Jeep Cherokee Widetrack Revival - with questions for the experts - Stoffregen Motorsports

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

The wheels that came on the rig were the original 8 spoke wagon wheels, but were pretty sad looking. I had the tires removed then brought the wheels to my favorite blasting/powder coating shop, American Stripping in Sacramento to have them blasted and coated. I chose a stock color, RAL 1013, oyster white, which is a bit more creamy than the original stark white. I haven't yet decided if I am going to paint the red strip on them. What do you guys think? Stripe or no stripe?

The wheels were date coded and proudly stamped as Made In USA.

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

The original HVAC unit was pretty beat up. The heater core had four holes in it. All of the foam sealing the trap doors was gone. The wiring was hokey, at best. And all of it was full of rat crap.

All of the HVAC systems I restore get all new foam. Not only does it seal everything nice and tight, like new, but it also makes everything a bit quieter. No more door rattles or whistling air. Restoring these takes a while, but it's worth it.

 

[toddz69]

Glad to find another one of your buildups - I always love reading through your threads, although they make me feel pretty lazy on the amount of stuff I get done on my truck! I'm a Ford guy and I'm not sure I've ever heard of a 4350 carb. We use Truck Avengers on our Broncos in Baja and they're pretty good carbs considering all the bouncing and off-kilter stuff we subject them to. Other than the Motorcraft 2100/2150s, they're probably my favorite carbs.

Looking forward to following along with all your rebuilds. I only wish I could've picked the parts you needed for this truck in all my yonke sojourns in the last 30 years. I've walked past a lot of Cherokees and Waggys in years past (although I stopped at many to scrounge front brake parts).

Todd Z.

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Thanks Todd. With all of my own projects lingering about the shop, I sometimes forget that I have actual paying work to get done...

All info I found on the 4350 shows that it was used in 77-79 on 460ci cars and possibly trucks. Guys who have worked with them absolutely love them. It's difficult even to find specs on 4bbl equipped Jeep 360s, as most seem to have come from the factory with a 2bbl carb.

I do have a local Jeep wrecking yard, and there are dozens of FSJs in that yard, but a lot of them have been picked over, or worse, parts removed and then set aside and destroyed by foot traffic. Apparently the yard knows how rare some of the parts are because if you're looking for a rear window motor switch/lock cylinder with cover, all of them have been removed and you have to ask the guy behind the counter. Door mirrors too. I was able to score some hard to find parts there, but not everything.

 

[Todd780]

The wheels that came on the rig were the original 8 spoke wagon wheels, but were pretty sad looking. I had the tires removed then brought the wheels to my favorite blasting/powder coating shop, American Stripping in Sacramento to have them blasted and coated. I chose a stock color, RAL 1013, oyster white, which is a bit more creamy than the original stark white. I haven't yet decided if I am going to paint the red strip on them. What do you guys think? Stripe or no stripe?

The wheels were date coded and proudly stamped as Made In USA.

Hmm.. maybe subtle change from stock and go orange stripe instead of red to match the body color?

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Interesting. Opens up all kinds of possibilities.

 

[Todd780]

Interesting. Opens up all kinds of possibilities.

Double stripe? Orange and black?

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Orange and silver.

Door mirrors are one of my questions. Who here with an FSJ runs the small chrome door mirrors? Can you actually see out of them? I've had them on a couple of my old Chevy trucks and while they look a lot better than the giant tow mirrors, they aren't very easy to see out of. Also, since the OEM mirrors are not easy to source, I'm looking at a couple other makes. Mainly Ford and Chevy. Early '70s Corvettes have a tall-ish mirror that might work too.

 

[SkiWill]

Orange and silver.

Door mirrors are one of my questions. Who here with an FSJ runs the small chrome door mirrors? Can you actually see out of them? I've had them on a couple of my old Chevy trucks and while they look a lot better than the giant tow mirrors, they aren't very easy to see out of. Also, since the OEM mirrors are not easy to source, I'm looking at a couple other makes. Mainly Ford and Chevy. Early '70s Corvettes have a tall-ish mirror that might work too.

I had the small chrome ones on one of my Cherokees and never trusted them enough to actually feel safe performing a lane change with whatever I saw in the mirror. I also could never get them pointed in the exact right direction either, which didn't much matter because they were kind of useless even if they were pointed in the right direction.

In that Jeep, I just got used to turning my head instead of checking mirrors. Luckily there's excellent visibility to look over your shoulders. But, as you suspect, those mirrors are more decorative than useful. I think you have two practical options. Mount small mirrors to cut down on the noise and ugly factor and never use them while always checking over your shoulder instead or put on some big ugly mirrors that make a lot of wind noise. I had multiple Jeeps covering both options and preferred the first option myself since I like to check my entire blind spot, but it's up to you. The bigger mirrors would also get knocked out of place often, so I'd just revert back to looking over my shoulder anyway.

 

[Dusty Wagoneer]

I have the factory small mirrors on my Yellow Wagoneer. They work OK.
On my other Wagoneer I am going this route:

You can find those mounts here, or at BJ's off road: https://www.fsjnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=6327

 

[Dusty Wagoneer]

OH BTW!
I have been meaning to post this for you too.

This guy does great work, and here is his build thread: http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=175531

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Nice. Thank you.

I have seen the billet adapters at BJ's and while it's a great idea, the mirrors are kinda bulky. Gives me an idea though...

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Question for the experts - Sway Bar

This Cherokee did not come equipped with any sway bars, which is kind of surprising. I did a quick google search and found that there was a factory front sway bar which mounts to the frame. I also found one that appears to attach to the axle, Land Cruiser style, but it appears to be aftermarket. Finding solid info on stock front sway bars is tough. Not much out there.

Yes, I want to install a front sway bar, possibly even a rear, if they exist. It's not commonly understood what sway bars actually do. They aren't just for cornering. A sway bar will help the vehicle drive in a straight line. When you go over bumps and feel the body pitch from side to side, this can induce roll steer, even on a leaf spring suspension. In an effort to make this Jeep a better daily driver, I'd like to eliminate the roll steer, as much as possible.

My frame does not have the holes for the sway bar bushing clamps, so I'm wondering if this is an era thing. When did Jeep start installing them?

One pic I found shows a lower link attachment under the leaf spring. Is this the stock type setup?



I also found a link showing the parts for the right side. I'm assuming the large plate in the pic is the lower sway bar link attachment point. If I can't find used ones, I'll just make them. Side note - I wonder if a sway bar setup is rare, and will I have to pay through the nose for one?



Here's a link to an aftermarket bar, but it seems to be a stock replacement bar, though in much larger diameter. Should I go with this one? - https://teamgrandwagoneer.com/front-heavy-duty-performance-anti-sway-bar-complete-kit-1974-1991/

 

[Dusty Wagoneer]

I have two 76 Wagoneer's. The yellow one as my avatar came with one factory, and the other one did not.
The first time I drove my yellow Wagoneer, I could not believe how much better it's road manners were.
So when I decided to to do a "frame off" on my other Waggy it was time to add a front sway bar.

We welded a "C" channel to the front frame using the measurements off of my other Waggy. Then drilled and tapped the holes for the sway bar mount.

I have ALCAN 4" springs so I bought extended sway bar links:

These are the plates you need to go under your springs, that the sway bar links mount to:

As far as the sway bar kit from TGW.
If you are just using OEM springs and no lift it looks like it will be fine?
Saves time looking in JY's trying to find one (thats what I did), or even on line.

 

[SkiWill]

In a daily driver application it won't matter much, but I have seen those lower link mounts fail under hard use or getting snagged on an obstacle. That's one of the reasons why it won't be easy to find one in the junkyard and it may save a lot of time buying the kit from TGW and fabricating your own lower link plate since you have the skills to do so.

I once ripped a u-bolt through one of the cast spring plates without even noticing the Jeep was hung up on something. Some of those cast pieces are not exactly high quality or robust so keep that in mind.

You are also correct that in the 70s none of the FSJs had rear sway bars. The rear spring mounts for the rear axle changed in sometime in 75/76. In 1980 the front axle switched from passenger diff to driver's side differential and the slightly offset rear dana 44 was swapped for the AMC 20 rear end with a centered diff for the NP variant transfer cases after discontinuing the Quadra-trac.