Life, it happens quick and you've got to step fast to adapt. This was the case for us as we moved into our new house and I finally had a chance to begin to set up our new garage and start knocking off a list of long awaited projects on my pair of Jeep Comanche trucks. Two days into our stay we discovered that we were pregnant with our first child and everything changed. With mounting medical bills and frugal thinking we decided it was time to move on from our two seat Comanche projects and focus on acquiring a smaller family car that would be a little more economical than our big block Suburban. We sold my daily driver longbed comanche and managed to sell off a number of spare parts in the way, but we still couldn't seem to find enough room in the budget to purchase a family car and put a sizable dent in mounting medical bills. At a moment where I wasn't sure what to do about our situation someone gave me some sage advice. "Stick to what you guys know and are comfortable with," He told me. Right then I knew there was one more option in our bag of tricks, my dearest wife's trail rig. In the past 5 years it has probably seen more trail miles than street, and it has numerous scars to prove it. It has its fare share of issues, coming hot off the heels of another major rebuild and a summer of wheeling had left it put together with a mix of solid new parts and some less than trusty used units. But keeping old rockcrawlers together on a shoestring budget is what we know how to do and we're pretty good at it around here. So without a second thought we wrote the check, zeroed out balances, and got ready to get the old rockcrawler ship shape for its most important job yet.
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| Our slinky little XJ sports a homebrew 3 link suspension with a mix of 1.25" and 3/4" rod ends. Since we often find ourselves in line behind much bigger and more capable rigs we need every advantage to keep up, and our overbuilt front suspension has always performed well. |
The jeep, affectionately referred to as The Abyss Jeep by my wife, is a 2000 XJ Cherokee we bought back in 2011 to replace her dying Pontiac car. Soon after purchase we decided to build it as a street/trail rig for her. The original buildup was chronicled in numerous build threads but the most complete of the original build was here
Project Girly Jeep. From there we wheeled it hard, for a number of years. After many broken axleshafts, stripped ring and pinions, and scores of body damage later it found itself laid up in our garage indefinitely waiting on a front axle.
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| A great many trail rigs die looking like this, and ours came close. The old jeep was surfing jackstands for well over a year until roller axles went in and it moved south with us. |
From there life took us to Chattanooga and some roller axles were hastily tacked in so that it could follow suit. Another mad rebuild ensued with yet another set of axles along with a super bling Rocksolid Fab steering and track bar setup. It spent most of that summer on the trailer, getting an occasional beating and then tucked back away into storage until it's next turn out. The setup is basic, it sports a locked high pinion dana 30 and Ford 8.8 with a spool and super 88 kit from Superior axle. 4.56 gears keep the wheels turning and a homebrew front 3 link keeps the axle located. It's built around a 35 inch tire, and for the forseeable future we plan to stick with that size. Other than its drivetrain and suspension modifications its still pretty much a run of the mill xj creeping up on 180,000 miles.
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| Out wheeling prior to our brush with 4Wheel and Offroad's Ultimate Adventure 2015 |
Our first round of rebuild focuses on long overdue drivetrain maintenance and some comfort items needed for being a daily duty family rig.
We started by stripping the front axle bare to replace all the bearings. A shaky pinion bearing had sidelined us from our once a week fun drive, and it was best to take the chance to get it done while we still had another jeep around to drive. Further inspection revealed our rear pinion bearing was trash in our 8.8 as well so bearings were ordered. The rear axle currently still needs attention but we'd rather live with a little gear noise and wait to rebuild when we can replace the spool with a selectable rear locker.
Now completely reliant on this pile as a daily driver and flush with some extra cash leftover from the sale of my longbed Comanche we were able to invest in a few new parts. Our only disappointment was this disaster of an acdelco remanufactured steering box. A blockage in the box caused the death of two power steering pumps. Our burning need to both go to work to our jobs on opposite sides of town meant disassembling my remaining trail rig project and moving it's steering box and components over. This surely wasn't the first time having a spare jeep around paid off, and it surely won't be the last.
As winter approached our last big obstacle was the lack of any kind of climate control. What good is a family rig that freezes out the kids in the winter? A new heater core and AC evaporator meant that it was time for the dash to come out, an operation that in this old rockcrawler proved to be a long dusty affair.
The HVAC box was treated to a good clean and some all new cores. Thankfully the removal and installation of the HVAC control box and dash went much smoother than our steering box disaster. After a good solid 8 hour day we were back in business with heat and a refreshed AC system.
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| I even gave it a bath and shined the tires to complete the effect. |
We finished off our rebuild with some very used 35 inch Nitto Trail Grapplers wrapped around a set of 17 inch JK takeoff wheels and wheel adapters. The 17" wheel and tire combo has proven to be great for dual purpose use and even in their well worn state the Nitto Trail Grapplers handle the road and the trail better than any other MT style tire we have run. We have already put a number of miles under our little trail rig's belt as a DD and it has continued to impress. Time and money spent in the right places on our well worn XJ have helped it rise to the challenge of everyday driving and kept this little family smiling all the way to the bank.
Between writing and posting our baby girl was born and both baby and momma are happy and healthy! We're all looking forward to the adventures ahead in our little family XJ!
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| Back at home in its other natural habitat, a parking spot outside work. |
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