This is the Jeep shortly after I rescued it from A Police Impound Auction in Calgary Alberta. The body was fair with some surface rust, some front end collision damage, and in generally sad condition. I took it home for $200.00 :) I took it out for the first long weekend of the year after changing the oil and getting a set of keys cut, only to find that the Auto tranny was junk and the motor had seen better days. So now I have a bagged Cherokee, bunk drive train, bald tires aith a moderate dinged up body,.... what to do now,.... 4Wheel it!!!!!! I had never been out before and her maiden voyage was truly hilarious. Smashed it through ruts, nearly flopped it in a mud hole,.. general mayham,... I decided it needed better tires,... hmmm,...... 29" tires don't cut it,... I need 31's but they don't fit under stock suspension,....
So I lifted it for $300.00 from used or fabbed up parts, grabbed a used set of 31" tires,... sawzalled some excess body metal and front bumper for approach. Moved the stock flares on the front up for clearance,... and went out again,...
Well after battling a Junk drivetrain for long enough I bought a 1988 Cherokee with a 4.0 and Auto that was hit hard in the front end, totally writing it off,... I scooped it for $400.00. I pulled the entire drivetrain from the '88 which ran like a champ, and dropped it into the 1989,.. as well as the limited leather blinging seats! now I'm cookin! Literally bloody cooling systems in these things suck!!!
So last summer I made it out every wheeling trip we went on, bashed the crap out of it and it. Broke a few U-Joints, expolded a few Yolks and straps, crushed a gas tank, destroyed 3 Header panels, hydro locked the new motor, and dented every panel on it .. The Jeep STILL survived! I am amazed with this damn thing!
2005
OK so this year the Ol'Jeep may have shown some of its battle wounds,... The Dana 35 Rear diff EXPLODED when the Pinion bearing came apart and launched the pinion into the ring gear at 80KMs/hr,... 4 Hi to get home,.. and I was on the way to a date :( , Suspension was sagging in the rear a bit and I felt it was time to dig back into it!
First things first,... There are way too many freekin Cherokees in Calgary,.. so we made it unique
The back to my neighbours concern was sawzalled off and tossed into the scrap pile,... the newly aquired MJ rear was then test fitted to the rear of the XJ,.. It is yet to be completed as I still need the MJ rear box section ,.. but its getting there.
Next Mike and I fabbed up a 8.8 From a Ford Exporer, mocked up a new diff angle and had Nate a friend of mine weld up the perches and tubes to the centre for maximum strength. The rear scok mounts were moved to the top of the diff and the rear hoop was installed to give a whopping level of shock travel :) When the rear tin came off the suspension lifted 2-3" in the rear so I had to add some temp. spacers in the front So now I'm at 5" Front and approx 76-7 in the rear. The rear 1/4 tin was removed and rear wells were trimmed to fit the 33's.... The control arms in the front were modified to allow for more droop and lengthened 1" to correct for the lift.
So this was 1 YR later May long weekend in Wiaprous Alberta on Killer Cutline, on this run we ended up with 1 end over end roll, 3 flops, 1 broken drive shaft, and some other misc broken stuff,... but the cherokee made it out unscathed,.. except in the pic above where I bent the fender cracked header panel #4 and another damn marker light!
My only complaint was overheating, so I changed the whole system over to the pressuer bottless style, only to find out I had a bad theromostat which was new #%*@%!!!
Hope you enjoyed, more updates to come!
