The Little Red Wagon...

P

Petej

New member
Back Story:

I bought the Jeep as replacement for my '93 Sonoma (with the infamous Failed CPI unit) in Late 2014.

In truth, this is my second XJ, my first one was an '87 2dr that was beat to snot by the U.S. National Park service as a Ranger Vehicle.


It was mildly built (budget boost with junk yard parts), but the parts weren't the greatest quality and were removed before I sold it. The only thing I wish I had really saved was the D44 rear end.


The 1996 XJ was bone stock, pavement princess status when purchased.

1996 XJ
4.0L
AW4
NP231
Chrysler 8.25 Rear







Some D30 U-joint goodness? It started as a minor front end squeak when cornering....


I ended using a sledge hammer and my bench vise to change out the joints. Bleep'n Jeep has a great video series on how to change out axle joints without a press. They helped me greatly.

After winning a three year long court battle against a Debt Collection agency, I had the funds to follow my dream of building an XJ the way I wanted.

Since I lack some of the tooling in the home shop, the lift and tires were installed by 4wheel parts in Portland Oregon.

Rubicon Express 3.5" Super Ride
RE 1600 Track Bar
Goodyear Wrangler Duratrak 31x10.50's








Next came the Smittybilt XRC Rear bumper with Tire carrier.





This is every bit of about a 100 lbs...


Leveling and fitment


Job done. I haven't installed the fender armor yet, I'll do that soon.


SYE and new rear driveline after Transfer Case rebuild. It wasn't pretty inside there...


Front Bumper coming soon.
 
Linebacker said:
Excellent start. Best of luck with the remainder of the build.:yup:
Click to expand...

CandAMudders said:
Great photos, looks fantastic with the new rubber and bumper...looking forward to more...
Click to expand...

Thank you thank you!

I have some maintenance to do this coming weekend. I have a failed Pinion bearing in the Rear end (Chrysler 8 1/4), a failed fan clutch and a failed Oil Pressure Sending unit.

Since the door trim came off, it left the black applique behind, which is now peeling. I'll be removing it with a heat gun, then repainting the lower doors from the trim line down with truck bed liner, and repainting the red trim stripe to give it the factory look again.

I've been accused of being overly detail oriented....
 
Due to life and related things, I haven't gotten much done lately.

Ordered some floor liners, picked up a few things here and there and got around to getting them all mounted and out away.

Tire carrier now fully populated. Tire cover on, fixed the Hi-lift angle situation, Tire Chocks and Jerry can mounted as well.


Got a tote to hold the tool box and related things.


 
Not much done besides drive the Jeep for the last couple weeks.

Got an alarm installed, ran into an issue with not having rear door switches, which a trip to the wrecking yard sorted out quite nicely. It seems that Mopar cheaped out on the lesser optioned models and didn't install rear dome light switches. You will have to so some hunting for the correct harness connector, or use bullet connectors like I did on the driver side. The passenger side had nearly no extra wire length for modification, so I had to hunt down a factory connector to plug it in directly. The body harness does have female connectors installed, but the jamb switches are universal on the wire end. The newer XJ's use an isolated switch with it's own power and ground, whereas the older XJ's use a ground only switch (GM style). I found that a CHMSL male connector works with the body harness connector. I nabbed the one of my hatch, since I don't use the CHMSL anymore due to my spare tire location. I run a Hitch receiver mounted third tail light as a replacement for the missing light. I would have grabbed a second CHMSL connector, but someone already cut the one of the donor vehicle. The only other XJ in the yard was an 87, minus the rear hatch.

The body side connection for the dome light as accessible by pulling back the rubber boot for the door wiring and then fishing it out.




While I was there I picked up some other Miscellaneous pieces. Undamaged Console armrest, rear wiper motor and the aforementioned switches.

 
Sorry for the lack of updates. Life caught up with me!

Not much has happened with the build as of late. Family emergencies, work and life seem to have taken over. :crazyeyes:

I am working on some ideas for cargo area storage though.

The current storage solution::eek:


I had a rudimentary cargo shelf in the '87, but it really didn't function well. No drawers, no dividers and since the tire was inside, had to be removable. Since I now run an exterior spare on the '96, I plan on making this one permanent, or as close to as I can get.



A rough sketch of the proposed cargo area organizer:


Any hints, thoughts and ideas would be appreciated. :yup:
 
Just a little update.....

Not sure why my wheeling adventure in late 2015 didn't make it in, but I'll fill you all in.

In November of 2015, I ran with a Pistons Wild Motorsport out to Ladee Flats in Estaca, Oregon.

The trails are rated as Moderate, with the features rated at extreme in some cases.

I don't have much in the way of pictures or video of my driving, but I do have a couple Staging area shots




Since then, not much has happened. I had an art project involving my door panels, more specifically the Speaker grilles. They were cracked, broken and most of the louvers were gone.
A few minutes with a file and some epoxy and expanded decorative mesh and we have these:





From there I found (quite frighteningly) that rear brakes weren't working. It started out as a quick brake job and rolled into a giant can worms. Frozen Wheel cylinders, frozen adjusters and cooked linings.




While inspecting the left side brake, I discovered excess movement of the axle shaft. Off came the cover, and out came the shaft.




Out came the shaft bearings and this is what I found. I don't believe they're supposed to look like this.....


I'll have it all back together at some point this week or next. Work and life tend to get in the way. This doesn't rule out the possibility of still having a bad pinion bearing (long suspected that it's been going for awhile), but these should help.
 
So, the axle bearings didn't fix everything. The diff is still noisy, but much better.

I took a trip to go volunteer with a Beach cleanup on the SW Coast of Washington last month. Stayed a couple days at a KOA near the event, did LOTS of beach driving, toured some tourist traps and visited an old shipwreck.



The Black XJ belongs to a friend of mine.....








Shipwreck of the Peter Iredale.


I also did a thing today. A very major thing. One step closer to how I've envisioned the Red Wagon since the beginning.



 
updates....

Not much has changed with Red Wagon, but A LOT has changed with me.

I found an amazing supportive woman (by the name of Darby), who somehow decided that I was worth marrying, bought a nearly hundred year old house out on the SW Washington Coast, flopped Red Wagon on her side on a local trail ride (more on this later) and many other things.

We are working as a team on restoring her ‘68 Beetle, plus took on a joint venture restoring Castiel, our ‘94 ZJ.

Red Wagon recently crossed the 300k barrier and shortly after needed a fuel pump. Otherwise she’s still going just fine. Knock on wood.

I took a trail ride without a few friends out to a local trail system in late 2017 and while crossing a v notch, I lost track of how far off the ground I had the front corner of Red Wagon.

The flop was gentle enough that it didn’t really register until I looked out my window and my shoulder touched earth. 😱

Body damage was minimal, but I guess I needed to make that Jeepers right of passage, the first flop.

Red Wagon survived, but if you sight down her left side, the front fender, both doors and the rear quarter are a little wonky now.

I think the Bug has as many miles being towed as it does being driven since she and I started dating in 2017.

More updates will come as I resume activities within the forums.
 

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Thank you guys!

We’ve had some truly grand adventures.

From muddy mountain side treks to dry and dusty flatland for days at a time.
 
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One change happened today, new to me tires and wheels for Red Wagon.

I’ve been limping along on bald 31’s for months while I looked for larger tires that aren’t thrashed or stupidly expensive.

My buddy mentioned that he saw a set of 32’s on aluminum rims that were in a TJ....

The price was right, he went and picked them up for me yesterday and can’t thank him enough!

They clear all crucial parts, have 60% tread and hold air. Unlike my old 31’s.

I originally wasn’t sold on the rims, but after seeing them on Red Wagon, they’re here to stay.

My OE steel rims and 31’s have also seen better days. Rock rash, rust and peeling paint. Not a good look. Those are going on project Castiel s as “rollers” as neither my wife or myself like the rim combo and 33’s that are on Castiel. Not to mention the dry rot in the 33’s make them hazardous for road use. I already have a buyer for the 33’s, if only for the rims

Old and nasty
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Newer and better
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Thank you!

There isn’t a place in that XJ that I haven’t had my hands. With now over 300k on her, she needs some work again.


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Passenger side unit Bearing packed its bags today.

No biggie! Straight forward easy swap.

A couple hours later and we’re on the road again. Now all I have left is to replace the tires which are aging.

I’m going back down to 31x10.50 the 32’s affected gearing and handling a bit too much for my liking.

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