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Door Swap


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One of the Jeep Off-road mags a few years ago featured JohnnyC 's MJ for a 97-up swap. There is some tech in there. They bolt up to the hinges. 

Depending on how "clean" you want the install, the hardest part is probably figuring out where exactly to mount the door striker and welding up the old hole and making it look "factory"

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I put 98 doors on my 86. Used the 86 hinges. Drilled out the spot welds holding the latch plate to the b-pillar. Welded up all the holes. Drilled holes for the new striker and used a tapped 1/4" plate on the back side. The xj doors with manual windows fit fine with the older dash. Figured out the wiring for the power mirrors my self, since there are differences year to year. Not that hard...

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Sorry for the delay. The hinge will be exactly the same as yours. As ahelbyluvv stated the striker is different. I was able to use the hole from the old pin striker as the lower hole for the hoop striker. Thus only had to drill one hole and no visible defects.

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The lock cylinder is slightly larger too on the new style. If you can grab keys from that donor. If not your originals will for. It will just be slightly loose left and right. But tight in and out. I just put a dab of silicone on the inside to keep it put

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I don't have a pic of mine currently. But I was able to use the factory striker hole for the lower bolt and then just drilled an upper hole for the top bolt. Then just popped b pillar plastics off. Stuck my hand up the column and put big washers and nuts on.

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  • 1 year later...

Hi Folks....Looking to possibly do the late model XJ door swap. It seems the late ('97+) model door power windows work a lot better than the early ones. The XJ forums made reference to a fit problem with the lower dash, but there is no mention of that in this thread. Anyone aware of a problem with this? I have three MJ's, all with manual windows, two of them have inop windows and the third works fine. Apparently the manual ones are no longer available and I refuse to pay a ridiculous price for a used one that will probably last a year or two, so it seems the thing to do is make the move to power.

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It seems the late ('97+) model door power windows work a lot better than the early ones.

 

Huh? Haven't heard that one before. I wired in a set of these regulators in using stock XJ window switches about ten years ago and they still work fine. Swapping in new doors just for power windows seems counterproductive to me.

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I agree - not worth swapping the doors unless you wanted to swap the doors anyway. I added power windows and locks using my original doors and 99% factory wiring and it really wasn't that difficult. Certainly easier than swapping a door. Just a pain to deal with the rivets on the factory manual regulators.

 

And for what it's worth, I don't think the old regulators really are that slow. Mine came from a '94 XJ and I didn't do anything to them. No lubrication, no cleaning, nothing - and I don't think they're slow. The main problem is the cable that operates the window - if the door doesn't drain properly it can get rusty and stick.

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