The LBP XJ Cherokee POS

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

I hear you on welding thick stuff to the stock sheetmetal. The corner guards I welded under my rear tail lights off the red grand was truly terrible looking. That being said I’ve hit them a couple times and they shifted the Jeep over so I’m sure yours will be fine

I'm not worried about the welds failing. I don't really like how the link mount is too far inboard to be really well supported by everything else. The risk would be hitting it hard enough to cause it to bend over a bit. I think I'm overthinking things though.

If the stiffener pieces fit better it would be a lot easier to weld though. Trying to fill gaps with a weld that is decently structural sucks to begin with, add having to do that when the one piece is super thin and it's really asking for trouble.

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

I got the other side done:

I did some more work to brace this mount. I don't think it will be an issue. All the welds on the mounts were double or triple passed. Lots of horrible welds because I was inverted.

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I also had to do some clamp bullshit for the fuel/brake lines:

I guess my driveshaft tried to eat them last time out. Not ideal. I might try to do something better here in the future. I also cut the defunct UCA mount off so the speedometer cable and everything else routes nicer.

I went back and added bracing to the mounts on the other side:

Again, bunch of shitty welds. I'm okay with it. It's bracing that wasn't there before. There is bracing on the other side of the mount too but I forgot to take a picture before I put the belly pan back on.

Then the rear main seal decided to go Exxon Valdez on me. Luckily I had one and the pan gasket set on hand, so I swapped it out last night.

Apparently AMC used a striated crank seal surface with a lip seal? I was very confused. I do not recall this on any of my other 4.0L Jeeps. Whatever, it didn't leak after I changed the seal.

Then I wheeled it today and eh. Not too impressed with the changes honestly. It performs no better at all than the bastardized short arm 3-link setup (I think Jeeple call this setup a mid arm??), but the link mounts take a huge beating on stuff that would probably miss them otherwise. Whatever, it works. I know I screwed up my axle placement a bit (I think I wrote the numbers down wrong and it's about 3/8" too far forward), but that can be adjusted back. I need to add about half an inch of bumpstop and half an inch of lift, and ditch the Fox remote reservoir shocks. The shocks are stud mount on the top and if anything pokes them they spin, then the reservoir gets eaten by the tire. It's not a big enough issue to deal with right away, but I'll have to decide what I'm going to do about it. Once I look the thing over I'll see what else needs to be dealt with sooner or later.

[Joe_the_ice_man]

I also had to do some clamp bullshit for the fuel/brake lines:
20220821_003715.jpg

Taking note for when my zip ties break

[pointsnorth]

so I seen a video of this thing not sounding so healthy. time for a motor upgrade3?

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

so I seen a video of this thing not sounding so healthy. time for a motor upgrade3?

I think it survived. Had it running again last night but need to change oils again before I consider letting it run long enough to get up to temperature. Lordco also managed to sell me an oil filter that doesn't fit. Googled it and it wasn't their fault, tons of complaints of people getting that filter and it not fitting, RockAuto and Amazon both list it as fitting too, it has the right threads but isn't tall enough to go over the standpipe on the adapter.

I'm confident enough to say it's 50/50 that it will be okay right meow.

There's another 4.oh on a stand to replace it if need be. Fastest and easiest solution. I MIGHT put the HO head on it if I feel like it before I drop it in, if it comes to it, which is worth 5-10HP maybe.

[Snowracer]

so I seen a video of this thing not sounding so healthy. time for a motor upgrade3?

pics or it didnt happen right ?

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

so I seen a video of this thing not sounding so healthy. time for a motor upgrade3?

pics or it didnt happen right ?

I may have a video from the dash of driving into it. Beaver pond with a channel/shelf/hole/whatever in it. Seemed like everything was fine, until it wasn't... At all...

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

Turns out the reason the transmission filled with water is because there's a hole in the dipstick tube.

The dipstick tube is seized in the tranny... And it's a pretty unobtanium part too.

[Scoobienorth]

Turns out the reason the transmission filled with water is because there's a hole in the dipstick tube.

The dipstick tube is seized in the tranny... And it's a pretty unobtanium part too.

That’s what jb weld stuff is for

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

Turns out the reason the transmission filled with water is because there's a hole in the dipstick tube.

The dipstick tube is seized in the tranny... And it's a pretty unobtanium part too.

That’s what jb weld stuff is for

Well.... I understated the size of the hole. There's a big section of it that got torn off on the back side. How? Fuck if I know. I guarantee I didn't do it, it's so close to the firewall I only found it after I was filling the trans and saw there was fluid leaking out when I KNEW I didn't spill any, then I felt it by running my fingers over it trying to find the leak. It's not a chafe either, it's a big jagged hole with rough edges. I remember filling it up before and having it leak everywhere but I just figured I'd spilled it. I'd guarantee it's from when the PO had some terrifyingly bad backyard mechanic replace the engine (a lot of what he did I had to unfuck in the start of the build). So, it's been like this as long as I've had it, plus a bunch more years before that. Kudos to the AW4 for taking that sort of crap like a champ, if it blows up now I won't even be mad.

Anyway, I smeared black RTV all around the hole and the rest of the dipstick tube, then slipped heat shrink tubing over it, shrank it, then repeated that a couple more times to build up the girth. Is it right? Fuck no. Is it going to work? Maybe. Do I care at this point? Uhhh, not really.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have everything flushed and can take it out for a burn. I still have to check if the gas tank filled with water too.

[mrghostwalker]

Nice build!!

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

ECM was full of water.

It was super weird, it ran fine until it came up to temperature, then it died. Makes total sense now with what I was fighting, as soon as it would go into closed loop it would go haywire and stall. Hence having it running for a while, then not, and being able to start it but have it die a few seconds later. Basically once it got a reading from the O2 sensor that was it.

Anyway, I don't know if it trashed that ECM or not, I put my spare in. Now I'm looking for another spare to be safe. This Renix stuff is starting to be rather nonexistent.

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

And the fuel pump also decided to nope right out.

Hey, better it happens in my driveway than out somewhere. Still annoying. Got another one coming from RockAuto, I swore I had a whole spare here somewhere but can't find it.

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

Got some 40x16 LTBs for the snow wheeling.

Waiting for adapters to show up since they're 8x170 pattern wheels. It should space them out enough to clear steering and everything else. I will need to put a spacer in the front and extend the bumpstops, but that isn't a big deal.

Oh, there is 4 tires, but one of them escaped the photo by rolling away.

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

I added one of those POS roof racks from the PowerFist store.

I don't intend for it to last long term, I just want to be able to throw a couple small jerry cans on it for winter wheeling. I didn't use their stupid brackets and just bolted it straight through the factory roof rack rails. We'll see if it makes it through the winter or not, nothing about this setup is legit or good.

Wheel adapters finally showed up too, so hopefully I can get the new tires on and sort out suspension adjustments in the next few days.