What she drug home...

[DaveBonds]

Amy hid it in the garage, when I got home last night, gave me the key by hiding it in a resealed box of Girl Scout Samoas.

I went and looked at a few, we were planning on getting something, but they had nothing on this one. I saw it on Craigs a few weeks ago among others and mentioned in passing that it was the one I'd get, if I could. She's a sneaky one.

It's a '92, so it's just pre-airbag, has the high output badged 4.0, a 5 speed, manual window cranks on 2 doors.

In '91, they got the Chrysler induction, went away from Renix (Renault & Bendix) induction that had live/ no learning on ECU, they were hard to diagnose. Increased port size raised in the intake and head by .125" and bumped the HP/TQ up from 173hp-177hp/225tq up to 190/235. '93 up all have the 190 4.0, but they are different here and there and all started gaining weight from SRS and options.

1999 up have 0331 head with the best tuned length runner intake manifold, but early 0331 heads were set up for emissions and are crack prone like the magnums, so you have to look out for them.

They bumped the intake design to keep the 190hp mark on the newer head, but went away from the hydraulic slave bearing in the trans design later, which is better. Toggle between Dana 44 and Mopar 8 1/4 in years and drivetrain packages, so, there really are no "best" years for the Cherokee. It's a hotrodders game.

I looked for a year and a half for one like this, most have power everything and 4 doors, or are modded and beat to death with slate options and 2 doors. This one doesn't even have wear on the driver's seat. Clutch and cat replaced in November.

There are things that I can do to make it run even stronger (later chrysler intake, better exhaust, high flow cat) but this gets it done for now. I have yet to crawl under it to see what it has for axles, but they will all do, for what I'm going to use it for.

According to Amy, this is what I get for building her a Plymouth.

 

[jtolbert]

Very nice. If I were going to look for an XJ, it would be just like that one. You're right; it's so hard to find ones like that these days.

 

[jaimus]

Good score, Them there sticks are gettin scarce. That jeep will last a good long time. BTW, MoPar Cop steelies will bolt right on.

 

[rlevs]

my just bit the dust four door with just over 200,000 miles on her. but she was a michigan truck so the rust is every where. one spot to check for rust is under the fender flares and just behind the rear wheels. enjoy!

 

[goldfish65]

Very nice lady to do that for you. I like those too, durable and well-designed.

 

[DaveBonds]

We looked and test drove a lot at used dealerships, but if you weed out private sellers on Craigslist, the price goes up and the amount of stick shifts available go way down.

The guy who owned this one told her that if she ever wanted to sell it back, to let him know. He took really good care of it and it shows. Apparently, his reason for selling had to do with his right arm. He didn't go into details, but the shifter was bugging him.

A friend of mine, neighboring shop at work who did the roofing on my mom's house, has a '70 Challenger drop top, 4 speed 440 SixPack in white/ black. He got blasted by some soccer mom in his '97 2500 Turbo Diesel with his 6 year old daughter.

His passenger side front took the shot, trashed the frame. his kid is ok, thankfully. He's ok, back in a newer Cummins longhorn. He was going to get his black belt this summer, on his way to his dojo with his daughter.

Now, he's looking at neck surgery to keep his vertebrae mobile to correct nerve damage, messing up his "T-rex" right arm. He was bummed about surgery, because unlike fusion, it's still painful over time, keeping it mobile so he can turn his head, but he needs his arm for work.

The other parties insurance is paying for it all, he's got a settlement on the way, but yeah, he can't touch his Challenger, so when I heard about why this guy was selling the Jeep, I felt kind of bad about patronizing, but he needs the money for a new car to get him around.

If you go looking, look on craigslist under private sellers, because they are generally in better condition and have more available showing with manual trans and the right options.

The only thing this thing has that I could care less about is A/C, but after doing some research, the 2 doors don't have good flow through and this one is black, so I think it may be justified. They look like they have vent window glass, but it's just fixed glass. I'm sure if I tried hard enough, I could make them vent/ tilt if I wanted to, but I doubt I ever will.

 

[DaveBonds]

Good score, Them there sticks are gettin scarce. That jeep will last a good long time. BTW, MoPar Cop steelies will bolt right on.

I'm not going to wheel it. It's staying stock height and I'm going to touch up the bumpers and rock chips. I want to keep it nice, because you never see nice ones and this is a good one to do it to!

Oh man, don't tempt me on the cop car steelies! I've got a full set that I trued on a balancer with a file, sitting in 2k primer in my attic. I have stainless redline dog dish caps that I restored for them, but they've got the dodge tri-star in it.

Maybe some Jeep black center caps would look good.

Gloss black cop car wheels... hmm... I'm gonna have to think about that one. I may end up doing just that!

my just bit the dust four door with just over 200,000 miles on her. but she was a michigan truck so the rust is every where. one spot to check for rust is under the fender flares and just behind the rear wheels. enjoy!

Good to know about the flares. I'll check. This is a Colorado truck and it's dry. I pressure wash the crap out of everything I own after snow storms, outside and under, so I'll be sure to check. They use gravel and mag chloride here, but no salt.

Very nice lady to do that for you. I like those too, durable and well-designed.

I'm humbled, for sure. She's more than I could have asked for. I'll be taking good care of this one. I plan on keeping it, even if I have to do rust repair or rebuild the engine or trans.

 

[jaimus]

Mine's a 2 wd drive with an 8 1/4 limited slip,...I use it for saturday's and Fire dept use. Had it since 2 miles on the odo,...15x7 cop steelies w/ bf goodrich t/a's on it. The only Mods are aftermarket driving lights, 850 cca battery, Synthetic oil in the trani and diff, K&N air with mods to the airbox and a MoPar roller timing set up. :burnout:

View attachment May -Sep 2010 085 (WinCE).jpg

 

[DaveBonds]

Oh man, that does look sharp with the cop steels on it!

I think I may hold off on the polished stainless redline Dodge dog dish caps. Too classic looking and it's not a Dodge... don't want it to come off like this-

but I do love the wheel with the spun finished caps, hole shot or not. I had a set of those, mint, but I sold them a while back, because I got the redline caps and was going to use them on the D100. I think I'd rather use regular steelies with those redlines on the D100 and use these cop car wheels on the Jeep. I like the way yours looks.

I'll probably rock them in gloss black, bare with polished lugs. The road wheel centers also work on them.

They almost look like the Jeep rallye wheel centers, only most of them are polished. I could do that, maybe paint them a dark, cast argent gray and stick an AMC logo in the center caps. I don't think I'll use trim rings. There isn't enough chrome on this truck for that.

 

[1968dartman]

I had two of them an 88 and a 95 and I loved both of them. They are GREAT in the winter which is why I bought them ( I live in the great white north).

 

[jaimus]

slightly better pics

View attachment May -Sep 2010 081.jpg

View attachment May -Sep 2010 085.jpg

 

[65cuda360]

Got 2 of those, paid $350 and $450. The $350 one was wrecked, my employee begged me to buy it for more than he junkyard offered. Sledge hammered the body back close to shape, added a lift kit and welded the rear diff. They rarely see pavement, stay in 4low.

 

[66340SEDAN]

Sweet Jeep.....Amy rocks!!! :cheers:

 

[clhyer]

Way to go Dave!
Jaimus, that Jeep looks good with the cop steelies on it...
C

 

[PA Dodger]

Nice find. The wife and I have had 4 of them over the years. Gotta love that 4.0. I was looking for one recently but couldn't find one under 100,000 miles. The only problem I ever had was crud gets in the rocker panels and rots them out from the inside.

 

[3406pk]

Nice Valentine Day present. You must have been a very good boy. Congrats

 

[Frankie]

Nice, Dave. Enjoy it. :thumbup:

 

[DaveBonds]

Most definitely.

This year has proven to be miles more progressive than last year. I had a lot of hang-ups last year that set us way back. Lots of injustice, but our work/ efforts to shut it down, put people in their place (Court and $17k attorneys are no fun) and being able to do what we really need and want to do with our money, is actually starting to show. So this is a nice change of pace for us.

This will be the first time in my life that I've had a running/ driving vehicle that didn't either get destroyed, taken from me or both. Between my mom, my ex and her mom, having Amy around is quite the contrast.

I decided to name it Winston.

Black, square back, first came out in 1984... No brainer.

I'm already looking into the following mods-

- IAT sensor relocated (reports of 1-2mpg)

Accurately richens mixture a bit, makes sense, because these things are tuned extremely lean from the factory and actually have an inherent problem with cracking exhaust manifolds.

- 2nd thoughts on later manifold, there is an article on a jeep shop with over 1000 hours on a dyno, over years, showing that this mod opens up intake runner volume too much, doesn't show any improvements on the dyno. What you gain in flow, you lose in velocity, so it's a wash overall, changes hp range up higher.

- Free flowing intake and better exhaust, each show about 3-4hp on the dyno, a little more when combined, both help fuel economy. The air box has a restrictor after it that can be taken out, but I'm going to build my own and put the IAT sensor up there with it.

- Bosch 4 hole injectors, not sure on HP, but they do help quite a bit with throttle response and atomization

- Electric fan... I'm going to do this for two reasons; 1- Every single Cherokee I've driven, including this one, that has older motor mounts, rocks enough to cause the clutch fan to contact the shroud. It's not too bad on this one, but if I take off up a hill, I can barely hear it. Sounds like I'm scrubbing a tire on gravel over pavement, but it's coming from up front. Another one that I test drove had more significant sounds coming from up front under torque/load to the point of exhaust rattling on the cross member. So I know this is happening.

2- A thermostatic electric fan has a lot less parasitic drag in town. It's not as noticeable on the highway, thanks to it being a brick and air entering everywhere, but at low speeds, it helps 1-3hp and helps in town fuel economy.

I'm also going to run some sea foam in it. It runs good, but I know improvements can be seen. It's getting about 18mpg highway and about 16 average right now, according to fuel receipts and the trip counter, keeping it around 1500-2k. I think the injector o rings may be weeping too. I haven't had it long enough to really tinker with it.