Set of plugs and an oil change and we've now put nearly 20,000km on that blown motor.So with the engine running properly we decide to head for home from the shop in a blizzard in our completely untested new project (picture above was taken the next morning). Seller advised us that " these jeep's always got problems with the front axle but you don't have to worry about that on this one, we already took care of that". Uh-huh
So after a significant battle to get up our road in a foot of snow with the front axle locking and unlocking at random we did manage to get our prize in the driveway. Next day I pull the disconnect to discover the shift fork completely missing and a plastic cable tie around the axle shaft holding the collar in place. This would be one of those "fixes" you don't need on your project Jeep. So I dealt with that by installing a new fork and locking it over with a piece of steel tube around the actuator shaft.Moved onto the interior next. First up was some tunes as the seller kept the stereo that was in it. This turned out to be more hassle that expected as unlike any other XJ I've ever encountered, you can't get that woodgrain dash surround out without dropping the steering column
. Also '87 model XJ's use a different wiring color code than later XJ's. You can find the right color codes for early XJ's here: www.modifiedlife.com/1987-jeep-cherokee-car-stereo-installation-diagram/ ( check it out if you done many car stereo installs, it's good for a laugh if you can imagine me pulling my hair out trying to guess at those speaker wire color pairings, seriously who came up with that?). Next up I addressed the broken, leaning original cloth seats. Tossed those in favor of some power leather Cherokee limited seats. For the first time in over 15 years working on XJ/MJ's this operation resulted in no broken bolts at all
.Back to the outside now it was time get the thing off road ready. Installed an OEM gas tank skid and rear reciever hitch. this required cutting off the original homebrew hitch as well as repairing a small crack in the unibody where it was welded on (morons). Also mounted up the front tow hook bracket.
Shocks were all toast and the rears had some funky overload coils on them making for less than pleasant road manners. Kim installed the nearly new KYB's off the old '90 Limited on the front and a new set of RS5000's on the rear. All the upper rear shock bolts came out, anyone ever had that happen?
And that was it to prepare it for Trail guide duty at the 2010 Jam where it performed flawlessly all weekend.
Baseline RTI score of 682 (within one point of the last stock XJ we put on the ramp).
Since then we've done some basic maintenace stuff (track bar, one hub, brakes) and a couple other projects.
Swapped out the grille for one that wasn't broken and fixed a flaky park light:
And most recently swapped this stuff off of her original '89 XJ:
That's a pacesetter header and the intake has 5.0 ford injectors on it. Significant increase in power and driveabilty, 5th all of a sudden became a useable gear.
So that gets us up till now. Here's a few more before pics before we move onto the next phase.
Part 2: What's next?
- Lift. Front spacers/rear add-a-leaf going in within the next 24 hours
.- Tires. 31x10.50R15 BFG M/T's mounted on rims ready to go on after lift.
- floor pans. new direct fit stamped pans will be ordered next week and installed.
- Interior swap. It's all going. If it's purple, it's gone. Full grey XJ Limited interior will be installed. (Probably do most of this when we do the floor).
- Rockers. Hate to do it but I'll be cutting out the perfect origianl sills and fabbing some rockrails. Gonna try something a little different than the usual rectangle tube. Watch for a thread in the fab section when the time comes (soon, before jam).
- Rear D44 swap. It's here as are most of the parts to freshen it up.
- Re-gear. 3.73's eventually but we may re-gear the d30 to 3.55's for now to match the 44.
- AW4/NP242 swap. Parts are here. Happens whenever the puke-goat blows up.
- hidden front reciever for removeable winch. Winch is here, plans are being worked out, look for this in the fab section as well.
- And lastly, in the garage under a blanket lay the following parts: Renix era 4.0 block, 7120 casting HO head, '91 intake, 4.2 crank, 4.2 rods. You figure out what those are for ;D
So that's it for now, should have some pics of a slightly taller Wagoneer tomorrow.
mine are the 24#hr ones and right now Im using the stock pressure fo my jeep bet I am installing a adjustible fuel regulator and I am going to play with the pressures and see how it is going to work.