Bumpy ride over speed bumps

Hi Guys;

what would be the places to check and attend to when experiencing bumpy rides over speed humps.

Beside the slight vibration at 130km/hr the jeep 4.0L goes well..

I have changed the stabiliser bar bushes and it improved slightly.

Would appreciate suggestions on where to look and the order that I should renew the parts.

the vehicle has 180 000km on teh odometer.

Also I would like to do a trip thorugh out my country(south africa) and ask if a 1998 Jeep country 4.0 L automatic is reliable in terms of engine ability at this mileage.

i was thinkin of changing the jepe for a later model jeep to do the trip.But my wife said: "the XJ is the real deal" and she prefers to tour in the older jeep.

thanks in advance for all suggestions.

regards
collin

How about a new set of shocks? That should help a bunch. Sometimes all it takes is to tighten the bolts on the old ones. Mine always come loose on the front upper shock mounts above the wheelwells.

If I were going on an extended trip I would do some good preventative maintenance like: spark plugs, spark plug wires, air filter, oil and filter, and so on. My jeep has 225,000 on it and it still does fine in part due to replacing normal maintenance items regularly.

Check all your bushings. And yes the XJ is the real deal. It outperformed the Rover many years in a row and was named 4x4 of the year several times as well. I second 4loandgo's suggestions to the tune-up, and reccommend a full radiator and tranny flush to help keep the beast cold and happy.

thans for reply.

the shocks are probably still original or may have been changed once.I do not know since i have the jeep for 1 year.I will change them anyway.

The spark plugs will have to be changed.

Is it necessary to change the spark plug wires?.Assuming they have never been changed before, what would the benefits be to change them ?

thanks in advance

collin

Yes it's very important to change wires to ensure the proper amount of spark to each cylinder. you should also change the distributor cap, rotor button, and air filter to make it a full tune up. another thing is only use Champion copper plugs. the Jeep motor was designed around Champion Plugs and they have far less fouling problems than any other brand period. I use the champion truck/suv plug and love them they hae a more massive copper core for more spark efficiency. Plug wires I use autolite copper. DO NOT use PLATINUM!! or anything made by Bosch. Another thing you should do before a long bouncy trip is change the fuel filter as you will probably constantly be stirring sediment around in your tank which can strand you if your fuel pump goes out.

also, the benefits you get from changing the wires can include- bettter fuel consumption, better throttle respone, and best of all more power!

is your vehicle lifted or at stock height? If its lifted, do you have RE Drop brackets and braces with your short arms? If not, those would provide a tremendous improvement for your ride quality. Shocks too.

Many tnaks for the very relevant suggestions.
I will definitely follow all ideas given here.

The vehicle is stock height

regards
collin

Install new belts and hoses and save the used parts for spares