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Time to get the Jeep dirty! Register or log in to join the fun. If you don't, it's really your loss. There are good, knowledgeable people here. Some odd ones too, but most are o.k....
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Little Red (T.J.'s XJ)

+7
CrawlingForward
Tonellin
Scarytallman
Jake
dongalonga
Andrew Miller
THOOPY3
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Post  THOOPY3 10/1/2015, 9:56 am

As promised, here's a photo of what the seats look like installed. They don't quite match the coloring of my interior, but I couldn't really give a damn about that.

Little Red (T.J.'s XJ) - Page 9 2015-110

I also have a slight update to the recline motor issue. I discovered yesterday that the lumbar function on the passenger seat does in fact work. I was under the impression that only the recline worked and that the lumbar motor was attached to the WJ seat base (which I don't have), so needless to say this was a nice find. Neither the recline or lumbar functions on the driver seat worked when I had it hooked up to the power lead over the weekend, and I find the odds that both of those motors are cooked to be very slim. I'm now thinking that either the switch panel is no good or there's a sliced wire somewhere in the seat's wiring harness.

The cool thing is that the switch panels for driver and passenger seats are interchangeable, so if the rain holds off for a few hours this weekend I'm going to hook up the wiring for the driver seat and try the working passenger switch on that side. If the functions magically work, I know my issue and can buy a replacement switch for like $25 on Rock Auto. If not, I'll have to pop the seat out and start looking for broken wires. If somehow it does turn out that the motor(s) is the issue, I'm definitely going the junkyard route because a replacement motor from Chrysler/Mopar is $217, which after tax is about half of what I paid for the Jeep so that's not happening.
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Post  Tonellin 10/1/2015, 10:37 am

Awesome work...what a pain in the ass
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Post  THOOPY3 10/4/2015, 4:52 pm

After trying the driver's side switches on the passenger side and discovering that they all functioned I decided yesterday to tear into the wiring on the driver seat to search for any breaks.

I removed the seat and removed the factory split tubing and tape to check things out. I discovered that there were no breaks in any of the wiring. What I did find was that the harness' main power lead split off into three different leads further down the loom: one went to the lumbar control and the other two went into the wiring harness for the memory module. That immediately got the gears working in my head. As I examined the memory module wiring harness I noticed that there was a red/blue wire that comes out of it and immediately takes a 90* turn and runs into the wiring harness for the recline motor. It is the only wire in common between those two harnesses; that combined with it being red immediately made me think that it controls the power for the motor.

I wasn't under the impression that the memory module needed to be hooked up when installing the seat, but luckily Shaun gave me the memory module when I grabbed the seats from him. So I grabbed the module, plugged in the appropriate harnesses, and brought the seat back out to the Cherokee to give it a go. Once I had all the wiring in place, I hit the switch for the seat recline and watched in great pleasure as the seat moved itself. I did my happy dance for a bit, then got to bolting the seat in place.

The memory module comes installed in a metal bracket that fits under the seat and slips over the two front seat mounting bolts. Unfortunately, however, the memory module is offset in the bracket and because of this doesn't clear the seat slider on the factory Cherokee base. My solution to this was to remove the module from the bracket and attach it to the bottom of the seat with zip ties. It's a bit hack, but there was just no way to make that bracket work and the memory unit must be installed towards the front of the seat because of the locations of the harnesses that plug into it (or you risk putting some serious strain on wiring that has been in the same position for the last 11+ years).

So I can now definitively say for anyone wondering/searching the internet for answers: in order to get a 10-way power WJ driver seat to work in a different vehicle you need to install the memory module along with it or provide power to the red/blue wire that exits the orange memory module wiring harness and enters the recline motor harness. (I cannot however comment on whether or not there is a ground wire that must be accessed in the recline motor harness to make it function as I used the main seat harness ground and have full functionality.)

Once everything was taken care of with the seat I got to removing the center console to re-position the seat heater wiring and drill out holes to install their switches. I used a 7/8 hole saw on the plastic and it made some seriously quick work of it. The holes were just small enough to hold the switches properly, but I used some clear Permatex to make sure they wouldn't move around down the road. I forgot to grab a photo of the switches installed, but I'd say everything turned out pretty clean and that they fit right in where they are. I'll try to grab a photo and post it up tomorrow.

As things stand right now the only major projects left to take care of are replacing the upper and lower control arms and installing a Rusty's drop transmission crossmember. There are a few small things like replacing the rear wiper motor and installing the trailer hitch I bought awhile back. I may also undertake a project to create a storage box/tire carrier for the cargo area during the winter, but that's not set in stone either. Hopefully going forward I'll be able to focus most of my efforts (and funds) to beefing up the YJ some more. The Cherokee sure has come a long way in a year though.
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Post  dongalonga 10/5/2015, 4:33 pm

Glad it worked out.
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Post  THOOPY3 11/9/2015, 2:42 pm

I finally got around to replacing the upper control arms and bushings this past weekend. I've known for a while that they were the cause of a number of my steering ailments, and now that the new ones are on my hypothesis was certainly correct. The steering is remarkably tighter and the lovely clunks that have been present around every turn for quite awhile are no longer. I went the cheap route and just picked up some Crown factory replacements which are fine for my needs since the Cherokee will be wheeled very infrequently.

The low-speed vibrations I was experiencing have also all but disappeared, unfortunately I'm still experiencing decent vibrations from about 55-65 mph. I knew that it was a long-shot that those vibes were from the arms but a guy can dream. I'll be addressing them with a Rusty's 1" drop crossmember (combined with the already in-place 1" drop). I'll be driving the thing to Ottawa at the beginning of January and I'd like to have all the steering geometry and vibe issues taken care of by that point. I'll also be picking up some adjustable lower control arms to help fix the caster and pinion angles and to tighten up the steering even further. Right now I'm leaning towards Iron Rock Offroad arms, but anything will be better than the fixed Rough Country arms that are on there now.

The nice thing about this job this was having access to a lift and air tools courtesy of the mechanic who I've been using for about a year now. I've never personally used a lift and I've got to say that it really does make a world of difference when doing this kind of work. I had every intention of my old man and I doing most of the work but my mechanic was kind enough to help out every step of the way so everything went pretty smoothly. A few bucks and a 12-pack of donuts tossed his way for breakfast and we were square for roughly 3 hours worth of work. The only real hang up came after the right arm was unbolted and the whole front end shifted to the left a few inches (thanks previous owner for installing a 6.5" lift and reusing the stock track bar). After struggling to get things lined up with a come-along we decided to try putting the thing back on the ground, and that did the trick. Once I decide what arms I'm going with the plan is to get it back on the lift and make quick work of that job as well.

Little Red (T.J.'s XJ) - Page 9 Contro10

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THOOPY3
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Post  desertzj 11/9/2015, 3:13 pm

new bushings make a world of difference lol. And yea since I started working in a shop I've not only learned a ton, but access to lifts and not only my tools, but the guys are kind enough to let me borrow theirs if I need it, makes any job much easier. Doing front and rear axles on a friends TJ, lift and air tools or I wouldnt have done it haha.

About the track bar, always re-install on the ground. I basically have started with taking the track bar off the axle side before I do anything else if I'm doing suspension work. Back on the ground (especially if lift height isn't changing) you can turn the wheels to help line the hole back up again. Or if you're alone a ratchet strap or a 2nd person pushing the jeep helps too haha.
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Post  THOOPY3 12/7/2015, 11:07 am

A little more progress has been made on the front suspension front. Topher and I were finally able to link up about a week ago so I could grab the adjustable uppers, lowers, and track bar that he was selling. The uppers are Rough Country, the lowers are Rough Country with Teraflex ends, and the track bar is a JKS. Everything is nice and beefy and in good shape, the only issue was flaky paint and rust on the lowers. Nothing an 80 grit sanding disc on an angle grinder couldn't handle.

Before:

Little Red (T.J.'s XJ) - Page 9 Lowers10

During (I didn't really focus as much on the ends since they're mostly unseen):

Little Red (T.J.'s XJ) - Page 9 Lowers11

After:

Little Red (T.J.'s XJ) - Page 9 Lower_10

The lowers and the track bar will be going on in a few weeks and should greatly improve overall handling, and the arms will definitely help with the caster and front pinion angle. The unreal improvement I felt after just changing the upper arms and bushings makes me think that it will be like a whole new vehicle once these mods are made.

To help the rear pinion angle I ordered a Rusty's 1" drop crossmember. There's currently a 1" spacer drop already on the crossmember, but the pinion angle is still not great and there's a lot of stress on the t-case output shaft and yoke, rear shaft, and pinion yoke. I'm hoping that combining them will eliminate those issues as well as the vibes from 50-60 mph and decent clunk I get from axle wrap during heavy acceleration and deceleration. Before anyone says it: yes, I know that the proper solution to this is a slip yoke eliminator and a slip shaft. But since I won't be wheeling this Jeep I can't/won't justify the money or effort involved in making that happen (that sort of money and effort is what the YJ is for Twisted Evil). I just hope that a 2" drop won't drastically affect any/all shift linkages, but I won't really know until it's bolted up.
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Post  THOOPY3 12/27/2015, 3:53 pm

So in the last week I've gotten the drop crossmember, adjustable track bar, and adjustable control arms installed. As you would expect almost nothing went according to plan, but as it stands today they are all installed and the Cherokee drives much smoother than it did a week ago.

I never really bought into the idea of a track bar being the culprit for a front end wobble, but I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong. The adjustable JKS bar (combined with the previously installed drop pitman arm) brings all the steering components back into alignment with one another, and the fresh bushings and flex joint in the JKS bar make a world of difference. Add in fresh bushings and flex ends in the control arms and what you get is a much more solid feel in the steering and a shake-free steeling wheel up through 80 mph (I didn't take it any further because it is a lifted Jeep after all).

My driveline vibes are still present but I'm hoping to take care of those soon by combining the crossmember and spacers together to lower things to about 1.5 inches total. As I learned doing the crossmember work this may not be possible because of clearance issues with the exhaust, but I'm hopeful we can make it happen.
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