98 XJ build

[offroad_co]

Starting my build thread for my 1998 XJ sport. Currently I'm located in florida getting a graduate engineering degree. Once I finish, my plan is to travel a bit with my dog before I start looking for work. This jeep is my only vehicle so I'll be using it drive around town, rock crawl, and do some overlanding. I've never been great about taking pictures but I'm hoping that this will motivate me to document things more. Here the specs on my jeep.

1998 Jeep cherokee sport 4.0L

Engine and Transmission:
99-01 intake manifold
cold air intake
703 fuel injectors
B&M Transmission cooler with fluid temp gauge
Brown dog poly motor mounts
transfer case drop
CSF 3 row radiator

Suspension, Wheels and Axles:
4.5" rubicon express superflex (upgraded to adjustable lowers when I messed up the superflex joint rebuid)
4.56 HP dana 30 front axle
4.56 Chrysler 8.25 rear axle with detroit locker and G2 hammer diff cover
ZJ steering upgrade
ZJ disc brake conversion
JCR steering spacer
Durango steering box
Ironman4x4 shackle relocation brackets
American eagle wheels
285/75/R16 Cooper STT pros

Armor:
ARB bumper with Warn 8000 and random lights
JCR sliders
JCR vanguard rear bumper with tire carrier, rotopax mounts, and high lift mount

Miscellaneous:
removed carpet and bed lined interior
H4 headlight upgrade
50" lightbar
Replaced ashtray with accessory switch panel
hood pins
trimmed front fenders
cut and fold rear fenders

 

[AdamXJ]

Who's light bar mounts are those? They look great.

 

[offroad_co]

Who's light bar mounts are those? They look great.

They're farmer johnson offroad mounts. I like them cause they keep the bar low, but at the same time the cooling fins on the back of my bar touch the windshield gasket in the center. This ends up collecting leaves and pine needles sometimes.

 

[Warn Industries]

Good looking XJ!

Andy

 

[Se7en62]

That's sweet! What hood latches are those?

 

[Cascade Wanderer]

XJ's make excellent overlanding rigs! My oldest son has used this one extensively in the Pacific Northwest.





He's got a 5" long-arm suspension, 33x12.50 Mickey Thompson tires, 4.56 gears, air-activated OX lockers front and rear. I'm real impressed with what he's built, and how well it works. I think you've got a mighty fine XJ yourself and hope to see some good photos of it, exploring the world!

Regards, Guy

 

[offroad_co]

That's sweet! What hood latches are those?

Thanks, they're autofab hood pins

 

[offroad_co]

Thats a good looking XJ!

Since I don't smoke, I figured i would get rid of the ash tray and lighter. In their place, i installed a switch panel and USB charging port. The switch panel is designed and 3D printed by me.

 

[Se7en62]

Switchboard is looking good. - I plan to put mine in the same place. To the left, I assume that's your Trans Temp Gauge since you're in an Auto?

 

[offroad_co]

Switchboard is looking good. - I plan to put mine in the same place. To the left, I assume that's your Trans Temp Gauge since you're in an Auto?

Yeah, thats the transmission temp gauge.

 

[offroad_co]

Alternator upgrade

So last week I got the check gauges light and then the check engine light. When I checked the codes, I got P1682 and P1698 for low voltage and No CCD Messages received from PCM.

I think that my alternator died which then did something to trigger the P1698. Since I have never replaced the alternator in the 7 years that I've had this car and since I've got a winch and lights, I figured that this would be a good time to upgrade my alternator and wiring. I decided to swap in 4awg wires and a 120 amp alternator. To fit the higher output alternator, you have to grind down the alternator brackets a bit. Here are the alternator brackets that I pulled and ground down. Because they were out, I cleaned them up and sprayed some paint on them real quick.



To handle the higher output, I decided to upgrade the wiring that has probably been there since the jeep was built in 1998. So I made some wires. Here you can the crimps and heat shrink that I used. The crimps were made using this cheap hammer crimping tool https://goo.gl/HRPxMi. Except instead of hammering the crimps, I put it into a ball joint press that I had rented. This made for some pretty strong crimps. When I installed the wiring I also put a 130 amp fuse between the alternator and PDC and added some marine terminals.



Pretty much any job on my jeep never goes smoothly so after I installed everything and started the car, my voltmeter was reading only 12V. After some multimeter testing I figured that the alternator was bad and had to be returned. So I ordered another one, waited 4 days, and then installed the new one, which fortunately worked. Right now the jeep is running, but I want to make some of the electrical stuff more organized.

Also I'm getting the angry sparrows noise pretty bad now. I'm thinking that i'll probably order a new drive shaft and then rebuild the stock one to keep as a spare. Considering buying Tatton drive shaft for now.

 

[wADVr]

Do yourself a favor and get a couple spare fuses and increase the amp limit to 170-200. During heavy loads the slightly higher amp than 'max' alternator output will blow. I did the same thing and limped back to Moab twice before upping the fuse amp rating dramatically, then never a failure after that.

Also had a similar problem with low voltage at the PCM, ended up being a fuse that was only allowing 10 volts through, had continuity just was partially blown and limiting the voltage. I still have the fuse in my electric box as a reminder.

 

[offroad_co]

Do yourself a favor and get a couple spare fuses and increase the amp limit to 170-200. During heavy loads the slightly higher amp than 'max' alternator output will blow. I did the same thing and limped back to Moab twice before upping the fuse amp rating dramatically, then never a failure after that.

Also had a similar problem with low voltage at the PCM, ended up being a fuse that was only allowing 10 volts through, had continuity just was partially blown and limiting the voltage. I still have the fuse in my electric box as a reminder.

Wouldn't putting a higher amp fuse kind of defeat the purpose of a fuse? From my understanding, you set the fuse based off your wire size so that the fuse will blow instead of melting wires and causing fires. I suppose that if the high loads are only temporary it may still be ok. Right now I have an ANL fuse with a couple of spares but I think that I'm going to install a reset fuse. That way if it blows it'll be easy to reset.

 

[Adamson904]

Nice XJ, I am out of Jacksonville Beach. I have a "rock crawler/expedition" build lol
right now working on upgrading axles. Currently have MJ cad/27 spline 8.25 with 4.10s. Would like to find either pair of 4.56 axles or get dana 30 97-99 and 29 spline 8.25/8.8/44 and do 4.88s

 

[offroad_co]

Nice, thats a super clean XJ. I really love the notch fender flares. When I get the money I'll probably go that route, just have a ton of stuff that I need to do first. Did you do the install yourself? I heard that they're kind of a pain to install.