Jeep XJ tips and tricks to keep your Cherokee on the road or trail
After my steering box broke off the frame at Windrock last week, I decided to add a steering box brace. I got this one from Amazon: ECOTRIC Steering Box Brace With Sector Shaft Support Compatible With 1984-2001 Cherokee XJ
This story is a good example of why we should never wheel alone. If I had not had good loyal, competent friends with me on this day I would have been in big trouble.
Continue reading “XJ Guru gets rescued”My 99 XJ has had a sagging rear leaf issue for a while. Since this Jeep is just for street use, it has remained stock. To combat the rear sag, I have tried a couple of different air shocks like I run on my 91. But they always leak on this Cherokee for different odd reasons.
My old Ford tractor came to me with a lot of problems. Since it is a working tool, I just did the bare minimum to get it running and working. One of those things was bypassing the original starter switch that did not work. The downside of that modification was that the tractor would start in any gear and was a bit unsafe if I was spraying either in the carb to get it to start and pressing the starter switch. I was nearly run over a few times.
I began by ordering a new switch. I got this one: https://amzn.to/3oecSDr
My F250 does not get driven much. Since it is primarily a tow vehicle, it spends most of its time parked in the woods with the trailers. This leaves it susceptible to rodent damage.
I got an oxygen sensor error code one day out of the blue. I began by testing the resistance of the heater circuit. It was in spec but on the high side. So I tracked down a Motorcraft sensor in the next town to the south and swapped it out.
The error code was still there. So I took a closer look at the wiring. That is when I noticed a chunk of insulation was missing right at the connector on the harness side.
Jeep XJ stumbles and stalls (Injector wiring issue)
For quite a while now Jenny’s 1992 Jeep Cherokee has had a stumble or hiccup while driving. We have tried changing a lot of parts to make it go away. New crank sensor, fuel pump, etc.
On her last off-road adventure, the stalling got so bad as to be dangerous. At one point the Jeep would not go into reverse without stalling. It became very noticeable that whenever the engine shifted positions it would stall.
We checked all the wiring connections that could move and they all seemed fine. We were close to ordering a new distributor.
Continue reading “Jeep XJ Stumbles and Stalls”I’m not sure the Rock It air intake system is made anymore. I have had it a very long time.
My Jeep had the typical problem where the HVAC only blows out the Defroster. The defroster is the default mode when there is no vacuum supply. So I set about finding my vacuum leak.
It did not take me long to find an obvious break in the plastic vacuum tubing. The trouble was, it was broken on the cabin side of the firewall. It was too far in to reach to make a splice.
Continue reading “Jeep XJ Vacuum Line break”After replacing my engine, I had to reconnect the AC lines and replace the freon. The system was originally designed to run R12 but I swapped over to R134 a long time ago. However, I still like to use my old gauge set on the R12 style fittings. I just adapted the yellow hose to fit the R134 cans.
I installed a new dryer and reconnected the hoses using new O rings where the old ones looked bad. I then hooked up my vacuum pump and pulled al the air out. I shut off the pump and closed the valve to see if it would hold. It held vacuum so I assumed no leaks and popped in the first can of freon.
Continue reading “A/C hose replacement Jeep Cherokee XJ”My 1991 Jeep Cherokee had the fragile plastic heater valve. Not only can this valve break and leave you stranded, it is prone to leak at the valve actuator. I have replaced mine a couple of times already so this time I decided to do away with it for good.
The factory manual shows that this valve is open in all positions except closed and full cold on the temperature control switch. In the later years, Jeep deleted this valve.
Continue reading “Heater Valve delete Jeep Cherokee XJ”