My 2 sons recently bought Raptors and found some decent trails to drive close by. So working with my limited budget I bought a 94 Cherokee off market place and here we go.
🤷�♂️
The upside it has a decent running 4.0 6 cyl engine. Pics to come.
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I bought a cheap fluid extractor off Amazon for $90. Best money I ever spent.
Well, I got started in on one of the first projectS, fixing a worn driver side hinge. These unibody jeeps are notorious for the doors, literally falling off. Someone previously had replaced the driver side with a newer year model hinge which actually made fixing it much easier. First once I got the door panels off I wanted to address the crappy speakers I found. I don't believe Chip Foose installed these. The wiring was pretty bad, but the drywall and deck screws where a real brilliant idea. The yellow deck screw penetrated the window regulator cable, which caused the user to strip out the guts of the crank mechanism. 🤦🏻�♂️ so now I get to source a rare used part off of eBay and hope it works.
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Great Choice Bob! -- congrats and have fun -
Back to the door hinge pins. Like I said earlier, someone had replaced the original driver's side hinges with the next generation newer models, which are designed to accept replacement pins better than the original design. So I bought a couple of aftermarket replacement pins off of Amazon and hoped for the best. The first step was to grind off the top of the original pins and then drive them down and out. My first try with the oscillating tool was pretty rough on the hinge so I switched over to a Dremel cut off wheel which made quick work of the top of the pressed in pin cap. After driving the pins down and out with a long punch,I wire wheeled and filed the rusted hinges some to prep for the new parts. Much to my surprise the bushings fit fine and the pins went in easy and the hinges were done. It was all made easy by getting lucky enough to be able to remove the screws holding the door on while not busting them off. There are several write ups online of people doing this task with the door in place, that would truly suck. Next I mounted the doors back on and as I expected, the door wasn't loose anymore, but needed shimming upwards to align with the strike on the pillar. I removed the single shim on the top hinge and added it to the existing hinge at the bottom. That was just the ticket and the door lined up and worked smoothly.
The harbor freight hydraulic roller seat, come in handy to hold up the door.
I had to order new spring catches that I hope will protect the hinges better. I will post pics of those when they come in.
Those old XJs are very capable trail machines.
Quote from: Muddy on Apr 02, 2026, 05:47 PMThose old XJs are very capable trail machines.
I've got some work to do before I make it to the trails. LOL
Amazon dropped off a few things.
Thise 4.0 6 cylinder motors are fantastic.
Got my biggest speeding ticket in one.
Quote from: jabberwoki on Apr 03, 2026, 11:29 AMThise 4.0 6 cylinder motors are fantastic.
Got my biggest speeding ticket in one.
LOL
The aftermarket door checks have a rubber bushing cushion to soften the stop, we will see how they work.
After installing the new checks, I realized the existing brackets were worn and have oblong holes which allow the arm to make a racket as it closes. So back off to Amazon to order replacement parts for that also. 🤦🏻�♂️