War Gin - the 84 Wagoneer

[WarGin]

Hi all,
I'm Charles from new Milford CT,*I've been a member for awhile but I just troll and don't get around to posting much, but planning to change that with this build thread!
So last spring I bought an 84 XJ Wagoneer with 108k on the clock for 50 bucks.*
2.5L w/ carter carb
Ax5
NP207
D30/D35 w 4.10s/11s
Had a tiny defroster crack in the windshield, a couple of rust spots on the body(but a decent frame), and the rear bumper was a chrome shell containing... Well nothing. I kicked it off after poking a hole through it with my finger. The water guage didnt(and doesn't) work, and the headliner was destroyed( and is). Other then that the interior was decent apart from the beige cloth *and 80s orange leather, carpet, and trim combo. Dropped 700 to get her road worthy (car sat for 4 years so new brake hard lines and fuel lines etc). The only other thing that needed to be replaced was the clutch which was done this spring.

Drove her with the stock size tires till the beginning of winter, needed something with more tread so I bought a set of Canyons with decent metric 29s and stuffed them under the car. Drove fine and only rubbed with 4 in the car or on hard turns (against LCAs).
Rocked those tires till about February when I got pissed at being stuck on a patch of ice and found a crazy good deal on 4 new 31s (530$!)

However this rubbed much much worse and I could drive with my girlfriend only so I quickly purchased a 2" budget*boost kit with 4 shocks for 200, and installed later that week. Also made a rear tube bumper but I don't have pics of that.

Still rubbed on bumps with 4 in the car and turns. Drove awesome though.
So I ran the 2" kit till about August, one of my leaf packs shattered so I purchased 4" leafs off eBay and installed them, and ran the jeep funny car style for about 2 months, with the plan of lifting the front to match. I kept the rear sway bar with extended links but planning on dlt soon.*
Fast forward to October, and a set of 3.5" RE fronts, discos and brake lines arrive and With the help of 2 friends we got everything on, took it for a test drive.

No dice, death wobble from hell, it was literally so bad I thought I drove over my front axle the first time it happened. So I bought an adjustable iron rock track bar from one of said friends and installed later that weekend. Had difficulties aligning the axle with the track bar, the car was getting pulled off the lift!
So a little redneck alignment

And so she sat. There's a little shimmying over hard bumps and the shocks may be over extended but those are getting replaced soon.

And a few weeks ago got a $50 bumper with hella fogs off Craigslist. A little wire brushing, a coat of gloss black to match the rear and a little wiring aaand

And this is how she lies now. Need to upgrade the carb to a 32/36 soon, and planning a fan clutch dlt and going all electric fans.
*Twill be updated as I continue to work on War Gin, although the speed I may accomplish my tasks in may not be the fastest lol.
Currently at 123k on the clock.

 

[Jeepguy03]

That is a sweet looking Wagoneer XJ! Don't see many of those around.

 

[chedisme]

nice. I thought Xj waggys had the dual headlight setup.

 

[billyjp2]

surprised you found an XJ that old that hadn't rotted completely.

 

[Rock2pus]

Nice find! Keep us updated!

 

[Rock2pus]

nice. I thought Xj waggys had the dual headlight setup.

I dont believe the early ones did.

 

[WarGin]

The only difference in early years was the badging and interior trim. They didnt start quad lamps and wood grain till 86. You could also get more options on the waggy. Mine is a base and has ac and pwr windows

 

[WarGin]

Oh also if you notice the grille has many more slats than a normal Cherokee.
Buying a replacement carb tomorrow night, along with a fuel pressure regulator.
Also going to wire wheel the rust on the doors and bondo the remains this weekend.

 

[Hammered]

I have one of those grilles in my garage if anyone wants it, old / rare succa right there.

 

[MrShaft696]

Oh also if you notice the grille has many more slats than a normal Cherokee.
Buying a replacement carb tomorrow night, along with a fuel pressure regulator.
Also going to wire wheel the rust on the doors and bondo the remains this weekend.

haha yeah it does, a regular jeep is a (7) or (8) slot or something....

 

[WarGin]

Carb replacement ordered along with a drop pitman arm in what I'm sure is a vain attempt to repair my bump steer. Kind of pumped for the carb, the hesitation on cold starts and rapid acceleration is killing me. A little more power and mpgs isn't a bad deal either :laugh3:
Got bondo in the trunk along with electric contact cleaner to clean my clutch fluid soaked fuse box. I've replaced my clutch master 4 times, every time it's a seal that goes and fluid dumps all over the fuse box. Yay.:flame:

 

[chedisme]

did your new trackbar come with a new frame side bracket? if so there is a chance it mounts further from the frame which could give you the bump steer. and if that is the case then the drop pitman would help.

dount worry after a few good wheeling trips your steering box will be so sloppy that you wont feel the bumpsteer any more.

 

[WarGin]

The new trackbar did come with a drop bracket, good to know that it might only be a 40$ fix! And if the steering box doesn't hold up oh well replace with Durango box. Screw replacing always upgrade :thumbup:

 

[WarGin]

So I haven't gotten to bondoing anything yet, it's too cold, but I did get the carb and drop pitman arm. The carbs getting installed on Thursday, i don't want to deal with the previous owners wiring and vacuum rats nest. But I did take care of my disgusting lack of a headliner that I've been dealing with mentally for the past year and a half.

So me and my dad dug through some of the thousands of fabric rolls we have kicking around and found a really nice beige/sienna ultra suede that also happened to be fireproof.
After much debating we decided to go buy a quart of contact cement, in hope that the brushing might smooth down the insulation and provide a contact for the fabric. Here's the swath we cut held up by wall upholstery battons.

Started with the glue at the windshield , glued and spread the fabric about 1 foot back, and let it dry for 15ish minutes, supported by the battons. Then rolled up the fabric from the hatch forward and glued patches of about 6" working towards the rear, from where we left off on the front

Finishing up on the hatch

Finished !!! A little wrinkly on the edges, but we ran out of glue as we finished near the hatch, so we just pushed it into the trim and we'll get to it later.

The difference is phenomenal, even just mentally, it's been driving me nuts for so long.

 

[chedisme]

That looks really good.

 

[WarGin]

New carb is in!!

Runs so much smoother, no hesitation or sputtering!
And my choke finally works!!
Power is definetly much improved, it's a steady cruise to 45-50 whereas before it would rocket to 20 then crawl to speed.
The only issue is that I noticed that it seems to want more, after the install the pedal moved to half the original distance from the floor, so I'm bottoming out the gas pedal. Gonna try and take care if that tomorrow.
Final very dirty engine bay shot!

 

[Andy in Pa.]

I see you put a fuel filter near the carb. Did the older Jeeps have one down along the frame rail near the tank?

 

[WarGin]

Mine doesn't although I'm sure that doesn't mean anything. It's the 3 pronged styled with the return integrated.

Found out that the throttle cable is too long and the slack is causing the pedal to be close to the floor. Don't feel like messing with the carb anymore so I'm just getting a cable stopper and pulling the slack through the pedal.