Diaries of a Daily Driver
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Turns out this does snow fairly well, didn't expect it to float on top but it did!
Mountain snow is wild, and deep as hell.The mountains are so good
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Well she's no daily driver, but I still wanted to document this for later! My roommate has been building an XJ for a bit, and we've been meeting people that have land and off road trails on them, not to mention the places 30 min from the house that are stellar for wheeling. I quickly learned the truck doesn't fit on jeep trails, so there was only one solution!
The $300 93ish XJ
I don't ever name vehicles, but for some reason Ruby sticks with me, as this will be the red(headed) stepchild that always gets beat.
It spent the last year of its life sitting in a barn at a friends house under the presumption of a bad clutch, and he had no desire to work on it (got it in a trade)
He was looking to clear out space so it went real cheap.
When I showed up there was a search for keys, and the conclusion that he didn't know where they ended up. I have never drilled a lock cylinder so I wasn't going to do that, but you can get a cylinder and key for the xj for $20 bucks which made it tempting. Mobile locksmith wanted $140 for 2 keys, but then stopped responding to me. Ended up bringing the keys to my roommates XJ and lo and behold the key for his door locks worked in my ignition perfectly. Convenient.
This will be the third vehicle I have purchased knowing mice lived in it, and it makes me question myself sometimes. Oh well.Got it on the trailer using the hill to roll it as there was no battery.
Got it trailered home (obligatory on trailer pic)
The next day I got to cleaning it up a bit. The roof was amusing to clean with the pressure washer, as it had many much algae on it.
Got the mouse nest out of the glove box, pulled the airbox apart and found a nice possum nest with a dead possum in it so got that out of there. Put a battery in it and it fired up without much drama. Didn't want to idle at first without throttle, but that eventually cleared up, probably needs the ICV cleaned.
The clutch does function, but seems to sort of "bleed by" slowly. If you are in gear with no brakes applied and have the clutch pedal pressed it will slowly lose hydraulic pressure and engage the clutch.After cleaning it in the little hidey hole I have it (I alone have 3 cars and a truck at a house that is setup for 4 cars, much less my roommates 2 cars lol) it looked alright, especially considering what it'll be used for.
Turns out to have a handful of aftermarket parts in it, the front steering components have all been replaced with stronger pieces, the rear lift was done properly, slip yoke eliminator in the rear, adjustable upper control arms in the front, good tires, factory skid plates that are actually staggeringly thick, and a few other odds and ends.
It should prove to be quite fun!
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Calypso Jeep
I'm going to counter with Burgundrot jeep. I'd say that looks like a sweet deal for $300!
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XJ's are great rigs! Does it have the 4.0L?
4.0 with a 5 spd
Burgundrot jeep it is!
Played with the clutch stuff for a bit to see what I could find. I ordered a new master cylinder to see if the seal in that is weak.
I hope it's not the slave cylinder, as they use a "Tilton" style slave.
Getting access to that means pulling the trans and transfer case, which doesn't sound like too much fun!
They also use a plastic clutch hydraulic line that seals to the master with an o-ring, and is held in place with a roll pin through it. A genuinely wild setup.
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Much stoke
Got the new clutch master cylinder in in about 30 min and didn't even need to bleed it.
Clutch is fully functional now. $30 fix for the win.Kind of makes sense that it was worn out. The cluster (speedo doesn't work) shows about 284k miles, so the clutch has been done once or twice and you replace the hydraulic throw-out bearing when you do the clutch. The master was likely original and that's many times of pressing the clutch!
Now to drive it and find what else is broken / needing repair!
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^speaking of which!
Now that it drives it was time to turn to other things.
The front had almost 6.5" of lift due to the 4.5" lift spring and a 2" rubber spacer. It looked stupid, especially on 33's with fenders that are trimmed up.
Took the front axle almost all the way out in order to remove the rubber spacer on top of the spring. Realized the axle had been sitting about 2" toward the driver side because whomever put the spring spacers in never adjusted the trac bar. This style suspension is so much different than anything I've worked on, and luckily my roommate has been playing with jeeps for quite some time (his jeep in the back) so he can lend a hand when I get confused!Also realized it has very f*ing beefy steering, and is a good system that allows you to adjust ride height and such without needing to adjust toe again. Stock steering has the drag link and tie rod end going as one part.
Now to clean up the rear shock mtg points and get some shocks back there! -
I absolutely hated aligning Jeeps or anything with this drag link style set up. It's nice because you can ONLY adjust total toe and steer ahead but steer ahead can be a PITA if your steering lock is shit or you don't have a human holding the wheel straight while adjusting it. That and rusted out sleeves/threads. So many painful memories.
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Haha love it. I miss my old 5-speed 4.0L Cherokee. Thing was so fun.
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Haha love it. I miss my old 5-speed 4.0L Cherokee. Thing was so fun.
I recall rolling down college Ave with the sub in the back just bumping away.
Good times.
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I recall rolling down college Ave with the sub in the back just bumping away.
Good times.
Same time your wheel went for a stroll down College on its own? Or a different time?
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Same time your wheel went for stroll down College on its own? Or a different time?
That was much earlier than the Jeep!
This was a deserved jab after my previous one.
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Sadly my shocks didn't show up in time for a shakedown run on a friends property, but we took the roommates jeep on its first voyage with locking diffs.
These videos well showcase why I got rid of the diesel in lieu of something that can actually go off-road.... or at least that's my excuse!
35" tires a stock intake
https://youtu.be/F4F4OYodLrM
https://youtu.be/byCik8Uzmug -
Sadly my shocks didn't show up in time for a shakedown run on a friends property, but we took the roommates jeep on its first voyage with locking diffs.
These videos well showcase why I got rid of the diesel in lieu of something that can actually go off-road.... or at least that's my excuse!
35" tires a stock intake
https://youtu.be/F4F4OYodLrM
https://youtu.be/byCik8Uzmug
What kind of lockers? I recently put a Spartan auto locker in the rear of my Land Cruiser. Major upgrade for not much money.
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What kind of lockers? I recently put a Spartan auto locker in the rear of my Land Cruiser. Major upgrade for not much money.
Detroit auto locker in the rear and electric locker in the front.
I anticipate running Lokka lunchboxes front and rear in mine once I settle on a pair of axles. -
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