1999 Jeep Cherokee, Keepin' It Mild

Yeah, those J.W.'s are the bees knees.

And drum brakes? That's like antique tech, I refuse to deal with drums anymore myself. What a PITA!
Like the drum brakes on the rear axle of the 2018 Tacoma? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. :D
 
Well I just ordered the rear disc brake kit.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/GTA-96-2049-DB

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Sure there are cheaper ways via junkyard parts pulling (ZJ and KJ disc swaps) but I have no time to want to deal with trying to find the right donor at a yard and then still spending $300 or so to replace all of the wear items (rotors, pad, calipers, hoses, etc.). One and done, simple. Everything is new and ready to go. I had talked with G2 to find out about replacement parts and to get parts, these are 2000 Ford Explorer V8 with 8.8 rear end. Any parts store for replacement stuff.
 
So this past Sunday was the start of the rear disc brake conversion. While I was at it, I was going to replace the wheel bearings and seals, so I wouldn't need to go back and do this at a later time. Other than having a hard time getting one bearing out, it went well overall. I haven't had it on the road yet as I decided after starting this I was going to replace the diff cover as the factory one had so much RTV that it would take me days to get it all off. Set me back a couple days waiting for parts. Didn't take as many pics as I was working too much to remember.

I did run it on the stands to verify everything is working and no leaks.

Old drums, be gone!
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Cover off, pulling center pin to remove C clips and pull axles.
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Replaced wheel bearings and seals. Old backing plates removed.
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Disc conversion installed, tab welded on for soft to hard line joint. Bled and adjusted.
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New diff cover with LubeLocker gasket.
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Just need to replace the upper bolt on the cover to a stud and nut combo so I can reuse the e-brake cable bracket.
 
That’s looking NICE Mike! :cool:

And I bet it stops way better.
 
Mike, you're making me want to go looking for an XJ again. I had an '87 Renix 4.0 XJ 4x4, I loved that car, bone stock commuter car, got me 20 MPG without trying and was reliable as salt water in the ocean.

I gave it to my daughter, she ran it in to the ground. Circumstances dictated that she needed a reliable car (OK, she got pregnant), and Obama decided that $4500 cash for clunkers applied to my XJ, we traded it in on a new car for her. When the oil was drained from the XJ, the gas bead concoction poured in to the crank case, the 4.0L engine with 250,000+ miles on it caught the cats on fire before the engine died.
 
Yeah Bob, I think a LOT of XJ's got sent in for the cash for clunkers. You know you want another one. :)
 
Got the bracket bolted up and topped off the fluid. First drive and I can tell a big difference. Pedal starts to stop higher of the travel. Good firm pedal that's easy to modulate and it stops better. No drag while driving. Even the e-brake works better.

So far happy with this upgrade.
 
So this past weekend was more maintenance/upgrade. The steering linkage was likely original and I had noticed in the paperwork I got with the Jeep, that the last alignment shop noted there was a bend in the driver side rod. Inspecting this, there was a bend, right after the tie rod. Since I want to upgrade systems to heavier duty parts when I can, I researched and found the '94-'97 ZJ (Grand Cherokee) with V8 linkage is a direct bolt on but is much beefier. The tie rod running from the driver side to the drag link is a solid piece instead of the thin, hollow tube. Got this installed and took it for an alignment. That should be good for a very long time.

Old Linkage
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You can kinda see the bend
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New stuff going on
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All done.
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Finally got the shocks replaced. Bilstein is about all I run and no difference with this rig. So much better ride and handling. The black one is the original rear shock. Way overdue to be replaced.

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Finally got around to mounting the roof rack I bought from another AAV member back a DRV. It's a Baja Rack model designed for use on a truck shell but the sizing was right for the Cherokee. Pricing was awesome and I couldn't pass it up. I wanted a rack to mount Maxtrax's up top since I am not planning any rear bumper setup that would allow them mounted there.

I originally picked up some Smittybilt gutter mounts (like the old school Confer mounts) but for some reason, where they would mount over the doors, they would not allow the doors to open. Not really sure if it was the way the mounts were made or being thicker but they were not going to work. I back burnered the project until the other day when someone mentioned the Smittybilt mounts that would clip onto the factory roof rails. Ordered up a set of them and sure enough, this work perfectly, almost like they were made for the Baja Rack, even though Smittybilt says they only work with their rack. LOL

About an hour and a half working by myself and it's installed. I am going to build a wind deflector as it creates a hum above 45mph. Then I'll built mounts for the Maxtrax's. One thing I really like is it's low to the roof. I have seen a lot of racks that IMHO sit way too high off the roof and look weird. Not sure I could get this much lower.

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Glad you are enjoying that rack Mike and it’s getting used. It sat in my garage for far to long. Looks great up there!
 
So I finally got time to install the front hitch on the Cherokee. Given that Jeep did not put any recovery points, I needed something (already had a hitch on the rear). Decided this was the way to go as it is way cheaper ($125 vs $500+) and way lighter than an aftermarket bumper. Hopefully I won't need it but should be good to go if so.
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Well... it has been a few years since I did an update on the Jeep. Haven't driven it a ton, since the pandemic and working from home 100%. Did a few trips to the desert and to Prescott, AZ area. A couple months back we were taking a trip back to see friends in Prescott Valley, AZ area and it was during a heatwave in SoCal. We were loaded up and headed out of town when we got about 40 miles or so on I-8, just starting into the mountain grades. Water temp was up to 233* and knowing we hadn't hit any of the steep areas or the desert heat yet, we turned around and swapped over to our RAV4. Disappointed as we wanted to do some wheeling over in AZ. Well anyone who has owned an XJ knows they border on just enough cooling when new and as they get age on the systems, they can start to run hot. Luckily I hadn't had any real issues until this trip. Ordered parts and set out to update the cooling system.

Water pump was replaced when the engine was, about 30K back. No leaks so I keep that but replaced the radiator, all hoses, t-stat and coolant. After researching, I found the Mishimoto all aluminum radiator seemed to be the hot ticket for XJ's. It has about 50% more cooling capacity and I liked getting rid of the plastic tanks. Had the past Friday off and set out to get everything installed. Luckily having watched a number of YouTube videos of the install, I knew what I could expect. The hardest part of the install was removing the lower trans cooler line. It is a "quick connect" type fitting and I did not own the tool for removing this. After some searching I found the tool folks were using but it didn't seem to work. Wanting to get the radiator out, I broke off that hard line from the radiator so I could work on getting the end out. After looking at it a number of times, it seemed like it wasn't engaging far enough to release the 4 clips. It seems the stepped neck on the tool (which really wasn't for the Jeep fitting) was too long. A few hits with the grinder and bam, it worked perfectly. I did need to notch the lower corner of the inner fender well, as being a thicker end housing, the line sat back too much and wouldn't allow the radiator to line up correctly (saw this issue in the videos, so kind of expected it). A quick notch of that and some paint, everything fit perfectly. Replaced all of the other items and filled it up.

Been our driving it a few times and hasn't broken 200* and sits around 195-198*. Before it ran about 205-210* and in the heat and stopped, 220*. If anything, it's running a little cool (I am running a 195* t-stat, as stock) but that gives me a lot of overhead. Here area few pics.

Before tearing things apart (note plastic fill tube)
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Pulled out
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Modified tool, notice the step flange was ground to about 1/16". Other side shows how long the flange was. That was the end of the tube I broke off, for better access to the line.
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Aluminum goodness right there. :)
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All back together. Other than the fill tube being aluminum, you wouldn't really know a difference by looking.
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