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So a while back I overloaded my roof rack and one side of the crossbars broke and the entire thing sagged. I've been wanting to replace them and finally got the chance when I went on a trip to see the Eclipse with some friends. I'd say the 97+ style crossbars look way better than the older style ones. As a side note I want to say this was an 800 mile round trip and the Cherokee gave me absolutely no problems. It was a great adventure. Definitely the longest this car has endured so far. 21mpg the entire time as well!
I have been holding onto these speakers for a good 3 Years now and finally decided to install them into the dash since the sport trim doesn't come with them. Just wired them directly into the front speaker harnesses on either side of the car and they work great! Definitely changed the sound quality.
So recently with in the past year the Jeep has developed a bit of smoke out the tailpipe and now after running it blows out a lot. Burning a bunch of oil so I'm assuming it needs new valve seals. Accompanying this is now a slow but apparent input shaft seal leak in the transmission. Originally thought my rear main was still leaking until I checked the transmission fluid level. So that's nice. Just hit 222k miles on it so I'm not too too surprised.
Throw some Lucas Stop slip in the trans, that might help the leak (I swear, the only reason any of my vehicles are still on the road right now is because of Lucas's line of products).
Throw some Lucas Stop slip in the trans, that might help the leak (I swear, the only reason any of my vehicles are still on the road right now is because of Lucas's line of products).
So I bought some steel braided brake lines for the front calipers back in 2021 and today is the day I finally got around to installing them. Back then the flare nuts had rounded over and I had tried everything BUT heat. Today me and a friend took a torch to it and low and behold they came loose with a snap. Didn't even try to spin the line. These are extended and a tad bit longer than I need but they don't hit anything or rub against the wheels so I'm calling it a win. Took long enough.
Recently the XJ started burning oil more and more. Aggravated it enough to start belting out plumes of smoke after getting stuck on a trail with some buddies one night. Me and a good friend tore down the motor yesterday to replace the valve seals and sure enough, every single one was rock hard. Replaced those, the Headgasket, Lifters, Manifold Gasket and Water pump/pipe since they were leaking. Every single lifter was collapsed. It is almost crazy how different she sounds when idling now. Rebuilding the head was fun. Never want to do it again.
Before and After video is here:
Well I was not wanting to make this post *this* early but unfortunately I have lost the Cherokee. Yesterday evening a car pulled out from a driveway and proceeded to turn right into the Jeep and did not once try to stop. I was going 55mph so it was a pretty brutal stop. Whole thing is totaled and bent. It did its job and saved me and my friend though. 4 years worth of time and love put into this thing only to be taken away by idiot drivers. But it will live on in another Cherokee. The drive line seems to have been spared along with a bunch of other parts so I will be more than likely dropping it into another one in the near future. And will make another build thread for it instead of continuing it here. I wanted to take it on way more trips and see a lot more of the country but I'm just glad it finally got to run perfectly before its end. This is the last update to this thread. The final Odometer reading is 222,351.
It is a real shame that my green Cherokee was destroyed but it is helping a lot with parts. A lot of good memories with this car but I'm sure I will make many more with the new one! Plus this is my dream spec'd XJ.
04-10-2024, 02:36 PM
Replaced roof crossbars
