Project elcheapo 4x4 trail rig

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21willys

21willys

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 8, 2011
Messages
2,751
My boys and I are gonna build this rolled over jeep Cherokee into a low buck trail rig.



Don't worry, these stands are just for a few minutes till my big ones get here.

The plans:
4" home built lift kit
33x12.50" bf goodrich all terrain tires. (I may have to widen the stock wheels)
Cut or remove front fenders
Home built winch bumper
Roll cage
Welded rear diff.
And maybe a few other mods as we go.

We just want to be able to go down some of the easy trails at Easter jeep week in Moab Utah this Easter.
 
Those 4.0 sixes are about bulletproof. Had a Grand Cherokee, with the exception of the throttle position sensor having to be replaced every 6-8 months, that six just kept on a humming along.
 
Willowbilly3 said:
Lots of followers of those Jeeps, cheap fun. 33x12.50s might be a bit much.
Click to expand...

It had 31 10.50s on it now and it's at stock height.



This is the 33 beside the 31. They should be ok. Worse case is I may need some deeper dish wheels.
 
These jeeps are unibody so no body lift. The 4" suspension lift should be plenty for the 33s. The only reason I'm running the 33s is because I already have them and don't have anything in them. If they are a issue I'll look for some 31s.



Yesterday we got all the leafs pulled out of the rear except the mains. We will be using the stock mains from the jeep with leafs from a 80s s10 under them. The s10 leafs have a stronger arch to them so we cut the ends of the main off and will use the entire s10 stack under the jeep main. We would of got the leafs back together but when we went to town to get new center pins when ran into problems.. None of the kids at the parts stores even knew what a center pin was. I went to four stores to find someone who knew what one was and luckily they had them in stock.

My oldest boy (48wilys) got introduced to a slide hammer for the first time. I don't believe he's a fan of it lol.


My youngest boy wants to help so bad that he can't stand it. So he got the job of stripping all the plastic off that's going to get ripped off anyway.


Nothing fancy or really cool on this build. But it's nice to be able to wrench a little bit with my boys.


I'll snag some pics when I get back home next weekend. I'm heading to Montana this week so it's on hold.
 
"Nothing fancy or really cool on this build. But it's nice to be able to wrench a little bit with my boys."

That's the really cool part is working with the family....
 
Nothing really picture worthy but I finally got the rear spring in. I still have to get a new rubber brake line and get new shocks. I had planned on just moving the shock mount on the rearend and reusing the stock shocks. But it appears it has the wrong shocks on it cause they only have about 2" of downward travel.

Now I'm fighting a electrical problem. It starts fine but only runs a few minutes and dies. When it dies it don't have any fuel pressure at the fuel rail. If you let it sit for a day or so it will do the same thing again. Any ideas?
 
Two things come to mind.
1. The obvious fuel pump going out.
2. My daughters 01 Escape started doing this. I got the idea of switching the fuel pump relay with the ac fan relay (or any available) dobbed some dielectric grease on the legs and wallah no more problem.
 
Awesome!

Old Iron beat me to the obvious places to start looking.

Also

Check out the pics on page 3 for a couple of my old Cherokees.
in my current project thread HERE

The second one is 36s on 9" of lift, but the first and last ones are 35s on 4.5" of lift, so 33s on 4" should be fine as long as you don't mind trimming a bit, which it sounds like you dont [cl

Can't wait to see more
 
Old Iron said:
Two things come to mind.
1. The obvious fuel pump going out.
2. My daughters 01 Escape started doing this. I got the idea of switching the fuel pump relay with the ac fan relay (or any available) dobbed some dielectric grease on the legs and wallah no more problem.
Click to expand...

That was the first thing I tried. It didn't change anything though.
 
You might try disconnecting the fuel line at the carb and see if you have good flow when the motor is turned over if it's a mechanical pump. If it's an electric pump, just turn the power on to it. This will let you know if you have some sort of blockage either in filters or tank or lines. If this Jeep has been sitting long, it might just be a rust problem.
 
rolled over , and if electric pump may just need reset ? which shouldnt start at all really . if electric you should be able to take off gas cap and hear it run for a few seconds then shut off , (that means its primed up) no fuel pressure pionts two bad pump or clogged filter , or line
 
I should of added that we have drove this thing for a couple hours since it was rolled. We drive it to the spot where we lifted the rear and now it will run for just a few minutes at a time. I added 5 gallons of gas just to make sure it hadn't just leaked out. But it didn't change anything.
 
Check your relay by pin/terminal to the pump. (Is it a common Bosch relay?)

I don't know your Jeep's system, but the relay could tell the pump to "prime", but not to "run" as the electronic sequence may dictate. :mad:

I had this problem with my Chevy diesel and in that case, the ignition switch was weak and failed to supply a "run" signal to the relay. The truck started and ran for a short time... or a long time... but sooner or later the injection pump would starve and the truck would stall... different from your issue, but possibly alike where the relay is hot for the start but cold in run...

.
 
You say that it ran before the lift???
Check for a broken ground or add a ground from the tank to the chassis
 

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