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White Thunder

NotMatt

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Probably no new tech here, but I wanted to fill everyone in on my latest distraction from the 1-ton Cheerleader Jeep project.

I traded my '88 4runner for this beaut, which my brother promptly dubbed "White Thunder" (he also wrote it in sharpie under the hood). It's a well-used '92 XJ, HO 4.0, 5spd base model with what appears to be a saggy Rough Country 3" lift.

First things first, I had to wash it, clean the inside out, replace a U-joint in the rear driveline and tighten up the loose U-bolts. Next up was a minor teardown on the front end and the engine to fix the cracked exhaust manifold, replace hashed motor mounts, change the oil, change the oil filter adapter o-rings, change the valve cover gasket, replace the cracked transmission crossmember, replace the hoses and serp belt, and replace the closed system radiator and pressure tank someone swapped in with a correct open style radiator and heater control valve.

I also put on an alumaflex tierod I had laying around, and swapped a cleaned up throttle body on the 4.0 to get rid of a stumbling/hesitation problem at certain throttle angles. I'm guessing the TPS was bad, or just gummed up... oh and swapping the throttle body also fixed the IAC problems it was having (idle drops almost to zero when coming to a stop). Lesson is kids: clean throttle body and sensors are happy throttle body and sensors.

List of stuff to do:
Tear out dash and fix melted wires for stereo and heater controls
Swap '99 29 spline 8.25 in place of D35
Install aussie locker or lockright in 8.25
Rebuild front driveline CV
Cut out rocker panels and replace with 2x4" square toob
Put some new front seats in
Fix driver's door hinges and striker
Wheel it!

We're ballin' on a budget here. The locker will be the most expensive part, just because I don't like the idea of welding up the spiders on a C-clip axle.
 
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Here's some tech... Cherokee door hinge repair. Two door cherokees are the worst, the hinges are barely adequate for the smaller four door doors, the heavy 2 door doors mean the hinges are almost guaranteed to be half ripped out of the body.

These ones have been repaired before, but without taking the fender off and doing a really good job on prep work and welding, it's almost a guarantee they will rip again... which they have.

So I yanked the fender off (kind of, ha!), got in there really good with a flap wheel, wire wheel, etc to clean all the rust up. Next I jacked the door up with a high lift, and had a friend reef on the hinge with a prybar to get it back in the right place, while I welded it up. Once I got it welded all the way around, I added some re-inforcements to hopefully keep it from ripping away from the body again. Time will tell.

Also today, I replaced the broken door latch and removed the previous owner's deadbolt style latch that was welded on to keep the door shut, and re-aligned the door so it shuts and seals good. Points for creativity on the deadbolt latch. :redneck:
 
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