Introducing yet another Jeep build thread

Yup, time for another Jeep thread because, well, there can't be too many.   

I've had a lot of Jeeps, 14 or so before this, uh, situation that is about to unfold before your eyes.  I sold my last beast CJ7 for reasons that I won't get into here. That was 15 years ago. Since then I've had a Grand Wagoneer or two, and I think a Cherokee?  Anyway, time to get a more trail-worthy/ready Jeep. Since I'll be taking my family of 5 with me most times, a Wrangler wouldn't do. That narrows it down to a Cherokee (tight for 5) or a Grand Cherokee (not as tight for 5). I set my total budget at about 4 grand. That included the Jeep and the build. I started shopping in earnest in November. In December I found it!  A 1995 Grand Cherokee, Laredo trim with the 5.2 V8. It's clean, really stinking clean.   

Here it is in all it's glory in December when I drove it home.

It's a really clean Jeep as you can see. Low miles, 164K or thereabouts.  It had a few needs, namely a new thermostat, driver's window regulator is all wonky, and the steering needs an adjustment. 
The build would include a lift (4" or so), 32" tires, a locker, a winch, an upgrade to the Dana 35C rear axle, and a t-case swap to get rid of the full-time AWD. I say AWD because in this model year and this t-case (NP249) there is no locking diff in the t-case. So even in low-range it's an open t-case. Not ideal.  

So, the shopping begins for either a Dana 44HD from a later ZJ (the very next year they stopped using the 35 with the V8) or time to build the 35. I don't want to do an 8.8 swap because I don't want scope creep to kill this project.

Gotta go eat lunch. I'll add more detail soon.....

A LOT cleaner than my ZJ with about the same miles, and I bet you paid less! Just FYI, the post-'96 rear axles weren't 44HD they were 44A, as in, aluminum center section. If you're really going to bash on it, I wouldn't bother sourcing one of those.  I'm interested to see how your project progresses given the PITA I've had with mine.

While searching for a 1996-1998 ZJ that is bring parted out, I found a Facebook marketplace post that intrigued me. He was thinking about selling his 1998 ZJ in a few months and was putting the feelers out. I hate that. Just sell or don't, but stop with the feelers!  Oh, no price either.  Double hate that!  

So, I respond because the Jeep looked like it sat nice. He said I could look at it that weekend. So I head out with money in my pocket, but not sure what a good price is.  

In the meantime, my brother in lw,  major enabler here, was texting the guy to get a number. They guy said $2500. Seemed like a good price. Good enough that I still offered him $2,000. Yup, a lifted 5.9 with no rust and thousands of work done at a professional shop was mine for $2K!

I get there and it sits very nice! 32" tires, 4.5" lift, adjustable control arms front and back, done at a shop with receipts to prove it!  Then, digging a little deeper notice the transfer case has already been swapped, and the LSD in the rear has been rebuilt!  

It already has the Dana 44HD in it. That's the same center section found in the Viper!!

i drove it. It drives well, but does have a few needs beyond my desire for a locker and a winch. 

Here it is in all it's glory

and parked next to the V70

I'll get into the needs of both jeeps and what I'm going to do about them. But I will be keeping it grassroots. 

ultraclyde said:

A LOT cleaner than my ZJ with about the same miles, and I bet you paid less! Just FYI, the post-'96 rear axles weren't 44HD they were 44A, as in, aluminum center section. If you're really going to bash on it, I wouldn't bother sourcing one of those.  I'm interested to see how your project progresses given the PITA I've had with mine.

The 44HD and 44A are the same thing. HD is the official Jeep name, A is the more common name. A skid plate is in the cards for sure. 

The ring and pinion are the same size as a Dana 60!!  But yeah, that stupid aluminum housing!  The service manual actually tells you not to lift the Jeep by the housing

You're not supposed to.....

oh. uhh, okay...

Damn, that's nice! Breaks my heart, I paid that for the POS I'm working on. Is it actually a 5.9 or did he just swap the trim?

And why is there a license plate in the driver's rear wheel well?

DrBoost said:

 

 

 

Your seats have sick abs bro. 

I love Chrysler Velour so so much. I was just telling my kids about the days of burgundy velour seats. They were jealous. 

ultraclyde said:

You're not supposed to.....

oh. uhh, okay...

 

Damn, that's nice! Breaks my heart, I paid that for the POS I'm working on. Is it actually a 5.9 or did he just swap the trim?

And why is there a license plate in the driver's rear wheel well?

I totally forgot to mention. It's a 1998 5.9 Limited. One year only trim level!  That 5.9 really moves the Jeep with authority, even with 32" tires!!  

It's a California jeep, so no rust! (that calls for another exclamation point in Michigan)!

the license plate in the wheel well has a story behind it. The guy was driving the Jeep from CA to MI when he moved. He ran over some huge chuck of steel. The steel shredded the tire, then stabbed itself THROUGH INTO THE INTERIOR!!!

So, when the weather brakes, I'll pull it off to see if anything else needs to be done. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

DrBoost said:

 

 

 

Your seats have sick abs bro. 

I love Chrysler Velour so so much. I was just telling my kids about the days of burgundy velour seats. They were jealous. 

I like the 95 enough that I thought about swapping the lift and stuff from the 98 to the 95.  Then I remembered that the 95 has rusty inner rockers and went inside and had a drink. 

ultraclyde said:

You're not supposed to.....

oh. uhh, okay...

 

Damn, that's nice! Breaks my heart, I paid that for the POS I'm working on. Is it actually a 5.9 or did he just swap the trim?

And why is there a license plate in the driver's rear wheel well?

I forgot to mention in my original post, but I got it for $2,000.

Ok, some time for an update. I have two jeeps, a 1995 and a 1998. The 1995 is going to go away.  

Here's what I was going to do to the 95 before I started the build:

replace t-stat

replace left headlight

repair driver's window regulator

adjust steering gear box

I am going to tackle one or more items this weekend. The problem is I can't spend very much time in the cold humid air. I am still recovering from a bout of pneumonia from earlier this month. I'm going to knock those items out because I can charge more money for it when I sell it AND it makes a vehicle much easier to sell when you don't have to make excuses for too many things.    

The 1998 already has most of the build done to it, but it does have needs. Here's the needs, in no particular order:

"Coolant level sensor bad" message shows on the info display intermittently. I already swapped a new one in and no dice.  

Driver's window does not go up and down

rear wiper inop

rear glass (on hatch) doesn't open

drivers seat looks like crap

Radio has a mind of it's own

I suspect a slow coolant leak.

Need a locker, front or rear not sure yet, but it's getting one

Need a winch

Need 2 or 4 tires

Stay tuned, I'll be working on one or both Jeeps tomorrow or Sunday.

DrBoost said:

 

Stay tuned, I'll be working on one or both Jeeps tomorrow or Sunday.

Meanwhile....at DrBoost's house...

This first jeep is really clean, and that 2nd jeep is a steal of a deal. Wow!

I wasn't going to waste bandwidth with this update, but progress is progress, so here goes. 

I got the kids outside in a unusually warm February day to clean the Jeep. We went out and bought an all-purpose cleaner, carpet cleaner, and leather cleaner and set to work. After almost 6 man hours the Jeep was looking, and smelling much better. But it still had more than it's share of funk. On top of that, there were spots that I couldn't get off the leather so I  decided it was time to call in the big guns. I took it to a detailer. 

I explained that I didn't expect a show room look from a 20-year ild Jeep, but I really wanted the carpet and leather as clean as possible, and the stank evicted. 

$50 later I picked it up and it looked, and smelled much better. We'll see how it smells after the armor all has worn off. But the leather is spotless, and the carpet is as clean as I could have expected. 

Here's some before pics:   

The cargo area

The right rear seat was the worst area, but is hard to see in this pic  the sunlight is hitting the seat bottom  there was a strange white substance on the seat, the door panel, and the front of the passenger seat  clearly they had a kid sitting here and eating (and spilling) food EVERYWHERE. I scrubbed and scrubbed and couldn't get it clean enough. When I tried to lift the seat bottom to clean end edges, and vacuum under the seat, it wouldn't budge  the rear seat bottom and rear seat back were stuck together!  Like REALLY stuck. Nasty!!

Here's some pics after calling in the big guns. 

$50 well spent. I'll be re-wrapping the headliner soon, and re-stitching the steering wheel. Along with a few other mechanical issues. But at least now Incan sit in it. 

$50 well spent, indeed.  My concern would be, if the the inside was ignored, I'd check it out mechanically, really well.  My experience shows if it is abused inside, chances are the same for the rest of it.  Looking good, and best of luck.

Coming along nicely. Your "coolant sensor bad" is a common issue. The Vehicle Information Center (VIC) needs the solder on the main connection reflowed. Do some searching and you can find which pin on the circuit board at the plug goes to the coolant sensor. That's the one you want to resolder. They're tiny, but if you're skilled it won't hurt to do all of them. If you get interior or headlights that flicker when you thump the interior dimmer slider, then you'll need to do the same thing to the circuit board in the headlight switch.

Or you could remove the VIC entirely and install your light switches there for the 30 Chinese LED offroad lights. At least, that's what most of the ZJ owners on the forums did.

Haha, thanks Ultraclyde. Progress is slow. It's still winter here, and I'm not fully recovered from pneumonia yet, so I have to be careful about spending too much time outside in the damp cold. 

I did find the VIC solder thing. I'm going to do that. I have no dash lights, so I'll do the headlight switch as well.  Thanks for the heads-up.

It'll be a boring update, but here goes. 

I have a few electrical gremlins I'm dealing with. A 90's Chrysler product, whoda thunk it!? I decided to tackle 3 things this last weekend. 

1 - the driver's window isn't going up or down. This was toward the bottom of my list...till I accidentally hit the down button and it went down 2", then wouldn't go back up.   

2 - I get an errant message on the VIC (vehicle info display) that says I have a bad coolant level sensor. 

3 - I have NO dash lights at night. All gauges work, warning lights work, LCD ODO works, door lights work 

so I pulled the dash trim off to expose the VIC and the headlight switch. 

After removing the  VIC lense 

I re-flowed all the solder joints and reinstalled it and....result!  It's fixed. 

Next I turned my attention to the headlight switch, specifically the dimmer. I couldn't see any obviously bad solder joints so I reflowed all that I could see. 

Then I reinstalled the headlight switch and.....nope. Still no dash lights. I did notice that the ODO and VIC dim with the dimmer slider. I don't think they did that before. 

Then I replaced the window regulator motor. Simple fix. 

Oh, I also replaced the hazed and yellowing headlights as well. 

glad to help. That VIC is really annoying when it keeps beeping about the coolant sensor.

Time to post a little update. I've done some stuff since the last update, but nothing update-worthy to me.  I replaced the radio and ordered some speakers. I don't plan on a 'boomin' system yo' in this Jeep, but what was there sounded terrible. So I bought an inexpensive Kenwood radio from Crutchfield and some inexpensive 6.5" coax speakers from eBay. The radio is in, the speakers just came in. I'll do that later.   

The update concerns my wheeling and dealing on tires and wheels (haha, see what I did there. I'm clever this early on a Sunday morning).  

I bought some wheels and tires from a guy at work that he took off his 2016 Jeep wrangler. The tires were just the basic Goodyear Wrangler SR-A tires, 255/75/17. I didn't want the tires, just the wheels. Why, when I have those funky-fresh one-year-only 5.9 Limited wheels? More to come.....

So, I had the tires broken down and listed the tires for sale.   

Can you believe I fit 5 tires and 5 wheels in the back of a Grand Cherokee??

I bought the wheels and tires for $300. I sold the tires for $150.  That leaves me with 5 wheels for $150. Good deal, me thinks.   

So, why did I want the 17" wheels? My front tires are CRAP! Just terrible. Chopped, out of round, cheap garbage. I was going to buy two new front tires to match my rear tires (different brand, not garbage.

Here you can see the chopped, crappy tread on one of the front tires.

I was discussing that with a different guy at work when he says "I'm lifting my Jeep in a week or three, you can buy my tires". His Jeep is a 2017 Jeep JK (4-door) Rubicon. The 32" BF Goodrich Mud Terrains have 5,025 miles on them. He said he'd sell me the 5 for $400. Score.  

$150 for the wheels, 

$400 for the tires

$100 for the adapters (different bolt pattern)

I'm looking at $650 for 5 wheels and tires. Those tires, new, run $1,102.5. 

A third guy from work wants my old tires for $100, that brings my total to $550. From what I see on eBay I can sell my 5.9 Limited wheels for $100-$125 each. Bringing my total outlay for tires and wheels to just the cost of having the tire shop break down, then mount and balance tires.  

I'm happy with that.  

So, yesterday I loaded the BFG tires mounted on the JK wheels in the back of the Jeep, along with my welder and some tools and headed out to see PilotBraden. He taught my daughter and I how to weld.    

Here's my 13-year old daughter practicing her angle, getting ready to lay her first bead.  

Super proud of that girl. She's always ready to learn new stuff.  

I mounted the wheels and tires at Braden's place, thanks again Braden!!!  

Here's a before pic of the Jeep:  

And the after pics. The BFG tires are about 1" taller, 0.5" narrower. I like that. They are tucked inside the wheel wells now.

The plan was also to weld a skid plate to the rear axle. The one I bought doesn't fit so Braden and I designed another one. We'll revisit that at a later date.

Wheeling and dealing is so rewarding.  I like where you're going with this.

Tell your daughter I like her welding shoes 

Dead_Sled said:

Tell your daughter I like her welding shoes 

Hahaha. I wondered if anyone would notice. We couldn't find her leather shoes anywhere!!  So Braden had a pair of crusty welding gloves. Some cutting and duct tale later, voila!  Protected feet. 

I figured I'd run through the financials and see how I'm doing thus far.  

My original (soft) budget was $4,000.  Here's the running tally:

Starting budget $4000

Purchased 1995 Grand Cherokee (tax and title included) $1750

$2250 left.  

While searching for an axle for the 95, I found a 1998 5.9 Limited that I just couldn't pass up. Purchase price $2,000

$250 left.

Purchased Enco Winch $430

$180 over budget

Purchased winch plate for $230

$410 over budget

Sold 1995 Grand Cherokee for 2400

$1990 left in budget (woo-hoo!)

Tires and wheels purchased - $300

$1690 left

Sold tires from purchased wheels/tires for $150

$1840 left

Purchased 5 BFG mud terrain tires $400

$1440 left

Purchased skid plate for rear axle $110

$1330 left.    

Replaced headlight housings $40

$1290 left

Replaced window regulator motor $65

$1225 left

At this point, there's not much left to do. But I'm really happy where I am in the budget. Building a challenge car taught me a lot.  

I'd say you did pretty damned good!

In reply to Bill Mesker :

Thanks.  I still have some money to recoup, and a few things that I want (not need) to repair on the Jeep.