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

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

A few months ago, I scored a late '70s Jeep Cherokee Widetrack for pennies. The owner was selling basically everything he had to pay for eye surgery for his aging mother. He thought the Jeep was worth more, but as I pointed out all the flaws and items needing work, it started to make sense to him, and apparently my low offer was not too low. After it was home, I tore right into it, with hopes of making it a daily driver in a few short weeks. That was last November.

I've learned a lot about these old full size Jeeps since November, first of which is that some parts are really scarce. The Cherokee was missing almost the entire interior and I had to pay (trade actually) almost $900 for the rear seat alone. But I'm getting ahead of myself. For what it's worth, I started another thread on this Cherokee on another forum, but the crowd there was not as excited about seeing this project as I thought you all may be, so here we are.

A lot of the work to get it back on the road has already been done, but there are a few lingering items that I could use your help with. Below are a few pics of the first couple days of ownership.

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

First thing was to try and get it running and I quickly found that the motor was stuck, the throttle shafts in the carb were rusted to the carb body, the transmission was missing the oil pan and filter, the brakes were rusted, the radiator was literally falling apart, the fuel tank smelled like a dead body had been shoved inside it...so basically everything I epxected from a vehicle that had been sitting for 15 years. Question - why do hoarders remove air cleaners and leave the hood open?

I did get the motor unstuck, did a quick rebuild on the stock Motorcraft 4350 4bbl carburetor, installed a brand new HD radiator, had the fuel tank cleaned out, installed a transmission oil filter and oil pan, filled the engine with oil and fired the engine off. Lo and behold, it sounded good, but wouldn't go into gear. The decision was made to pull the entire drivetrain and give it a good going over. The engine was disassembled down to the short block and everything was inspected, and looked surprisingly good inside. The pistons were .030" over, which is always good news to me. After a new timing set, a comprehensive cleaning, re-gasketing, and re-painting of the engine, and a quickie valvejob, the motor looked great and was ready for install. Note - not much info out there about the various vacuum switches and the associated plumbing of the vacuum lines, but luckily an old friend was able to help me sort it all out. The distributor was broken, and I know it's not the desirable unit to have, but I was able to fix it and get the mechanical and vacuum advance working again. I will probably replace it with an HEI in the future

The TH400 trans was sent off to my friend Ed Okray for a rebuild, which he had done in a day. Turns out that the trans was worn out to the point where the first gear hub had started to wear into the main portion of the gear assembly (sorry, my auto trans terminology suffers...). While he was in there, he installed a couple different parts to make the trans hold gear longer, have slightly firmer shifts and be able to manually drop down into first gear at my choosing.

The t-case was in decent shape, but the chain was stretched beyond belief, so I made an order with BJ's Off Road for some rebuild parts. While I was at it, I figured I would get rid of the Quadra-trac clutch assembly and install a part time kit. I also purchased one of their new billet vacuum shift modules, but wasn't able to make it work, so the original unit was cleaned up and re-installed. Full disclosure, I did contact them about the issue, and they were helpful in giving me some tricks to try, but ultimately the decision was made to re-use the original unit. It's not easy to get to once the t-case is installed, so I rolled the dice on the old part.

Here are some pics of the drivetrain. I was in a hurry an did not stop to take a ton of "before" pics, so these are mostly after rebuild pics.

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

With the drivetrain out, the engine bay and under-carriage were cleaned and various parts replaced to get ready for the rebuilt drivetrain.

Here's a pic showing the rebuilt engine back in its home.

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

I had to fight the urge to remove the body from the chassis and completely rebuild everything from the ground up, but I was exercising restraint and really trying my hardest to get as much done in a short period of time. So the body stayed on the frame (booo!) and I attacked the problems as they came up.

The brakes were completely gone through, with new master cylinder, wheels cylinders, calipers, pads, shoes, hoses and eventually, a new proportioning valve. Note- for those of you already familiar with bleeding classic era truck brakes, the prop valve can be especially troublesome. If the emergency valve is tripped, the prop valve needs to be disassembled and reset. This one had the valve tripped, and could not be disassembled, even with heat, so a new one was ordered up and installed.

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Here are a few more pics I didn't realize I had, and they are not in any order, but I figured you guys might enjoy them.

 

[Todd780]

Very Nice! Always liked these full sized Jeeps. Makes me miss Dr. Moreau's thread on here.

Loved this one since I saw it. Yours reminds me of it:

A Modern 1976 Jeep Wagoneer Sleeper

Check out a modern 1976 Jeep Wagoneer sleeper that is a Wrangloneer. See this custom classic Jeep made to wheel without breaking necks.

www.motortrend.com

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Yeah, I've always liked the Wagoneers and never really considered a Cherokee. From a purist standpoint, the un-flared body is more elegant and the full rear side windows of the Wagoneer look a ton better, but this one fell in my lap. Bonus that it's a widetrack.

As far as an engine swap, like the one you linked, I thought about it. Motor swaps, after all, are how I make my living, but the simplicity of the mid '70s carburetion was too tempting to ignore. It is going to be a daily driver, but really that means twenty miles a day, delivering the kids to and from school. No traffic. Back country roads. No stop lights.

 

[Todd780]

Yeah, I've always liked the Wagoneers and never really considered a Cherokee. From a purist standpoint, the un-flared body is more elegant and the full rear side windows of the Wagoneer look a ton better, but this one fell in my lap. Bonus that it's a widetrack.

As far as an engine swap, like the one you linked, I thought about it. Motor swaps, after all, are how I make my living, but the simplicity of the mid '70s carburetion was too tempting to ignore. It is going to be a daily driver, but really that means twenty miles a day, delivering the kids to and from school. No traffic. Back country roads. No stop lights.

Sounds like the perfect vehicle for some family fun! I'm sure the kiddos will enjoy cruising around in it!

 

[zgfiredude]

Interesting that the radiator core support is carried forward from the older generation with the different grill and 4 headlights....who'd a thought?

 

[Todd780]

Interesting that the radiator core support is carried forward from the older generation with the different grill and 4 headlights....who'd a thought?

AMC Bean counters. That's who, lol

 

[shortbus4x4]

Good to see you're not LS swapping it, AMC power all the way. The supply of old trucks and their parts are definitely drying up and cost a lot more than I remember from my days as a young man. I owned a '78 Levi edition widetrack with a 4 speed years ago, man that was a fun ride.

 

[Zeep]

Always nice to see another FSJ revival. I would love to hear another update on the Commando as well!

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

I considered backdating the grille to the old style with four headlights, but the razor grille has really grown on me. Try finding a good used one though...

The AMC V8 is actually a very well built engine. I was surprised when I tore into it how stout it was. It doesn't have a ton of power, but I figure an HEI and an Edelbrock carb will help waken it up. There is a smog legal EFI conversion for it, but they use a TBI, which I am not a fan of. The other EFI conversions (AMC specific) are expensive and I'm not willing to go there, yet.

Jeepster progress - the body is still with the painter. I hope to get it back by the end of July. The owner is dying to get it back.

 

[SkiWill]

I considered backdating the grille to the old style with four headlights, but the razor grille has really grown on me. Try finding a good used one though...

The AMC V8 is actually a very well built engine. I was surprised when I tore into it how stout it was. It doesn't have a ton of power, but I figure an HEI and an Edelbrock carb will help waken it up. There is a smog legal EFI conversion for it, but they use a TBI, which I am not a fan of. The other EFI conversions (AMC specific) are expensive and I'm not willing to go there, yet.

Jeepster progress - the body is still with the painter. I hope to get it back by the end of July. The owner is dying to get it back.

Using the old rhino grill from the 60s used to be all the rage, and I prefer the razor grill for the 70s variants anyway.

The AMC V8s are great motors if you are just going to chug around with them and don't mind the fuel consumption. There are some oiling modifications for high performance. My first vehicle ever was a '78 Cherokee Chief just like that, but way rustier. I had a '77 Chief with a 401 V8 and that motor is really thirsty (8 mpg, 9 if I was lucky) but very stout with all forged internals. The '77 would start even in -20F when it was 25 years old with 180k miles. Of course oil leaks will be a given, particularly from the rear main seal. It finally ended its career as my daily driver when I went to pull out one of the rear seat belts and the entire assembly came with it leaving a 3" by 3" hole in the wheel well where it has rusted out.

Amazing and fun vehicles, but they'll rust just looking at them in the garage.

 

[Jurfie]

Love the old Cherokees. I’d love to own one one day!