Snooze alert! The daily driver

[Scoobienorth]

Figured I’d start a thread for my daily driver. It’s nothing special and looks like even less. It’s a 99 grand cherokee (wj). Right hand drive from Japan. When I was lining up to quit my job and go back to school I wanted no car payments so I sold my newish car and bought this from Japan. This is my to and from work rig, daily chores, camping thing and occasional wheeling rig in summer and is being built with The intention of my next utah Rock crawling trip. First thing I did was a bds 2” coil lift but I got front shocks from the 4” lift and left stock bumpstops. Next up was hitting a deer which it shrugged off aside from my fog light and washer bottle. So I took that as divine intervention to relocate washer bottle and cut the fog lights for bigger tires.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bis_stEnxiv ... 97xfhqo177

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bjpy-I-nP2x ... k74ex8end8

Then I trimmed the fenders up front as well. It’s similar to my wheeling rig up front

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bjs0vyznsWk ... 8r9tkunj04

I was planning on using my 33” bajaclaws from my wheeling rig but they eat hp and aren’t the best highway winter so Steve bought his rubicon and I traded him for his rims and a new set duratracs 255/75r17. I pounded firewall back and they clear barely even right down to the factory bumpstops.

[Scoobienorth]

I built homemade sway bar disconnects buy drilling a hole in the bolt and using pins. It had 72,000km on it when I imported it, now it’s closing in on 100km’s. Aside from water pump, starter and crank position sensor it’s been reliable. Touring with the family I dropped a coil out flexing so today I fabbed some coil retainers so I don’t have to chase coil springs down the road again. Used some rear bumpstops and welded a nut between two washers and welded it to the coil bucket. The wj bumpstop are outside the coil up front. Just needed something to keep the coil aligned with the bucket. I had a hell of a time flexing this enough to drop the coils loose. I could easily sit on top of my 37’s if my fender wasn’t in the way.

[Scoobienorth]

My plan for this has been to move onto something else but reality says I’ll be driving it for a bit. I scored some 16x8 steel wheels with 4.25” backspace which is spot on for 33x12.5’s Or 35’s. I’d like to go to 305/70r16’s next, an at with snowflake rating on it. With a lunchbox locker in the rear and a limited slip up front this rig would be a real sleeper and plenty capable. It needs a hidden winch Mount like my wheeling rig and possibly a tank tuck to lift the fuel tank and cut the hitch up for clearance. It’s pretty low in the middle and rear but flexes well enough to get by most things. As is there isn’t many spots in the okanagan and Shuswap it can’t go already as long as it isn’t snowy.

[Scoobienorth]

The other project I did was because the spare no longer fits in the hole I used that space for tools and gear. I cut the lid, put hinges on it and added some big load rates tie downs for the tire. Still have most of my cargo area and geared up pretty well.

[HillBilt]

Nice little daily wheeler. The spare can't lay flat? Dude, I seen that sweet strap setup and laughed. Make a simple mount with a hinge so it can lift up to access the space below?

[Scoobienorth]

Nice little daily wheeler. The spare can't lay flat? Dude, I seen that sweet strap setup and laughed. Make a simple mount with a hinge so it can lift up to access the space below?

I had that before and it was a pain for groceries and shopping It’s not nice as it blocks the rear window but it’s better for daily usage that it’s worth it for me. I got tired of moving the tire, kicking it out when I went shopping it trying to stack stuff on top of it. I had it on the roof but like my other wj the roof rack pulls out of the roof with the weight of the tire

[Scoobienorth]

Having issues with my heater. It’s always been poor heat after I changed to water pump and thermostat housing. Tried switching to a mopar thermostat with a jiggle valve in it. Anyways someone told me to park nose down on a steep hill and rev it up. This worked and I got heat until I started moving. I’ve repeated this a couple more times and get heat until I start driving then it cools off again. Any ideas?

[Johnny5]

If it starts working after bleeding air then maybe theres not enough coolant in?
Just wondering if theres air being introduced into system, any bubbles while engines running?

[Scoobienorth]

I tried bleeding it some more and it seemed to burp some air bubbles, I don’t think It’s getting air but I’m not sure what’s going on.

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

Blend door problem? If it's like 98% of Chrysler products the blend doors tend to not travel fully (or at all) and you may just be getting too much cold air bypassing the heater core when moving?

[Scoobienorth]

Blend door problem? If it's like 98% of Chrysler products the blend doors tend to not travel fully (or at all) and you may just be getting too much cold air bypassing the heater core when moving?

I’ve got access doors cut so I can see the blend doors. This is different why am I getting heat when I’m pointed nose down revving motor then once I start driving it cools off.

[Johnny5]

You said you changed the water pump? Is it turning the correct rotation?
The jiggle valve on thermostat opened up to rad side?
Im just kinda makin suggestions that might help haha.

[Mr.gutsy]

Possible you got some junk in the core and its not flowing like it should? Sometimes you can flush it both ways with a garden hose and blast the crud out of it. Are the hoses hot to the touch the length of the hose and are both hot?

[Scoobienorth]

I’ve flushed the core with garden hose and it seemed fine. The hoses get up to temp pretty quick.


I’m not sure how to verify the water pump direction. The t stat is correct.

I’ve been tempted to try and swap the heater core. Being right hand drive though I’m not sure if the left hand drive ones fits as it might be the mirror image and finding out has been tough

[pointsnorth]

find the problem yet?