The great white boat Project

[XJ McLovin]

Hey, my names Dan. Ive own a few different trucks over the past few years. I'm coming from a beefed up 2010 Xterra 4x4 which I traded because I was sick of a monthly payment on something I was beating the piss out of. It was brought back to stock and traded in for a civic hybrid and the money from mods went towards my first jeep, a 99 Wrangler. After about a year I realized the Wrangler was not right because there was not enough space for my great dane and my wife hated how loud the soft top was. Plus she couldnt drive a stick (shes got her own CTS anyway). The wrangler was sold in January. I spent about a month researching what would be the best bang for my buck. I needed something very offroad capable for the yearly Moab trip and the monthly AZ/CA/NV wheeling trips. I did not want a trailer queen, it needed to be able to make the 7 hour trips to Moab or just driven daily if needed. Then I came up on this gem in CA... took the trip out, and for only $800 more then what I sold the wrangler for, it was mine. Its a 1999 XJ with quite the history. I was really hesitant about the unibody but I have plans for that. So here is the back story of the rig, some pictures, and plans.

My original Xterra



The recently departed Wrangler

The XJ or I like to call it The Great White Boat

The jeep was originally built for one of JP magazines editors
Part 1 http://www.jpmagazine.com/projectbuild/154_1006_project_jr_20_suspension/
Part 2 http://www.jpmagazine.com/projectbuild/154_1007_1999_jeep_cherokee_project_jr_20/
Part 3 http://www.jpmagazine.com/projectbuild/154_1008_1999_jeep_cherokee_sport_project_jr_2_0/
Part 4 http://www.jpmagazine.com/projectbuild/154_1010_project_jr_2_0_1999_jeep_cherokee_sport/
Part 5 http://www.jpmagazine.com/projectbuild/154_1011_project_jr_2_0_1999_jeep_cherokee_sport/
Part 6 http://www.jpmagazine.com/projectbuild/154_1105_project_jr_2_1999_jeep_cherokee_sport/

The night I got it home. (Feb. 4th, 2013) It Fits!!!!!

Specs when purchased:
1999 Jeep Cherokee Sport
4.0L (164k)
AW4
NP231 w/ Teralow 4:1 and SYE
Currie F9 front axle, detroit trutrac, Dana 44 knuckle, warn hubs, disc brakes
Currie HD rear housing, Currie 9+ carrier, Spool, disc brakes
4.86 gear ratio
West Texas Offroad Hydro assist, stock pump
Poly performance Front 3link kits
Deaver front coil springs and rear leaf springs and extended shackle
Bilstein 5150 10" travel shocks
37x12.5x17 BFG KM2 on Trail gear beadlocks
T&J 8pt interior roll cage
Front and rear tube bumpers
ARB roof rack
Hanson rocker guards
Daystar stinger front bumpstops
Tom woods driveshafts front and rear
BBK 62mm throttle body
Banks headers
Gibson cat back
K&N intake
Optima blue top
Warn 9500Xi winch and synthetic line
Currie Currectlync
(Im sure im missing a few things)

First impressions:
The nearly 300 mile drive from California was great. Drove great, brakes were good, could easily hit 80mph if needed. The spool was not noticeable at highway speeds but a F'n pain around town. Needs to go! Also it needs an alignment, the stock steering pump can not keep up at low rpms, shot motor mounts, leaking front output shaft on the Tcase, and the tires rubbed bad!!! To be honest its looks like the previous owner just let the 37's self clear and the tires were not winning the battle.

And the project begins....

Stock motor mounts gone, in goes MORE "bombproof" engine mounts

Fixed Tcase leak, turns out it was that dumb spline shaped gasket/seal on the front yoke of the Tcase, $12 for new seal and a new yoke nut from dealer

Rear 3rd member was removed and having an ARB installed. Should be back next week. BTW, why doesnt Currie put drain plugs on their axles?!

Time to make those tires fit the right way. Called it a night at this point.. will pick it up again tomorrow... The rear portion of the front fender is next, then onto the rears wheel well.

Also waiting in the garage to install...
PSC pump/resi/cooler
TnT complete stiffeners
Currie rear bumpstop plate
Liquid industries front frame plates
Liquid industries leaf spring spliders
3x6 custom steel rockers
ARB air compressor and locker switches

Alot of work to do before going to the Hammers in April and then Moab in May. Seems like a fun project but being that I am new the beast known as XJ any advice or pointers would be really appreciated. The big focus right now is stiffening up the unibody and by the end of the year getting an exocage tied into the the body and interior cage.

 

[Lurch]

Why not just tie your existing cage into the plated unibody?

 

[XJ McLovin]

I will be. Once I get to the 3x6 rockers I will be tying in what I can. The rockers will have supports from the plated unibody so it should be easy to tie in the cage once thats done. The exocage is a plan for down the road because I will be moving towards coilovers eventually. I will need shock hoops and an engine crossmember. Most likely need to tie them into the rockers, interior cage and the front bumper. The goal is to get as much tied to gether as possible.

(long term plans)

 

[XJ McLovin]

Little bit of an updated

Little bit of an update... finished the front fenders and rear axle.
Before: (not my truck but gives you an idea)

After:

Accesories mounted:

Rear axle: Currie HD 9" housing with 9+ third member, ARB, 4.88's
The rear axle had some pretty ugly surface rust all over it. I sanded the entire axle down and painted it.

Ran into a snag witht he PSC steering setup I bought.

So I purchased this kit http://www.pscmotorsports.com/95-06-4-0-jeep-high-volume-pump-kit.html with intentions to add to the redneck hydro assist setup that came with the truck. Figured I could get rid of the low rpm lag with 37's. Well turns out there is no friggen way to mount the reservoir in the XJ. It does not clear the hood, and even if it did there is no way do acheive a downward slop with the line from the reservoir to the pump so it could gravity fed. It looks like I will have to return the pump and get this one http://www.pscmotorsports.com/engin...-1600-series-pump-kit-intergal-reservoir.html . Funny thing when I called PSC, the guys first suggestion when I told him what happened is... make it work. Trust me I tried. He also mentioned that the pump with the integrated reservoir is very loud. Im going to return it and see what my other options are. You guys have any suggestions or should I just go with the new PSC pump and call it a day?

 

[XJ McLovin]

Update.

XJ's on all four wheels again, got the pump figured out. PSC sent me the integrated resi pump instead. Gone wheeling a few times now. Ditched the wore KM2's and beadlocks for some MTR's and steel wheels. Since the XJ will be a dual purpose rig, I dont trust the beadlocks.

A little garage flex to determine how much trimming is needed

Cut, hammer, weld, hammer, weld, grind, bondo, sand, clean, paint

Welded in a new battery mount and its such a tight fit, I just went ahead and replaced the 4 year old battery.

 

[XJ McLovin]

Cut a hole in the skid and added mesh for the steering cooler.

Spectre intake since the ARB compressor is taking up too much room

 

[XJ McLovin]

Now thew Rear. Im currently doing this now, among other things

Might have another update by tonight... Bedline the side of the truck.

 

[XJ McLovin]

few more

And a video of the flex test from a few weeks ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBuf6by2dKY&feature=share