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Well time to turn my attention back to the MJ after finishing the Jet Ski build. My brake booster starter to fail on me (air suction sound when letting off brakes). I’ve also never been to happy with the master cylinder that’s the wrong size. Picked up an 01 XJ booster and master cylinder along with a Wilwood combination valve and left hand bracket. Will be taking care of all the lines tomorrow. Also picked up a really nice moroso trans cooler that I will be using as a stand alone unit along with an fittings for the tranny and braided stainless -6 an lines. I’ll share pics as I go along

Enjoy! Months long project and a complete build.

I never knew an eliminator could be bought with a d44. Nice!

I’ll try to get some closeups of the latch to striker contact. I fee the latch is just catching but not fully engaging. That’s a good though about the bolts perhaps interfering on the hinge. I’m going to check that right away.

I picked up my last truetrac for about $300 on Amazon. They are made overseas and prices are all over the place. You have to have a decent amount of resistance for it to work so it’s just very subjective results depending on where you wheel. I really liked the idea of the rear TJ rubicon lockers. Gear driven lsd and air locker in one. Really nice combo I ran twice, once in a rodeo D44 I built for my YJ and later in my 05 TJ rubicon. It was said to have issues with air leaks and keeping a good seal but mine always worked with no issues

What year is the d44?

Ok I’ll throw in my $.02 I’ve had 3 Detroit Truetracs and they’ve all done very well on the street but are only a bit better than open off-road. It’s not like it’s 50% better and half way between open and locked. More like 25% better I’d say. However I do prefer them greatly on wet or slick roads as they help the rear of the truck to track much better and feel more consistent and predictable. Most of the stories we hear about actual Detroit lockers being difficult to drive are on much shorter wheelbases and manual tranny vehicles. I’d say that on a longer wheelbase vehicles like an MJ (swb or lwb) they are much more docile. Especially with an auto tranny as the torque converter keeps the shifts consistently “soft”. Unless you throw in a transgo kit like I’m about to do

Not that I can see. It has zero vertical play and lines up dead center with the striker. It never leaks either. I went through this whole Jeep finding any spots that would leak and getting them also fixed. I can go through a car was now or monsoon downpour leak free

Here are some pics. I had to weld on a large fender washer to reinforce the striker area. Having a similar issue with the hood. The center of it is about 3/8” higher than the header panel. Upon closer inspection the drivers door only sticks out about 1/8” from the cab but that is with the striker all the time easy towards the cab and you have to slaw it to get it to latch. When you open the door handle it “pops” open

I’ll take some picture shortly. The door rubbers were new 3 years ago and they are still pretty thick but have definitely compressed from when they were new. So here is exactly what’s happening: I installed the hoolihans off-road door hinge peace plates when I was stateside last year. Welded them in and put nos hinges on at the same time. Shimmed the door and got all the gaps spot on. The door sits perfect in the jamb from what I can tell. Zero wind noise either which was hard to get right. My problem was that my door stuck out too far from the cab only at the back of the door. The from lines up great with the fender. I proceeded to move the door striker inwards and get it shimmed properly to latch. The door moved in slightly but not much. Now you have to slam the door to get it to latch. If you close it lightly the door just “bounces” off of the door frame. It closed well before but the hinges were going out so I replaced them. Passenger side is good but needs a shim or two on the bottom hinge to better align the door.

Just FYI, I used the newer plate and fin evaporator from the 97+ XJs and retrofit it into the hvac box with great success. It’s a better cooling core than the tube and fin style. Also, team Cherokee is closing out new tube and fin evaporators

Is there any sort of write up regarding alignin the doors on here? Hadn’t come across a specific post yet. I got my dire centered just fine in the hole but need to get it to close tighter to the cab. I moved the striker inwards (toward the cab) as far as it would go but that didn’t help close the door tighter and just made it harder to latch. It is otherwise very well aligned in the opening and the front is nicely aligned depth-wise. Just need the back of the door to go closer to the cab by maybe 1/4-3/8”

Here’s mine. This is a Mach 1 hood scoop grafted in. It’s a pretty squared off scoop and looks good with the body lines.

For the most part you can swap with gauge clusters from the same or similar years. 91 and up is what I’m most familiar with and the gauge clusters are interchangeable with XJ 91-95. Pre 91 was the Renix years and this site is full of Renix experts who can say for sure but I believe they also swap across the years 90 and earlier.

Also, do you have the little rubber vent hose connected to the motor?

Fastenal has them but they are also in the hardware section of pretty much any auto parts store. Just keep in mind that it’s best to use a screw/bolt with a flat shoulder. Anything with a angled shoulder can crack the plastic lens very easily. I’d start by finding the best fitting fastener and then find the appropriate sized nut/clip. Socket head bolts worked well for me. Most parts stores refer to the clips as “speed nuts”

I used an off the shelf clip with a stainless socket head screw and it’s a perfect fit

If you mean the long screws that thread into the plastic nuts in the door panel, team Cherokee normally carries them. I bought all my sets through them and picked up a spare set recently since they always seem to go bad when removing the door panel

I’ve seen fuel cells installed in the spare tire location

I was the one working on those covers. I have the full diy write up on how they are made in the diy section. Haven’t had time to work on them further but the template your looking for is in that thread. The switches can be had new from rock auto: https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/jeep,1991,cherokee,4.0l+l6,1180055,electrical-switch+&+relay,fog+lamp+switch,4408

Looking for a 96 and up 4.0 fuel rail. Need the return less style fuel rail to install an external fuel pressure regulator. Let me know if you have one. Thanks!

Oh, and strokedjeep.com does awesome work with throttle bodies. I’ve bought 4 from him over the years

I don’t know how far you want to go with bolt-ons but stand alone efi is really a good way to make sure your mods actually add anything. My 4.0 has an Edelbrock aluminum head, bored .060, shaved deck, mild cam, roller rockers, 99+ intake, JBA TJ down pipe, 24# injectors and many other bolt ons but my biggest “power adder” was my 4.56 gears and Detroit truetrac out back. Stand alone efi is my next plan after hydroboost brakes.

Right front tire went from 35 to 0 psi lol. That probably changed things up a bit . The toe in and caster is really the only thing to set on these axles and doing it yourself often times results in a more thorough job than any shop will do. Not sure what the load rating is on your tires but my guess is they are now overinflated.

It’s a press fit. An open ended wrench that barely slips over the tube normally works. Put the pump in a vise and use the open ended wrench to tap the tube into the housing. Or better yet, get the tool for it. Once it’s all the way in you can hit it with a single rack weld for added security but it’s not a necessity.