This is the 1998 Cherokee XJ that I used to own before I handed it over to my step son when he needed a reliable mode of transportation for work. I traded a 1998 Ford F250 with a rusted out frame for this XJ. Both had almost identical miles and mechanically were in the same condition so it was a straight up trade. When I took delivery it was a bone stock XJ with about 135k on the clock and a severely sagging suspension.
The first thing to go was the broken and ugly side molding. When I took the Fender flares off the screws in the brackets broke as is the way of their people. So rather than fixing it, I figured I would leave them off and see how I liked the look.
The next stage was a completely homebrew lift. Up front I went with ZJ coil springs but I sadly do not remember exactly what shocks I went with. In the rear I went with HD leaf springs for a 2 inch lift (although it ended up giving me more due to the stiffness) and skyjacker shocks. I upgraded all of the bushings and dropped the t-case 1.5 inches to compensate for the added angle on the drive shaft. I made my own brake lines and called it a day.
Once that was all said and done the brakes got a complete overhaul. Everything from the lines to the pads were replaced. Everything that stopped the vehicle was brand new. Of course while I was under there I replaced the steering stabilizer and shortened the exhaust (who needs a muffler anyway!)
Under the hood I got rid of the factory airbox and replaced it with a Spectre cone filter that amazingly fit right onto the stock intake hose. The oil blowoff hose was replaced with an even smaller Spectre filter, because why not? All plugs, wires, the distributor cap and rotor were replaced and the vacuum ball inside of the bumper was relocated to between the battery and fuse box. the fuse box, vacuum ball, and fan shroud were painted the same OD green as the front grille and wheel centers for effect (although I'm not quite sure what the effect was).
While I was under the hood I decided to replace the non working factory fog lights. I wired in a new toggle switch to go with the back up light over ride (more on that in a minute). The fog lights that I used were nothing special, just a pair I picked up on clearance at Advance Auto Parts. I mounted those in the same spot as the factory lights.
In this picture you will see 3 toggle switches. the big one at the top is for the fog lights. the middle one was currently unused, but was going to be for my fan over ride that I never got around to wiring up. The bottom switch was my back up light over ride. As is the case in the XJ, my Neutral Safety Switch was going bad. So what I did to counteract that was wire up a switch that had two different functions. Firstly it would allow me to turn on my back up lights in the event that they didn't come on on their own but would also allow me to turn them on without the vehicle being in reverse if I needed to be back there for some reason. Sadly I never got around to installing the upgraded lights back there...
So that is it. Other than basic maintenance and a few sensors needing replaced that was my first Jeep "build". I hope you like it, I look forward to getting work started o my Commander. I have quite a few ideas now I just need the time and extra money to get them started.
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