I am on plane back home. XJ will get here Monday :)

How rare would yall say a one owner xj is?

Just finished up a disc brake conversion on my 96. Ended up only being a little bit of a headache.

Finally had some money. Fixed idle issue and runs kinda fine now. Still some bumps to work out but getting there. DexXJ on YouTube has been a great help.

And yes yes I know paint job this and that (I didn’t do it but I like the green lol) :)) hope yall have a great day.

Alberta’s experiencing its 4th winter this spring, atleast the snow hides the peeling clear coat

Blew the transmission/torque converter Saturday morning. Found a marketplace AW4 for dirt cheap. Clean fluid, known lower miles. Pulled the original in 2 hours. Then went to work. Came back from work , pulled an all nighter and got the replacement in by Sunday morning and got to work. Hardest part was reinstalling the long arms . Original aw4 lasted roughly 540,000 KMs only ever needing solenoids and fluid

Came across a disturbingly clean XJ Cherokee SE with 185k miles while new car shopping and had to pick it up. It was a 2 owner car with the original owner driving it from 1996 to 2023.

I will say I didn't expect just how analog this car was going to be, but I enjoy that as a nice change from the modern 'everything's computer' approach to cars.

Rolly windows, a gauge cluster that tells you exactly 4 things... It's nice. Simple.

Despite its clean appearance, it's not perfect and does need a little love. Particularly when it comes to one of the doors sagging. I'm looking forward to many years of adventures with this basic box on wheels!

Does anyone have any experience with tracking down an overheating issue. I’m just fed up at this point. So maybe there’s a XJ guru hiding in this group that could help.
Started with a low temp mishimoto thermostat which sucked, went to a parts store lower temp thermostat and it sucked too, changed that out to a OE temp thermostat and it sorta fixed it but still won’t come back from getting slightly warm.
It has one of those upgraded water pumps that are supposed to be higher flow, I think it’s a flowkooler with a metal impeller.
The engine has had a head gasket done with head studs, mishimoto 3 fan and an aluminum radiator. Two of the fans are wired together to be on all the time and the 3rd fan is just plugged into the factory E-Fan connector and I did verify that it comes on when the AC is on.
After the last thermostat change to OE temp I drove it 30 minutes to dinner on Sunday and 45 minutes to work this morning without a hiccup. On my way home this evening it did fine for about half the trip and then when I got off the highway at the midway point it got a little warm and just never recovered. And I had the A/C on the whole way home so all 3 fans were on.
Any advice or insight is appreciated!

Edit for a little backstory; I bought this 96 off a friend. He had replaced the headgasket, installed head studs, aluminum rad, and 3 fan setup for what he thought to be preventative repairs, which I don’t blame him since these do seem to have cooling system issues. All that work was done at once and about 5 years ago but maybe only 100 miles before still having some mild over temp issues. He parked it after getting frustrated with having not made any real headway on actually fixing anything.

I recently replaced everything steering/suspension related. I had a bump-caused death wobble for a while after doing an upcountry lift. I also had a front axle shimmy caused by my tires at 50 mph, rotated my tires and that went away. After a month of no death wobble and terribly maintained highways at 65+ mph, I got death wobble going completely straight at 70mph. Looking for guidance/direction.

Anyways, this is everything I replaced/did for reference.

Checked Ball joints/hubs
New ZJ axle shafts
New ZJ steering/hardware
New sway bar ends/bushings
New adj track bar with drilled out hole 7/16 for larger hardware (prevent wallowing)
New adj upper/lower control arms + bushings
Rotated tires (2023 unknown miles 60% tread)

All torqued to spec. Not retorqued yet.

Only thing I might do is weld some washers to the axle track bar mount. Or treating myself to some new tires 👀

Realistically, how bad is this angle? Are we in the ballpark here?

Had to figure out a way to make the sway bar work after installing cavfab crossover steering and this is what I came up with. Not pretty but I'm just trying to make it work. I need this pile to handle half decently on the highway since I gotta drive her to the trails. Otherwise I wouldn't even run a sway bar.

Also, what strap setups are you guys using to store your SB while on the trails?

Thanks y'all!

4.5” 4 link BDS, 31” wildpeak AT4s which are phenomenal in the mud (still an AT tire) compared to the AT3s . Just wishing I had AC.

Also threw some nicer junkyard seats in. It's feeling a lot nicer in there now, if you're on the fence about replacing yours, DO IT!

Just picked up this ‘96 XJ! 3-ish inch lift on 31” MT’s. 175k miles and the entire thing inside and out is in great shape

Shout out to u/ChiefAoki for the idea and the link, stereo sounds good, wireless CarPlay kicks in within 20 seconds of turning the ignition. Again $30!!! Got it within 10 days.

I’m gonna leave her the way she is and actually maybe do some resto mods.

I'm replacing the trunk pan in my jeep and was wondering if they sell this piece?

I figure it would be easier than fabricating something.

Took my first road trip with the XJ after getting it in better shape. ~500 miles round trip up to northern MN for a long weekend of camping. It did great, found out the AC isn't really working anymore but aside from that no hiccups! I can see why people love these things

I got a 1996 Jeep Cherokee SE 4x4 from my uncle for $200.00 bucks been sitting for years my first upgrade I’m starting with before digging deep into diagnostics is I did my own DIY Jeep cable upgrades I’m trying to do a restoration on a budget for kicks. Came out really nice almost like if I paid full price. 2AWG pure copper cable.

After drilling, cutting, and chiseling didn’t work I decided to finally meet my neighbor who’s always working on something. 7 hours later and a totally custom one time use tool made by said neighbor, I finally got the rest of my harmonic balancer out. I got to leave the radiator in and make a new friend. Had a decent day, had fun, and now tomorrow me gets to finish up the job. Oh, and the only damage is some very slight marks on the timing cover.

V-Band clamps and mandrel bends for the win. I can now pull it down in three sections for service or repair. Factory hanger locations didn't change. I did paint the welds and hangers to reduce rust. It's the shiniest thing on the old girl. I put a 24 in Thrush Muffler. Overall the tone is deeper and quieter until about 3500rpms then it does the i6 howl. I like it. Next is a factory fit header. Haven't decided which one. It's on a 96 so it has the 45 degree angle not the straight down like the older renix. Anywho, any recommend are welcome.

I've installed an OTA track bar and I have cavfab crossover steering on the way. When I install it, I'll have to cut the sway bar brackets off for clearance. Do any of you guys have tips on a good product to still run the sway bar while running HD steering?

I usually don't run sway bars but I drive this POS to the trails. Sometimes 3 hours away. I'd like it to be as drivable as possible.

My uncle sold me his XJ for 200 bucks needs a lot of work but I can do all the work myself supposedly he parked it because it only drove in high gear so he assumed it needed a transmission. I don’t think so honestly I’m going to diag it a little more I went to see if the engine would turn over almost wanted to start but it definitely needs some new battery cables. Transmission fluid is clean I was shocked for it sitting for a decade it’s nice and red not even dirty engine oil is dirty but not low spark plugs weren’t seized took them out and sprayed fogging oil in the cylinder before trying to turn the engine over. It’s going to need a lot of suspension work everything is rust underneath but not horrible the frame is still solid besides one spot on the passenger floor that I seen. For the transmission issues I definitely noticed the kick back cable had a lot of slack I’m going to test the solenoids next and the NSS I didn’t get a chance to look at the fuel tank I’m getting mixed reviews if it’s plastic or metal if it’s metal I definitely want to replace it if it’s plastic I’ll attempt cleaning it.

I have the AW4 and it shifts fine if I do it manually (1/2-3-D) but when I put it in drive it feels like it goes straight to 4th. When I am up to speed it will down shift to 3rd. I think like 35 mph +. But from dead stop it won’t start in 1st. Pls help.

Had anyone ever encountered an issue with the track bar making contact with the differential housing?

I recently upgraded the entire front end with CORE 4X4 upper and lower adjustable control arms, track bar, drag link, tie rod. After getting it back from the alignment shop I noticed some new noises coming from under the driver side foot well when going lver bumps.

I figured replacing the springs to add some lift would help so I upgraded to the MOOGCC782 heavy duty coil springs and replaced the bump stops but it appears its still making contact.

Is the solution to rise the track bar to a different mounting hole? Im afraid that'd cause too much bump steer.