Pearl: The Oddball 2 Door XJ

[Buddy Holly]

With all the talk of 2 door XJs on here I figured I should post up the turd I've been working on for the past year and a half. Back when I still worked for @Blaze when he had the Jeep salvage shop, I was driving my YJ, which some of you may have seen before:

I began to hate driving a loud, slow 4 cylinder jeep that constantly broke on the street, and never seemed to work as well as I wanted on the trail. At this time I was commuting 5 days a week to ECU, which was 76 miles each way. On the way back from class one day the exhaust manifold on the 4banger broke clean off at the collector, which subsequently melted the fuel injection wiring harness along the valve cover. About the time the wiring debacle happened, Blaze (Bryan) bought a 2 door XJ that he was going to fix and sell before he found out how bad of shape it was in. Because I make great financial decisions in April 2017 I bought it and some extra parts off him and decided to tackle revamping the little blue Jeep.

What I ended up with was this:

A '97 2 door XJ. 4banger, 5 speed, 4x4 with air conditioning. It even had the hp30 and 29 spline 8.25 with factory 4.10 gears! I thought I had found a unicorn (I didn't). 308,000 miles on the clock, an engine with a hole in the block from an overzealous rod that wanted freedom, trashed interior from the chain-smoking slob of a previous owner, and loads of potential.

The plan was simple. I have a YJ with a rebuilt engine and solid trans with a wiring problem, and an XJ that needs an engine and a bunch of other parts to get back on the road again. Time to make two Jeeps into one. I needed a reliable "stock" daily driver to take me back and forth to school and this seemed like a cheap opportunity to fill that need.

 

[Buddy Holly]

When I bought the Xj I threw in a little extra cash to get the interior of a wrecked donor XJ that we were going to part out.

This solved the issue of the ruined interior in Pearl. Seriously, it was nasty. This before picture does it no justice. If only you could get the effect of the smell inside this turd. Imagine cigarettes fermented in stale farts and fat guy body odor. It was awful.

So I got to work stripping the old interior out and swapping in the new parts. I stripped everything out, including the dash and headliner. All the 2 door specific trim pieces I retained were cleaned thoroughly.

I found some rust:

Eventually the interior came together:

I then moved my attention to the drivetrain swap. Engine out of the YJ:

And into the XJ:

I picked up some Currie adjustable control arms, triple cooling fans, and some other goodies from @sammi_davis. I switched to a 4.0 radiator as well as 4.0 A/C parts to simplify. The 2.5 parts were impossible to find new.

Threw some basic tires on from another parts jeep. I hated these wheels and the tires were cheap but they matched and were almost new.

Towed the turd home and finished up the swap.

 

[GotWood]

These are obviously old pics judging from the leaves in the trees. Can't wait to see the progress!

 

[Buddy Holly]

I drove the jeep like this for several weeks, but I got tired of the street tires so I ordered some goodies. Picked up some Tj eccos from a gent on here who I can't remember his username. Ordered some 31" Falken AT3Ws on Amazon. Painted the wheels a nice metallic gunmetal. Love how the color works with the blue.

31s don't fit on a stock XJ, no matter what your buddy says. Luckily for me the PO had used liquid nails to attach the fender flares so I had zero reservations about chopping the sheetmetal. I trimmed the lip for the flares off the front, and when I went to the rear I did the same..... until I realized the inner fender was spot welded lower than my cut. Only one way to fix this, move the inner fender up! This led me to discover rust in the lower quarters, which also meant a cut and fold was in order.

On her own weight

 

[Buddy Holly]

These are obviously old pics judging from the leaves in the trees. Can't wait to see the progress!

I'm playing catch-up big time. The earliest pictures were from April of '17

 

[Buddy Holly]

After I finished up the body massaging and 31s, I went to URE for a shakedown. But before that I built some quick and dirty front recovery points from some bumper builders plates and stacked and welded flat bar. I'm not great at TIG, but these turned out pretty decent. I need to add a piece of DOM in between the tabs but keep forgetting. I haven’t had to use the d-ring mounts yet.

Wheeled and got some body damage

My door hinge welds began to crack so I welded them up and made the doors removable

Went to Rausch Creek for Black Friday 2017 for some more serious posing. I never seem remember to get friends to take pictures of me wheeling on my phone.

 

[Buddy Holly]

I enjoyed the jeep like this for a little while. The worn out 300k mile suspension really sucked. I did some work in South Jersey December of 2017. the drive back to NC with all my shit in the back did the rear springs in. This was the ride height when I got home. #squatlyfe I'm trying to keep things chronological so I'll come back to the suspension later on.

The rear 8.25 always howled but I kept driving for a couple months until the rear axle started to get really loud and start to clunk. Teardown and investigation revealed this issue



I ordered a new Spicer limited slip and found a cheap thicker diff cover. It's not chrome, gents, it's polished stainless steel

The previous owner was so kind as to leave me this nice little present on the housing end

 

[Buddy Holly]

I alluded to suspension issues in a previous post. I hated the worn out suspension. Around May of this year I decided to make a change. I didn't like the original SOA setups on the XJ because the springs seem to wear out quickly and sag as well as most also have axle wrap issues. I hypothesized that both of those issues would be alleviated if the rear suspension was converted to spring under axle. To test my theory I ordered some 5.5" IRO springs and some HD Offroad no-lift shackle relocators. @Willc kindly donated some 6" long shackles. I made a set of adjustable shock mounts and leaf perches from 2x4 rectangle and 2.5" square tube, respectively. The goal was to give the jeep a small boost in height above stock, fix the axle wrap and spring issues, and increase travel while still using stock shocks. The stock rear shocks still had 2” of uptravel left with a stock bumpstop installed.

Full droop

Rear buttoned up under ride height

To level everything out I grabbed a set of Rock Krawler 3.5" triple rate coils and cut 2 winds out of them to get the ride height down

Final product

I still run stock shocks and ended up within 1.5" of stock height. The rear sits a tad lower than the front now that the springs have settled. A longer boomerang shackle in the rear would help and is on the list. The springs are super long and I had to add 2" of extra bump in the rear because the shackle hits the rear crossmember even after cutting and clearancing it. The rear could easily use all of a 12" shock. The ride is sublime. Firm, but not harsh. The wheel hop and axle wrap are 100% gone. Zero regrets on the conversion. I would recommend it to anyone sticking with a low ride height.


I still have a bunch more to update. This post brings us up to June of 2018. More to come tomorrow, including another engine swap and more wheeling. Stay tuned!

 

[GotWood]

I like the spring under modification. I wouldn't mind doing that to mine but I'd have to find a set of 12" lift springs! Maybe I'll just add an anti-wrap bar instead. We need to get together with @Willc and wheel URE together sometime.

 

[Buddy Holly]

I like the spring under modification. I wouldn't mind doing that to mine but I'd have to find a set of 12" lift springs! Maybe I'll just add an anti-wrap bar instead. We need to get together with @Willc and wheel URE together sometime.

I’d be in for a URE trip. @Willc and I are also itching to run Potts Mtn again in the dry. Got denied last time because of ice.

 

[ghost]

One of my favorite colors on the late model xj's. That spring under is interesting idea. However with those aftermarket springs you should see a lot less axle wrap anyway. Will be looking for your report back.

 

[Buddy Holly]

One of my favorite colors on the late model xj's. That spring under is interesting idea. However with those aftermarket springs you should see a lot less axle wrap anyway. Will be looking for your report back.

I’ll try and finish up the updates tonight. In a nutshell though I love the SUA. Zero regrets. Axle wrap is gone, rides great on the street, and I have plenty of travel for my needs. If I wanted more out of it, the shocks are the limiting factor. If I could fit one without outboarding, the rear could use all of a 12”. It does really good burnouts now without any wheel hop

 

[ghost]

I've seen people inboard the shocks to get more travel from them. There use to be a shock hoop that had multiple mount locations. Blank

 

[Buddy Holly]

I've seen people inboard the shocks to get more travel from them. There use to be a shock hoop that had multiple mount locations. Blank

Not a fan of how much farther the upper mounts get inboarded with that kit. Makes it so the shocks are less effective in controlling axle movement at individual corners on heavier impacts/bumps. If I were to do anything, Boostwerks makes a nice outboard kit that seals the towers up from the interior. But that constitutes adding a tower brace which means it’s more of a pain to sleep in the back when I go camping/wheeling. Guess I could make the brace removable Rear XJ Shock Towers

 

[Buddy Holly]

With the suspension done, I drove the jeep for a couple more months. My job at the time was in New Jersey working at a wood shop. I had a strange noise in the front end and ended up towing it home on a Uhaul trailer. I thought it was transfer case related since the np231 in there was original (I later found the issue to be front brake pads rattling in the worn out knuckle). At this point I was pretty tired of the XJ and was dead set on offloading it to some guy on craigslist so I could buy a 3/4 ton truck which would be more practical. My father argued that a 4.0 swap would be cheaper than a truck and solve most of my gripes. The 2.5L in there had about 80k since we rebuilt it in our garage. It was solid (so I thought) and made decent power, but vibrated like crazy and killed exhaust manifolds every 5000 miles.


Two days before go-time on the swap, the 2.5L started losing oil pressure on the way back from a camping trip. I suspected oil pump, but it didn't matter anymore. This swap was meant to be.

I could go into a huge long story about where I sourced the drivetrain, but I'l keep it simple. I had started installing a 4.0/ax15/np231 w/ SYE in my YJ after the XJ was first finished. We ripped the drivetrain out of the YJ, realized the engine (even though it ran well) needed a rebuild. It was full of sludge. Ended up ordering a reman ATK crate engine from Advance Auto. Stuck that to the trans and tcase from the YJ and stuffed it in.

Engine out of the YJ:

Engine out of the XJ



The best part about a 4.0L swap on an XJ is the motor mounts unbolt like on a CJ. So all I had to do was buy the correct mounts and the whole circus slid in just like it was meant to be. A '97 5 speed 4.0L XJ engine harness was impossible to find, so I modified the 2.5L harness to fit the 4.0. The only difference in the 4.0 and 2.5 injector harnesses is the two extra injector trigger wires from the ECU for the 4.0. The trans crossmember for the 4.0/ax15 jeeps is different than all the other combinations, it has an indent to help lower the trans down for tunnel clearance. I made the 2.5 crossmember work and didn't have to do any massaging with the BFH. I drilled 4 new holes and used a TJ trans mount for a 32rh. I fabbed up my own exhaust hanger bracket that attaches to the tcase. The AX15 came from a YJ, so the tailhousing had to be redrilled to clock the case down.

So fresh!

Installed in Pearl:

Buttoning up

Remote oil filter setup. Couldn't source a new adapter like 4.0 XJs had originally, and removing one at the junkyard didn't work. Broke every torx bit I had. This was $40 and it makes oil changes a breeze.

Volvo electric fan. Because I didn't have the special XJ fan idler bracket I used a mix of TJ and YJ brackets. It uses a factory TJ 4.0 serpentine belt and a larger 136A ZJ alternator.

Coolant overflow mounted nicely on the driver's fender

All that work yielded this




I never had a 4.0L Jeep before. This engine swap transformed this Jeep. I love how it drives now. It has plenty of power, is quiet, smooth, and best of all the engine has a 3 year/ unlimited mileage warranty! This went from a temporary vehicle to something that will be sticking around for a very long time.

 

[Buddy Holly]

That pretty much brings things up to date. I added a 7075 tie rod, Boostwerks steering box brace, and a gas tank skid. Of course, I don't have pictures of that. Instead, here are a couple lame pictures and a couple videos from Rausch Creek last September from the first shakedown of the 4.0. Videos unfortunately don't do the obstacles justice. Spoiler alert: open diffs suck and I can't drive

 

[Creekin]

Like the work.
Your rig looks good.
With regards to the oil filter, some what concerned about the barbed fittings and the simple clamps.
If those simple clamps let go, then $$.
May want to consider going with AN fittings and hoses for the oil lines.

 

[Buddy Holly]

Like the work.
Your rig looks good.
With regards to the oil filter, some what concerned about the barbed fittings and the simple clamps.
If those simple clamps let go, then $$.
May want to consider going with AN fittings and hoses for the oil lines.

The clamps are high pressure clamps from Ideal, called Waveseal. They are designed for high pressure applications where the hose can blow off. Hose is oil cooler hose from gates rated to 250 psi. It was a bitch to get the hose slid on the barbs, very tight fit. If they were getting removed every time I changed the oil I would have used AN, but the hose should be fine for this application. Thanks for the concern though

 

[BLarkin]

I just picked up a '97 5spd XJ from the auction. It runs and drives pretty well actually, but the body is kinda rough. If the wiring harness is that rare, maybe I should part the thing out.

Great build thread, I like all the pics and details. What year/model Volvo fan setup did you use?

 

[Buddy Holly]

I just picked up a '97 5spd XJ from the auction. It runs and drives pretty well actually, but the body is kinda rough. If the wiring harness is that rare, maybe I should part the thing out.

Great build thread, I like all the pics and details. What year/model Volvo fan setup did you use?

I’ll buy the harness! The fan was used in a bunch of different Volvo cars. Pretty much all the 90s-2000s ones had them. I got mine at lkq. The car was a 700 series I think. They come with a nice dual relay setup for two different speeds. The biggest issue is I think the fan motor will hit the bracket for the mechanical fan on the XJ. It may fit with some cutting of the core support. I used the stock shroud and cut it to fit around the fan

Here’s a link on what is all involved for the wiring. Somebody posts in there a picture of their Volvo fan mounted to the stock XJ mechanical fan shroud. I did the same, albeit not as nice looking.

Taurus Fan Volvo 2 Speed Relay How-To - Jeep Cherokee Forum

 

[Buddy Holly]

Yayyyyy for updates!

I’ve been working for the past few weeks out of town and the XJ has developed a rear end clunk. The driver’s axle shaft has about 1/4” of end float. If you scroll up a few posts you’ll see the fuckery that is my rear axle housing. I didn’t feel like fully rebuilding something with a trashed housing so we made a trip to the LKQ in Durham to grab a replacement. This is a c8.25 out of a KJ Liberty. It has disc brakes, 29 spline shafts, and it is 63” wms-wms. It’s even 5x4.5 bolt pattern too. Since I have plans to run spacers up front to help with tire rub this axle will be the perfect blank slate to build. It will have 4.10s, some type of limited slip carrier, new 1541h shafts, new brakes, you get the idea. Everything is getting replaced. Still remaining SUA, for those who were wondering.

I’ll do a write-up on the swap for those interested and post it in tech. I don’t need the strength boost that comes with an 8.8, and the offset pinion causes exhaust clearance issues when you throw one in an XJ. This may be a good alternative to the Ford axle for those sticking with a 33” or smaller tire.

 

[Buddy Holly]

Not a ton of updates. I’ve been working out of town almost nonstop since January. While I’m up in PA I visited some friends and we bent up tube for my new roof rack last Sunday. I have plans this summer to do some long distance camping/wheeling trips, so I decided a rooftop tent was in order. Normally I sleep in the back of the Jeep, but with all my shit I carry around it’s really annoying to set up. I just finished a job last night, so I’ll hopefully have the rack finished up and installed next week when I get home.

I also bought another hp30 from @BB98xj to build in my garage with the KJ 8.25. Plans have changed a bit on the axle build sheet, but I’ll wait until I get the parts ordered in a few weeks to spill the beans

 

[BB98xj]

That rack looks solid!

Had a guy come scoop the 35 and he was eye balling that 30!

 

[Willc]

More pictures more work!!!!

 

[WARRIORWELDING]

What happened to the red YJ after yanking the drive line?