New Project: SGT-XJ
I’ve been looking for a new daily driver that is sort of a trail rig for a few years now, was originally wanting a 90’s defender, but you can literally buy a new vehicle for what one of those cost in the us. I looked for a long time and everything locally was a total pile of rust and WAY too much money. I found a really cool one back home in Oregon, but shipping was roughly the same as the purchase price.
I finally gave up and was looking for a Jeep Commander, but that would be a completely different project. Heavy instead of light, with a 5.7 Hemi instead of a Jeep 4.0. I generally dislike heavy off-road vehicles.
I was talking about this in one of my shooting groups and my friend Liam said “Hey, I have a Cherokee that I’ll Give you.” “Please….Tell me more.” By that night, it was sitting in front of my shop.
Liam hadn’t driven it in a long time, and the hood latch seized up, which is a known problem for these. That’s why the grille is off, so that I could remove the hood latch strikers and open the hood. We couldn’t get it started, but I saw enough to know it was worthwhile. It’s a 94 Jeep Cherokee Sport, Automatic, 4-door. 3″ lift. Probably the best combination for me because it’s new enough to have a reliable EFI, but not new enough to have ABS or Airbags. Bonus points for the non-airbag steering wheel! The only thing I would have wished for is a two door, but that’s rare.
I’ve had the project in my mind for a long time so I immediately started ordering the components I needed, but I first needed to get it started. There was no fuel pressure, but I did a lot of diagnosis, and a dead crank position sensor will prevent the fuel pump from getting power. Sure enough my trusty old Snap-On MT-2500 confirmed.
As you can see, on the left, “Crank Sensor Not Detected” on the right, after replacing the crank sensor, the error is gone.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the problem. Even after applying power right to the pump, still nothing happened, so I dropped the tank and oh boy.
I ordered a new assembly from Amazon, but they sent me a 96+ and they were adamant that it fit 95 and earlier, It took some doing to get them to accept the return.
Turns out, there ARE no fuel pump assemblies that fit the 91-95 (I think) XJ. You HAVE to rebuild the original assembly. Ick.
I was able to reconstruct the module, replaced some fasteners, but that rubber isolator had to be re-used, and it was almost Jell-O. The entire inside of the tank looked just like that pump so I ordered a new one from Ebay, and I’ll be damned, but it said JC Whitney on it.
I replaced all the hoses and everything else, and sure enough…it started right up.
It came to me with only a downpipe, and pretty far gone, also stock downpipes have a stupid crush just after the header connection, allegedly to slow the flow through the Catalytic Converter, and I don’t have one of those. I found a mandrel-bent one made by Magnaflow made of 409 without the crush. I have Magnaflow and Thrush Mufflers, one of them will work. I also found a chrome tip tail pipe from DynoMax in 2.25″ also in 409, also mandrel bent.
Next up is tires. Tires dictate a LOT of things that get done downstream so I couldn’t put them off til’ later. The XJ came with Cragar “Soft Eight” wheels, but only 4. I robbed the wheels and tires from my daughter’s XJ, and yep, they fit as desired. So off to discount tire and bought a set of 5, 33X10.50-15 tires and got another wheel from Summit. Weird that I don’t have pics of those, but they’ll be up before long.
Now, this is a “Michigan Rust-Free Vehicle”
“Michigan Rust-Free”
Obviously, I have to do the quarter-panel on that side, but lots of that part of the jeep is not going to exist, so I got started with the rear corner mods. Most do a “Cut and Fold” but I’m not. I’m chopping off the rear corner at the body line and making a pan instead of folding over body panels. I have a ton of 18 ga material, so that’s what I used.
I spent a lot of time deciding on flares. I ended up going with ones that DO NOT look like the robot rendering above, which appear to be crappy bushwhackers or something. I want flares I can jack from. I went with the ones from Affordable Offroad These guys have been great to work with, highly recommend. I did not go with the rub rails at the top, only the armor that will support the flares.
Next up is that damn quarter panel, but I’m leaving that for the next post….