98' XJ Sport.. Another XJ Thread

[V1GiLaNtE]

Guess I'll start this one up.

Many of you know the black XJ got totaled over the summer thanks to a drunk driver. Insurance cut me a check, bought it back and proceeded to buy the same damn thing (very original right?)

Old jeep hur ----> <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.mmsports.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9897&start=100">viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9897&start=100</a><!-- l -->




First one never failed me and always got me home. Took it on plenty of wheeling trips and made general good use of what it was designed for.

So this guy.

1998 Jeep Cherokee Sport
144k on the clock. Picked it for $3000.



My intentions with this were to take a lot of the parts from the black one and throw them on the white one. I went back and forth on how much lift it would have and had plenty of struggles with justifying building another XJ with 3.5" of lift. Just didn't need it now that Vienna is 2.5 hours away from almost any decent trail. This this was going to have to see a lot of DD duty with the capability to haul camping gear, fishing gear, shooting gear, people, groceries, car parts blah blah blah.

So I settled on building it up for around 2.5" of lift which would give it very modest off road performance but keep it manageable on the street.

Most of the summer not much happened

Small maintenance items, damn those brakes were bad, changed the diff fluids and pulled off my old front tow hook kit and Hella 500 fog lights.





Sat like this for quite some time.


Took it on a few adventures and camping.



Ended up selling my black XJ to a NOVA Jeepers members and kept the wheels and 31's. 31's DO NOT fit well already under a stock XJ without some serious rubbing. Well when your rear leafs are practically flat you get even more.



Took the money and ordered/bought the following

OME HD leaf packs
Rubicon Shocks
JCR Offroad Transfer case skid.





Already had 2" lift springs from the first iteration of my black XJ, extended rear bump stops and some bar pin elminiators from my old busted Rubicon shocks to give me an extra ~1" of shock travel.

Some of you were at the lift day and thanks again for all of your help.

Front took about an hour and the rear consumed most of the day. The biggest hold up being the shear torque needed to loosen the bolts which held the old packs in place.. And my dumbass for forgetting well over a month ago to press out a metal sleeve in the bottom of the rear shocks.

Some pics of install and old parts comparison.




So now it sits like this.




I've got a few driveline vibes which aren't bad.

Mainly my next course of action is as follows:

Install Tcase Skid
Fix driveline vibes
Build CB antenna mount
Mount CB antenna and wire up CB
Purchase/install some front quick disconnects

Get it out on the trails! I'm really itching to get back up to Harrisonburg and hit all the local trails I miss.
Updates will come as things progress.