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my new antique XJ!

T

thechief86

NAXJA Forum User
Location
White House, TN
so i gots meself another cheap Heep! it's a 1984 cherokee pioneer 4x4 2door 5spd, and for the money i think it's pretty sweet! she's not fast, but gets pretty good gas mileage, and she's already proven herself to me in the woods. i need to replace the intake/exhaust manifold gasket and a couple of the bolts that hold it on, and i'm gonna pick up a new bumper and grill sometime this week. it may be awhile before i get around to lifting her and everything, but i do plan to wheel the piss outta this one, because it's the first one i've had in a while that wasn't in too good of shape for it. and yes, Shrek, i'll be keeping this one out of the deep water.:tears:

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Looking good!
 
so now i need some 4.5" front coils, some 4.5" shocks, and maybe some other things- haven't figgered out every detail just yet.
oh yeah, i need some manual door guts- my windows won't roll back up after going so far down.
 
Have you verified the gears in the axles?

I am officially jealous, I need to take a trip to the south for my next XJ, your prices and rust free status are amazing.
 
That's a nice looking one! How do you find these???
 
Hey, great find!! I was down at the Pull a Part Monday and saw a full gauge cluster in one of the ones on the lot. Meant to pull it myself, but forgot in the heat! I might have gotten the only good bumper there, mainly for the brackets. If you want it, I can hook you up with it minus brackets.

Lemme know!
 
thanks guys! spawn, i think i might be interested in the bumper, but i have a buddy here with one. if his is in decent shape, i'll use it, but if you have one in good shape and all i gotta do is come get it, i bet it's better than the one i'm lookin at here. i think i can beat on the brackets for this one enough to make them work for now. it'll get a tube bumper eventually, but i would like it to look pretty good until then.
Kastein, yeah, i actually drove it a bit in the woods, and it's really low geared, so when i changed the fluid in the rear diff i looked at the ring gear. 4.56! holy carp i didn't know they came that low from the factory! it does have a factory tow hitch on it, and 235/75/r15's on it. my last old xj had 3.07's with the same trans, 4.0, and 315/65/15's on it.
High2by, this one was on craigslist in chapel hill. there are some things i don't like about it, but it reminds me so much of my old blue chief that i decided to get it, and just make it my own. the main thing i hate about it now is the fact that it has a disco front axle with those crummy cv axles, so i'll be on the lookout for some newer style front shafts, for sure.
 
oh yeah, stump, i ended up with right around $250 in it after all was said and done, but i'll end up throwing another $50 or so to get it registered in a non-emissions county.:D
so over the last couple hours i've been fiddling with some things, and i got her running quite a bit better by fixing some major vacuum leaks(mainly the brake booster one), and while i was doing that i noticed that the bolts that hold the carb down were so loose that i could wiggle the carb more than an inch in every direction! so i tightened the ones that were still there, and replaced the ones that weren't, then took her to the woods. man, i have seriously missed being able to fit between the trees! there are some 4wheeler trails behind my house, which the waggy won't fit down, but an XJ sure will!
i also got my instrument lights to work, but when i got back i noticed that my brake lights don't work, so i'll have to tackle that before i can drive her anymore.
 
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I also have a CAD axle with shafts in it if you are interested for the interim. I don't think I can actully use them as trail spares since I have a Nondisco.......


Let me know on the bumper, I think I got it off of the red one that was an 85. Of course it is a little rusty on the back, but is straight. If you want, I can get pix!

Brian
 
that'd be great, spawn. i actually want some nondisco shafts with the stronger ujoints, but thanks for the offer. you can actually use the driver side for a trail spare, just not the passenger side, so at least keep that one around... i would like to see some pics of that bumper, though. do you need anything for it, or is it a karma offering, lol? i'm still gonna look at the one that i can get for free here, but i have a feeling it's not much better than the one on the jeep already.
 
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Those gears are afaik only normally found in auto 4cyl XJs, but I guess a tow package could do it too and I know very very little about 84-86 XJs... lucky man!

Too bad about the d35, but hey, what are ya gonna do? No way around em. At least you'll only need to regear one axle I guess... though 14bolts sometimes come with 4.56s... I'd love to see people's expressions when they hear you're running a 14bolt/30 combo.
 
Posted this in the off-topic "oddly optioned XJs" thread regarding your cluster. Not sure you are checking that thread, but wanted you to know:

The one I had in my '85 which was a 5 speed 2 door with the V-6 just like yours was set up:

upper left...temp guage
lower left...AMC logo
Center left...fuel
Center right...speed
upper right...oil pressure
lower right...battery voltage

Isn't this what you have?
 
shorty, yeah i know... it seems like every pre-chryco xj or mj i've had has had the grill on upside down.
kastein, dude i'm gonne beat on that 35 till it breaks, rather than replace it before it does. i only plan on running 31's or 32's on this one, and i never broke my d35 with 32's and a 4.0/5spd before, and this little fellar don't have much power. it should be fine for a while.

cottontail, that is exactly the same setup i have! maybe it's not so rare after all, but this is the oldest xj i've owned, or even seen still running. that may have something to do with mine being a 4 cylinder instead of the ol' POOP.8, lol. i had a blazer with that motor, as well as a firebird. it's a total pile for sure.
 
i had got in touch with that guy trying to get more info a couple of days ago. congrats to you looks like a solid starter.
 
sorry i sniped it out from under ya! i was instantly attached to it, because it was so much like my first XJ. i ended up trading around a bunch between 3 people and by the time it was over i had traded a wrecked motorcycle that i had about $600 bucks in before the wreck, for an xj and $400! that's how i figure i got it for about $200, and i've put a little work into getting it right, so now i'm at about $250 or so. it came with the paperwork for an abandoned vehicle title through a wrecker company, but all i'll have to to is take it to the county clerk, pay the taxes on $200, and wait for my title in the mail.
 
to show you this is a small world i was talking to a good friend today about this XJ and how i missed out and he tells me it sounds alot like the XJ that a guy we went to college with just bought so next time you talk to joel he may try to convince you to sell!!
 
hmm! joel lauper? i don't wanna sell this one anytime soon, unless i can replace it with another 2door 5spd 4x4 with a 4.0. that's about the only way i'd let this one go.
 
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