Bought a Cherokee Limited today. Took everyone's advice and tried to get something that already had some mods. I didnt want that much lift, but oh well. Here's what it's got:

5" Rubicon Express lift kit--full leaf packs, SYE, Rear CV driveshaft, sliders, skid plates, front rear reciever hitches, pre-wire for winch, aux lights, brand new Dick Cepek 31" tires and Cepek 15" rims, Chrysler 8.25 rear, stock exhaust, throttle body spacer, stock engine, all at 90K. Drove smooth. Mild vibration around 45mph, but otherwise good.
It's my first Jeep. Are there any cool "cheap trick mods" for these? What kinds of maintenance issues should I pay attention to? Want to learn as much as I can like I did with my 4Runner so any advice would be appreciated.
Headed to Lander WY this weekend to try it out.

you can put a locker in the rear end & that will help quite a bit. how much did you pay for the rig?

With 5" of lift on there I'd think it could run 33's....I'd be looking at that and re-gearing for the future anyway. The winch is the first thing I'd do. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

33" would fit nicely, but i definately would want to regear. Gonna be looking for a winch. The body is very clean and straight--looks like new.
I paid $6850 for it here in Colorado. Dont know if it was a "good deal", but I did some homework on parts and it seemed to be a reasonable choice. No other rigs had those parts on a vehicle that looked that nice and I looked pretty hard. Maybe I could have waited longer and searched harder, but I just wanted to get on with the project.

Sounds reasonable to me....All those mods could bring the price down in a lot of places, but if done well and in a place where many people desire them, I expect it didn't hurt the asking price any. Lets see a couple pics! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

What year XJ did you get?

2 door or 4 door?

5 speed or Automagic?

6 cyl or 4 cyl?

The best ôcheap tricksö you can do are go through it change, or at least inspect all of the fluids, filters, and the plugs, then drive the piss out of it. Personally I would take the throttle body spacer off and see if you canÆt get a few bucks for it on ebay. It honestly will do you no good on a multi-port EFI engine, especially on the RPMÆs you will be turning.

At 90K miles I would take a quick look at your brakes and wheel bearings, because if they havenÆt been done they are probably close, but given it is lifted, if it has been driven that way for some time, then both might have already been done. The other thing to check out is your cooling system, if the coolant looks nice and clean, I wouldnÆt worry about it yet, if its brown and murky, I would flush the system and check out the hoses while you are at it.

Sounds like you got a pretty nice rig.

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Sean

I'm gonna post some pics. It's a blue '98 Limited automatic 4Door 4.0 6cyl. The guy that sold it to me said to check out the rear brakes for certain. He also said the radiator could use another flush. I will ditch the throttle body spacer if it really doesnt help performance. K&N filter set-up? Had one once on Toyota 22RE...didnt notice any difference. (I've heard they're good for racing engines that get torn down and rebuilt often...but that's a subject I dont want to touch).
There is a noise coming from the driver's side wheel...it's kinda loud...at first I thought it was from the tires but it isnt. Figure that one out later. Gonna go through the whole rig. Even though the previous owner told me all fluids were changed within the last 10K, I might just do it all again to be sure.
Now looking for a winch. Dont know what to look for. Forget the 33's. They won't fit without cutting. The lift isn't really a 5"...at least I dont think it is.
Thanks for any input. Got a lot to learn about Jeeps.

The K&N is another one that you will get several opinions on. They flow more air by not filtering as small of particle as a paper filter, and they also require routine maintenance. When we ran the late model down at the local oval track, yeah we had one on the small block, but we were turning close to 7 grand. It may have made a difference at that RPM, but we never had the car on a dyno to know for sure. I have never and will never run one on any of my street rigs, give me a Wix or a Napa Gold any day over and oiled filter. I had a few buddies that ran them and they were always have problems with sensors in the intake getting fouled, and their oil always seemed to get dirty sooner, but these are just my casual observations, nothing scientific. Your engine stock is around 190 HP 210 ft-lb of torque, itÆll do you quite well, quite a bit more than a 22RE, which I had one of too, but in an Æ85 Celica.

Yours should have 3.55 gears in it, I wouldnÆt think that should be too bad with 31Æs on it, but I am basing this on my manual trans with the 3.07 gears, so I could be a bit off compared to the Auto. I wouldnÆt mind having 3.55Æs in mine so I could go to 31Æs but IÆll cross that bridge later on.

Oh, one other thing I would check out is the weather strip, mine looked fine, but it was leaking in through the rear hatch and all the screws, bolts and nuts that attached to the floor on the inside even up front were rusty.

Sean

i run a k&n filter in my stock air box. that was a good upgrade in my eyes. i run ahelix ptpt throttle body spacer. it helps i get better mileage & the engine spools up faster. if you can only fit 31's it may only be a 3" lift. when you do your cooling flush you may want to pull your t-stat, i did & i drilled a little hole ( 5/16 ) in it, that allowed the air to burp out fully, it doesnt hurt anything. 3.55 gears are ok as long as you dont try to tow a trailer or pull anything bigger than you out of the mud. 373's or 410's are the way to go.
do you have a reese hitch on the back? get one if not. best thing to pull with & get the recovery hook package for the xj for the front. the cherokees lack hard points to pull from.

Good point on the recovery hooks and hitch. Just did that on the GF's '01 Cherokee. I like having a shackle better than hook though so I took the ball off a hitch, turned it over so it slopes up and doesn't hurt departure angle, and stuck a 3/4" D ring through the hole. I think the 3.55's will be fine with 31's (if that's what it's got) - the torque converter on the auto tranny masks the overgearing to soem extent. Hauling a load might be another matter though.