Jays 01 Jeep XJ

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Jays 2001 Jeep XJ (Cherokee)

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Stock 2001 Jeep Cherokee Sport - 01/04

2001 Jeep Cherokee Sport 2" Lift - 02/04

Finally! 2001 Lifted Jeep Cherokee Sport - 03/04 - AR Wheels and TrXus tires

First project is to remove the factory am/fm/cassette radio, it really stunk. Replaced it with a 'real' sound system. AM/FM In-dash CD, a '1/2 din' equalizer right under it. Fits in the dash real well. Used harness adapters so cutting was at a minimum. 240 watts from the amp. 5.25" Blapunkt speakers in the front doors. The rear speakers are another story! All the ones I tried sounded like crap. Problem is the design of the rear compartment. There was nothing that holds the plastic housing over the headliner! The whole housing was free to move, shake, rattle and roll. This didnt make nice sound, especially bass!

So down came the headliner, used small angle iron to reinforce the plastic housing, made metal mounting tabs to secure it to the metal frame up top, and in the rear in 3 places there were mounts for something. Also used expanding foam to create an airtight chamber - a seperate left and right, with the rear dome light stuck in the middle. Then used undercoating to seal it inside. What a major difference! But not as good as the fronts. If your gonna do it, take a few extra minutes and make the original cutouts bigger for 6" speakers.
Always fuse the hot wire for the amplifer as close to the battery or b+ source as you can! I found there is lots of extra room in the grommet for a thick wire harness on the drivers side near the brake. I used the seat mount stud for a good body ground - just need a couple new nuts and washers. The amp went under the drivers seat, wires snaked under the center consloe.
While the headliner was down, the antenna cables got put in too for the scanner, cb, and ham radios. 2 Glass mounts and a thru the roof mount for the tri-bander. Drew power for the tribander from the amp wire, and power for the scanner and cb from the fuse panel with a 'add-a-fuse', so their only on with the key.

Installing the hitch wasn't bad. The kit came with rigid wires with coils on the end to snake the bolts thru the uni-body. The bolts did have to be hammered into the hole, was a little tight. The shield on the drivers side for the fuel inlet hose went back ok - close enough to force it. The passenger side t.p. hanger and shield was a little trickier, but went back - the holes in the shield didnt quite line up so I used a stud from the hole and forced the shield back on. No rattles here!

The only hard part was holding the 40 pound hitch up, aligning the 8 hanging bolts without pushing them inside the uni-body, and getting the nuts on by yourself.

The wire harness was 'gravy'. The kit just plugs in the original harness connector behind the LR panel. There is a large grommet way on the bottom to snake the wire outside the vehicle. Seal it up real nice so when you run thru the swamps you don't get water inside!
	I took apart the dash until I found the click of the flasher -wanted to replace it with a heavy duty, but it has a 5 pin flasher, and seems to flash normally even with a trailer load on it.

The shackles finally made it in. This was kinda easy - given 15 degrees outside. Wouldn't have had to disconnect the shocks, but the new shackles are (obviously) longer, that was easier than fighting the leaf. One upper mounting bolts sleeve was rusted to the bolt and wanted to come out with the bolt - and this was spreading the gap wider, something would have broken, so this took a while of playing with the air chisel to keep the sleeve in the old shackle, and working the bolt out.

The spacer block makes up the difference of the 2" lift vs. the 1.5" shackles, and I ordered an extra 1/2" for the sag the rear had. This went so extremely easy on Friday the 13th! The speed shop had the new U bolts in stock, it paid off of using penetrating oil, trans fluid for weeks before I attempted any of these under car mods. The leaf center pins I used were grade 8 bolts and only needed to grind the hex part from the head to fit 'em in. Use a C clamp to hold the leaves before you remove the center pin(s). Another gravy job. The digital camera broke, so pics will come later.

The front coil spacers were another story! Came out real easy - disconnect the sway bar links, I wire wheeled and greased mine so they will come out quick for off-roading, disco the track bar, and pitman arm connection. I tried a spring compressor on the coil before lifting it up to keep the coil from uncompressing, but it kept poping off. They still came out easy, but there wasn't 2 extra inches to fit in the spacer andslip the coil back in. I ended up using pry bars, fighting and prying the coils back in - still was done in an afternoon. It does have to be re-aligned afterwards, I believe I had about a 1\2" of toe in. I did the eye align method - many years of doing alignments on a machine - put something under the 2 front wheels, sand, gravel, ice, whatever to simulate the 'slip plates' a real alignment rack has, and eye it down the side - all 4 tire edges must line up - also need to lock the steering wheel in place first, straight - a 11 year old boy worked fine for me. This will at least get you to the shop for a real alignment, or depending how precise you choose to be, I've set many a 'toe' by eye, and haven't seen any poor wear yet. You dont want toe out, toe specs usually are about an eighth or sixteenth inch total toe in, the fronts of the tire being closer together.

Stay tuned, wheels and tires are coming!
and the front tow hooks, and ....

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