Newbie with general questions.

[ElDiabloRojo]

Hey there,

New here but have been lurking for a little bit so I thought I'd say hullo.

I've got an '89 Cherokee LTD. In your opinion, is this a decent ride? I kinda inherited it from a younger sister.

The brakes are real goofy and I've notcied that brakes are a popular topic with XJs. Basically, mine feel real tight and don't feel like they're doing anything until you get to a certain point at which they grip pretty aggressively.

Can I just swap them out with entirely different rotors/pads etc? What's the best thing to do to get better braking?

Thanks in advance. Looking forward to learning tons here.

 

[RTicUL8]

Lemme guess - your Jeep is red and has longhorns attached to the front? Ha - just kidding.

My oldest XJ is an '88 Limited with over 250K miles on it(second engine). I still love it!
Regarding your brakes: If the calipers on your rig are stock, I would suggest that you consider replacing those. As far as your rotors are concerned, I would have to see them in order to tell if they are too worn or not - some auto parts stores will turn them for you for cheap. You might also want to flush your brake fluid with new/synthetic. Note: If you've never done this before, you might want to leave it to the experts - brakes are not something that you want to mess with without knowing what you're doing.

If you're planning on doing a lot of work on your rig, you might want to call and order a Factory Service Manual (FSM) from: http://www.techauthority.daimlerchrysler.com/ , or you might be able to find one on ebay.

Good luck...

 

[ElDiabloRojo]

Thanks

In the past, whenever we've triied to get it serviced, a lot of the guys would just shrug and either say they didn't think anything was wrong with the brakes or they had no idea what could be causing the problems I described.

It always bothered me that the brakes never felt right since, well, they're kinda important.

I'll try your suggestions next weekend.

As for "massive" work, I'd just like to raise her a couple of inches and maybe throw some bigger tires on... for now...

Thanks again for thr advice.

 

[Matthew Currie]

You should also probably get the rear brakes opened up, and check for lining wear and for deterioration of the automatic adjusters. One of the most common complaints about XJ brakes is that they will lock up unpredictably, especially in wet weather. On the other hand, there's a proportioning valve in the system that, if it goes wrong, will prevent the rear brakes from doing much of anything at all! There's a certain amount of speculation and voodoo involved in the diagnosis, but one of the major contributors to the lockup seems to be adjuster failure. When they go out of adjustment, the shoes seem to grab at their leading edge and lock up. Lining material, drum ridges, fatigued brake springs, aging wheel cylinders and lining material have all also been implicated. In other words, if you can, you'd probably do well to do a complete rebuild of the rear brakes, and check the function of the proportioning valve.

A good start might be to take the thing out on a dirt road or driveway, and (in 2WD) slam on the brakes, and diagnose the skidmarks. If the rears aren't doing their share, that will be immediately apparent.