• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

86 cherokee first build help! Pics!

budget86xj

NAXJA Forum User
Location
WA
I’m only 17 and I just got a 86 Cherokee with a 2.8 and automatic trany, this is going to be my first build. I found it for 50 bucks and it wasn’t running, I put a battery, cap & rotor (it didn’t have a cap when I bought it), and plugs in it and it fired right up. The trany seems to work great and it just needs an alternator and should be ready. I have read a ton off the forums and was looking for some help with my project.
I want to do it for cheap since I only paid 50 bucks for it and it doesn’t have to be street legal since I’m going to be leaving it in the mountains at a friend’s cabin. I have some people that have built Cherokees in the past that are going to be helping me. The plan so far is to build blocks for the rear leafs and find some used coils to lift the front, hopefully about 3” of lift. Then we plan to cut the fenders as much as possible to fit some 33s or 35s underneath it.
The next thing is we are planning to build an interior cage for it and possibly an exocage as well, since I have read that it isn’t so good to have an exocage without and interior cage. We are also going to build front and rear bumpers for it.
Here is some pics, any help of problems and things we might run it to would be greatly appreciated. Also any ideas of next steps to take would be awesome.
jeep_21.jpg

jeep_28.jpg

jeep_11.jpg

jeep_08.jpg

jeep_14.jpg
 
I figure that i will get replies telling me to go search the forum and that im just a newbe, but not all the other people's situation is the same. o well
 
ok never mind, ill be some help...

NO BLOCKS. your springs are sagged already, blocks will kill them.

get a set of helper leaves, or just buy an add a leaf kit...
[my advice is get an add a leaf or a helper spring [off a s-10 if you can find one] and then add a small lift shackle for some extra movement]

larger front coils should be fine, might ride stiff though...

it looks fine, have you thought about gears if its a wheeler?

nice buy for 50, too bad about the motor...
 
budget86xj said:
I figure that i will get replies telling me to go search the forum and that im just a newbe, but not all the other people's situation is the same. o well

not so much that, your post isnt really asking any blatently obvious questions like most others... nor do you appear to be acting like most "Newbs", just the fact that you even MENTIONED blocks, let alone use them for 3" on stock springs :roflmao:

youll get some good advice
[hey wait, like mine above :wave1: ]

Travis
 
It sucks that its a 2.8 but it runs like a champ.
I have been checking the local junk yard for some leafs off a S-10, what year would be the best? or does it matter at all? I seen the write up about 92 S-10 leafs. I havent really thought about gears yet. but thanks for your help travis, i know that building blocks is not such a good idea
 
If you're looking to do it cheaply.. F-250 coils and a 1" spacer give 3"s. We've run them for about a year now, and they ride stiff, but not unbearable. We run 33's with them, and with decent trimming in the front, we have a little over 7"s of clearance with a 3" lift.
 
Chero-King said:
If you're looking to do it cheaply.. F-250 coils and a 1" spacer give 3"s. We've run them for about a year now, and they ride stiff, but not unbearable. We run 33's with them, and with decent trimming in the front, we have a little over 7"s of clearance with a 3" lift.

hmm thats not bad ^^




yea, id look into doing the S-10 lift. i only say this [aw who am i kidding I AM TELLING YOU THIS heh heh] because your springs right now ARE sagged already, and adding a block will cause them to invert, and with 3" probably break when wheeled. that would not be fun, nor would it be safe.

if you are going to cage it, do it at least DECENTLY.

besides, you'd just wind up replacing the whole pack later on...

id say go f-250 coils and 1" space up front and s-10 lift rear, trim the hell out of the front, and look up the write ups for trimming the rear as well. then stuff the biggest tire you can up there.

im assuming with a 2.8 the gears may be already low [maybe 3.77 or 4.10] so 33s would be all THAT bad with it. though gearing deeper might help overcome that 2.8's being void of power.

dont half ass your half ton ;)
 
Chero-King said:
If you're looking to do it cheaply.. F-250 coils and a 1" spacer give 3"s. We've run them for about a year now, and they ride stiff, but not unbearable. We run 33's with them, and with decent trimming in the front, we have a little over 7"s of clearance with a 3" lift.

hmm thats not bad ^^




yea, id look into doing the S-10 lift. i only say this [aw who am i kidding I AM TELLING YOU THIS heh heh] because your springs right now ARE sagged already, and adding a block will cause them to invert, and with 3" probably break when wheeled. that would not be fun, nor would it be safe.

if you are going to cage it, do it at least DECENTLY.

besides, you'd just wind up replacing the whole pack later on...

id say go f-250 coils and 1" space up front and s-10 lift rear, trim the hell out of the front, and look up the write ups for trimming the rear as well. then stuff the biggest tire you can up there.

im assuming with a 2.8 the gears may be already low [maybe 3.77 or 4.10] so 33s would be all THAT bad with it. though gearing deeper might help overcome that 2.8's being void of power.

dont half ass your half ton ;)
 
Chero-King said:
If you're looking to do it cheaply.. F-250 coils and a 1" spacer give 3"s. We've run them for about a year now, and they ride stiff, but not unbearable. We run 33's with them, and with decent trimming in the front, we have a little over 7"s of clearance with a 3" lift.

hmm thats not bad ^^




yea, id look into doing the S-10 lift. i only say this [aw who am i kidding I AM TELLING YOU THIS heh heh] because your springs right now ARE sagged already, and adding a block will cause them to invert, and with 3" probably break when wheeled. that would not be fun, nor would it be safe.

if you are going to cage it, do it at least DECENTLY.

besides, you'd just wind up replacing the whole pack later on...

id say go f-250 coils and 1" space up front and s-10 lift rear, trim the hell out of the front, and look up the write ups for trimming the rear as well. then stuff the biggest tire you can up there.

im assuming with a 2.8 the gears may be already low [maybe 3.77 or 4.10] so 33s would be all THAT bad with it. though gearing deeper might help overcome that 2.8's being void of power.

dont half ass your half ton ;)

Travis
 
Instead of a three inch block, take the main leaf from a vehicle with 2.5" wide, spring-under-axle leaf springs (think Chevy Blazer or S-10, Jeep Comanche, et cetera), cut off the eyes, and put it into your spring pack just under the main leaf. Because it's spring under, it's much more arched than your stock springs and because it's long, it won't be as stiff as most add-a-leafs. If your stock springs are really sagging, or you just want a little more leaf, stick a second spring-under leaf into your packs.

Stock XJ leaf packs are pretty flexy, and a block will let them stay flexy. It will also put a lot more stress on them, since it gives that heavy axle three more inches of leverage to act on them. The best thing you can do if you want a flexy leaf-sprung rear end is a pack of lots of long, thin leafs, with longer shackles.

My advice to you would be to get a shackle that's two inches longer than stock (which will give you one inch of lift), and the spring-under leaf in your spring pack (which will probably give you something like two inches).
 
Cool, thanks for all the info guys, its a ton of help. What about shocks? do you need to do anything with them when you do the lift?
 
budget86xj said:
Cool, thanks for all the info guys, its a ton of help. What about shocks? do you need to do anything with them when you do the lift?

We didn't touch ours with the 3" lift, but I'd reccomend it. Aftermarket sets like Rancho and such, are fairly cheap. But beware, you're going to break bolts when you take the rears off. A few people have gotten lucky and didn't, but chances are... you will.
Just start spraying the bolts down a couple days before you start with something like PB blaster, it'll help in the long run.
 
To add to that drill a small 1/8" hole in the mount bracket above the leaf spring bolts with a pilot bit then spray some PB or such in the hole to loosen up the rust. Worked every time for me.
 
Thanks for the tip. Also today a guy told me he had a lift for a F-250 highboy i think, he said it was a 4 inch lift, but that we could make it work on the cherokee. Is this correct? What do you guys think about that idea? Would that be to much?
 
Back
Top