XJ + MJ = MXJ History of my Jeep Cherokee

[JENSSEN]

I am not sure if I ever posted this on this forum but here it goes,... cut and pasted from another site:

This is my first Jeep/truck ever. I moved from London Ontaio 3 years ago to the Wild west and 1 year ago in May at a Police Auction I happened across this 1989 Jeep Cherokee,.. well it went down to $100.00 so I bid! I ended up with the truck for $200.00 and originally I was going to have it just for a winter beater. The unit had some slight front end damage and I had no idea if it ran or not,.. Later that afternoon it arrived on the hook and the lock smith showed up ,.. So after a little boost from my Thunderbird,.. the Jeep rattled to life,.. The 4.0 was a tad on the weak side but I wasn't complaining as it had a Kenwood CD player and 4 Kenwood speakers. I soon plated it and off I went for my first may long with the ol girl. I played a bit but it wasn't until June with the www.aurs.org Volunteer days that I actually put it through its paces,.. I beat the ever loving crap out of that poor thing,.. was actually manually shifting it as the AW4 was on the fritz , with worn out 28's I went for my first wheeling trip at night no less! well a 45 min run turned into 4 hrs and I was hooked! I then brought it home and started on the project,.. 3" of lift and 31 MT's that I bought second hand,...




Then i decided I need to trim a bit of the fat off to allow for more clearance,..



Now I am hooked,.. but the AW4 not shifting all the time has finally worn thin on me and well the motor was noisy even with 20w50 and lucas oil so I went off in search for a new motor,... Everybody wanted a mint for the two parts so I looked for a parts truck and found a smashed up 1988 Limited that ran like a top for $600.00 on www.calgaryjeep.com offered $400.00 and soon enough I had 2 Jeeps :bigthumb: I came home at 5 PM one night seriously mad at the tranny and motor and started the swap,.. 6 hrs later I had pulled the whole d/t from each and reinstalled the good d/t into the 89,.. the Jeep was once again alive! I pulled the blingin leather seats, gas tank (crushed mine on trail) gas ytank skid, exaust and a few other goodies from the Limited and put them in aswell,.. I wheeled the combo all summer and then the Thanksgiving weekend rolled around,... 5 months wheeling and then this,...



The first pictre ended up in Canadian 4wd magazine, and thats the weekend when I earned the "That Guy" title shortly after that picture was taken I assaulted a shale hill took a bad bounce and exploded the rear u-joint and part of the rear diff,.. back to camp I went sadly in tow,..

Jump forward to this spring that just passed and on a first date with a girl the diff started making a horrible grinding , before I could even slow down KABOOM!!!!!! The diff bearing on the pinion exploded and dropped the pinion into the gears and I was back to FWD,.. It was bad! I had to put it in 4wd just to back it into the garage,.. luckly I had a spare diff or so I thought,.. The 88 looked the same,.. but alas it was not. So after a bit of research I had a 8.8 from an Exploder sitting on my garage floor,.. The people who have done this swap says its easy,... I am not sure I agree 100% ,... Took a few weeks to get it all mocked up and sitting right in the Heep err Jeep but it was finally in! We modded the clutch packs, welded on ne perches and then ran ito a shock issue,.. Out came the hole saw and we put 2 3.5" hole in the floor ad mad a custom shock hoop in the rear.. So I nopw have 2 big holes in my floor with the longest Rancho 5000's peeking through in my trunk,.. but all said and done it worked GREAT!
Next we cut up the ol 88 XJ to make room but as we severed up the Jeep carcass, we noted that the roof if removed right behind the rear doors it looked very unique,.. so aff to the pick in pull we go,.. cut the rear of a MJ off,.. Well we started on a sunday afternoon with a 24 of beers , a sawzall and to my neighbours amazement cut my Cherokee up,.. proceeded to fit the MJ rear section of the cab to it and the MXJ was born,..




The above pictures were taken at a Cherokee meet in Calgary,.. The one problem with removing athe glass and tin from the back was the fact that I lost ALOT of weight and the rear came up about 3". Added some coil spaces to the front and new 5000's to compensate for the height increase and off to the CJA show and shine where I won the "worst Jeep in show" or ugly jeep,.. can't remember...

[JENSSEN]

At this point the 31's wern't cutting it and looked way too small with 5.5-6" of lift I broke down and bout some 33 12.5 R15 Super swampers and rock crawler rims,.. The first weekend trying out the new combo was wild what a diffrence these tires made!








Many more where than came from,.. but back to the build,.. I stared to think that the back looked slighty crappy and that I really needed to make it look better so back to the J/Y I went in search of a MJ box,..errr well 1/2 of it,.. I cut the remaining XJ metal off ratchet strapped the box on and went over to my Nates ,.. I also added 2X6 squre tubing in place of the rocker panels as I kind of crushed them on some rocks,.. (whoops) who happens to have a much nicer welder than I and here is what we came up with,.. Now keep in mind we ended up leveling the box after these pics were taken,..






So now the Jeep looks abit diffrent than when I got it and well lets just say I confuse the crap out of people with it as they have no idea what it is

[JENSSEN]

Last pics are of a run a few weeks ago in Wiaprous with a touch of carnage,.. assaulted my nemisis "Killer Cutline" ,.. I snapped the ball joint on the track bar, bent a shock, upper link on the diff,.. cracked the diff cover and smucked up the D/S of the box and tail lamp...





Oh and BTW when you go on a search for a track bar at another camp don't leave your keys in your truck, and friends with beer at camp.

[JENSSEN]

Soooo jump forward to this spring and the Calgary Saddle dome,... well there were a few more changes to be had















This is the MXJ's new Ride height I know the coils are out in this picture but thats where she will sit

[JENSSEN]

A few more updated Pictures.....

Front:



Ford I-Beam mounts:









NOW JUST TO GET THE BRAKES DONE,...


*****BANGS HEAD*****

[[Memphis]]

Looks great, seen it from a long time ago, liked the "history" too bad ya moved out of London, this would have been a kick ass build to see in person

[guidolyons]

Very nice job on the Cheromanche! I'd seen some of your older pics, but the orange creamcicle is

[JENSSEN]

Some updates,..

93 HO long block; new internal bits
Comp Camp 68-232-4
HESCO Valve Springs
New Head
Pacesetter Header

[crzyxj]

I like the bed, I could not find one anywhere. I do want to use an MJ tailgate for the Comanchero project.
Nice jump at the tough truck challenge!
Keep up the good work

[JENSSEN]

Originally Posted by crzyxj

I like the bed, I could not find one anywhere. I do want to use an MJ tailgate for the Comanchero project.
Nice jump at the tough truck challenge!
Keep up the good work

Need one? lol lots here

[crzyxj]

Too damn far away, however we were thinking of coming to the Highriders challenge next year. Looks like one hell of a good time!

[JENSSEN]

Originally Posted by crzyxj

Too damn far away, however we were thinking of coming to the Highriders challenge next year. Looks like one hell of a good time!

DO IT! Free entry for US competitors this year and its on the 4-5 weekend!

[JENSSEN]

http://www.gearcentregroup.com/4x4cl...21:member-rigs

[TJP]

Originally Posted by crzyxj

I like the bed, I could not find one anywhere. I do want to use an MJ tailgate for the Comanchero project.
Nice jump at the tough truck challenge!
Keep up the good work

Why if you were doing Comanchero project you would start with a Comanche. Didn't yours come with a tailgate????

If you are starting with a Cherokee you are building a Cheromanche since you start with a Cherokee.

XJ+MJ= XMJ which is what Jenssen has....

MJ+XJ=MXJ

It simple to figure out the name starts with the vehicle you start with. Just because you trash a MJ to build your XJ it's still a XJ.

[NoSXJeep]

That reminded me of a city in SoCal I drive through now and then. It sits right between Arrowhead and Big Bear, so they called it Arrowbear.

I'd have gone with Bighead...

Only real men wear Pepto Pink!
Nice rig!

[TJP]

Originally Posted by NoSXJeep

That reminded me of a city in SoCal I drive through now and then. It sits right between Arrowhead and Big Bear, so they called it Arrowbear.

I'd have gone with Bighead...

Only real men wear Pepto Pink!
Nice rig!

Bighead would have worked.

You gotta love that Pepto Pink.

It's a nice rig however its named.

Peptokee would be a good name too.

[crzyxj]

I guess I will never live that one down!

[TJP]

Originally Posted by crzyxj

I guess I will never live that one down!

No you won't Pepto

[JENSSEN]

Originally Posted by TJP

Why if you were doing Comanchero project you would start with a Comanche. Didn't yours come with a tailgate????

If you are starting with a Cherokee you are building a Cheromanche since you start with a Cherokee.

XJ+MJ= XMJ which is what Jenssen has....

MJ+XJ=MXJ

It simple to figure out the name starts with the vehicle you start with. Just because you trash a MJ to build your XJ it's still a XJ.

I only called it a MXJ as I used to run MX Bikes so it just kind of stuck,.. BTW no good MJ's were killed in this build they were all Pick your part victims...

[JENSSEN]

Well I finally have "Blasphemy" in the garage and went to town over the weekend to start fixing the weak spots and fail points that have ailed me in the last few HighRiders Challenges,..

Issues:

-Rear Leaf Springs flex like a brick
-Radius arm on P/S Very bent
-Cooling system (leaks and overheating)
-Cage reinforcement
-Body work
-Rear tub trimming
-Front Coils misaligned
-Snapping the 44 front axles on command

The Plan:

-S10 / Ram 1500 hybrid pack
-Rebuild/fabricate stronger arm
-Replace rad, cap mount is worn + add fans
-Roof Sliders + A-piller + Chassis mounts
-New fender and clip installed
-Cut as Req'd
- Remount coil buckets as per front differential orientation
-Predator axles from Gear Centre.

I will be posting up pics of the build as I continue.


Radius Arm "long arm"

[kentuckytwostep]

Originally Posted by JENSSEN

Radius Arm "long arm"

nice, reminds me of mine...



And like this guys...

http://pirate4x4.com/forum/showthrea...ight=mexico+mj

Beware, I bent one of mine this past weekend. They are 1.5", 1/4" wall and mine doesn't see air like yours... it just falls on big rocks.

[JENSSEN]

Yeah I saw those pictures of yours or somone elses in the past, it was definatly not a new idea,.. Yeah I stole it LOL now the tube I used is some THICK frigging tube,.. took a while to cut that stuff! The links came from the old "White knight" ( www.whiteknight.ca ) after they sold it. I had never had an issue with the Radius arm until last year when I put a weeee wobble in it. This year I hope that with suspension flex, cromies in the front and locked front and rear I can be more precision VS brute force and ignorance.


UPDATES:

S-10 Pack VS XJ bastard pack




XJ bastard pack in the Jeep



S-10 stock pack



both pics are with full truck weight on them.

Old radius arm VS good radius arm:

[JENSSEN]

S-10 Pack was recurved and redrilled then reinstalled effectivly lowering the Jeep from previous years. We have also moved the rear differential back by redrilling the centre pin back 1" positioning the wheel centre 1.5"-2" back.

Rear axle position


And now,..



Current front axle centre line


Proposed new location



And my Birthday Present from the Wifey!



Chromies!

[JENSSEN]

Got a fair bit done last night, started off with cutting off the old "Ford style" radius arm mounts



Ground down and cleaned up the mountaing points



New hardware to bolt the new heim 1" x 4" Overkill?



Put a small bend in the new arms to better fit the XJ "frame rails"



Next items:
- reinforce raduius arms
- build mounting tabs
-relocate coil buckets
-get drive shaft lengthened


More to come Thursday!

[JENSSEN]

Rev 1 of the "link" tab?