First Jeep, first major project!

[Christiansok]

Hopefully this weekend I'll be picking up my 1979 Jeep Cherokee Chief W/T from my uncle's to bring it home. He's used it the past 2-3 winters as a plow truck and has always wanted to build it up into something more but has too many projects of his own. I've spent the majority of the summer looking for that perfect project, following countless leads and traveling around to look at some rigs that leave a lot to be desired. Turns out the perfect candidate was less than 5 minutes away at a relative's house! Well that's just how things go...

Anyways, I was looking to buy an original shop manual and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. Also, would anyone recommend/discourage the shop manuals available on CD-ROM as opposed to books? Any tips would be helpful and I hope to post some decent pics once I get it back to my house. Thanks in advance!

[Tornado230]

Some manuals are available as a re-print.
I don't know if BJ's has any available or not. Check with them or Z & M.
There are a few advertisers in "Hemmings" that carry them also.
An original will be expensive. A friend of mine paid $95 for one.
I am not familiar with the CD versions.

[Gambler68]

Shop Manuals are cool but a TSM will get you by. They run about 25-50 bux. They always pop up on ebay..take a look on Abebooks.com as well, may find a copy cheaper. Jeep Technical Service Manual.

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=Jeep+Technical+Service+Manual&x=0&y=0 don't see a 79 though..alot changed from 78 to 79 so that's out..complete drivetrain changes happend in 82 I do believe.

here ya go:


http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_kw=jeep&_kw=service&_kw=manual&_kw=1979&_ckw=technical&_ipg=&_trksid=p3286.m104.l1199

[Christiansok]

Looks like BJs has good deals on reprint service manuals, only $80 and free shipping where as Z&Ms service manuals are $160 :(. Thanks for the tip, I've been on BJs site before but didn't even think to look for manuals while I was there!

Edit: thanks for the ebay link gambler thats even cheaper! And I think these were the types of manuals I was looking for, just worded it wrong.

[Christiansok]

Well I decided to put up some pics of the Cherokee with the plow still on it, might be a lil large...

Edit: looking at the pic guidelines these are just a tad too big, links instead

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/LeftFront.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/RightFront.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/Engine.jpg

[aallison]

From what I understand the CD versions are scanned from the FSM's. But the scan might not be very good and the picts are not reproduced well.

But for 10 bucks or so, I'd give them a try.

[orangebike]

looks shiny:thumbsup:

[Tad]

That's one heck of a clean looking plow rig.

[donniesoup]

rockauto.com i t ink its $59.

[fulsizjeep]

Welcome from Colorado! :fsj:
Another family heirloom. :thumbsup:

[TK421]

Hi folks. My name is Flint and I am a Jeepaholic. It's not even here yet and I can't stop searching the net and daydreaming. Just bought a 74 j10 258 6 cyl...pretty much stock and in good shape. Like other noobs I am looking for a place to start...manuals, advice etc. It looks like there are alot of smart folks and nice rigs here, any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[fulsizjeep]

Wait a sec, MY name is Flint and I am a Jeepaholic...
And I used to live in Charlotte, NC - WOW -

Welcome Flint of Charlotte from Flint of Mancos! :thumbsup:

[loganvilledude]

Hopefully this weekend I'll be picking up my 1979 Jeep Cherokee Chief W/T from my uncle's to bring it home. He's used it the past 2-3 winters as a plow truck and has always wanted to build it up into something more but has too many projects of his own. I've spent the majority of the summer looking for that perfect project, following countless leads and traveling around to look at some rigs that leave a lot to be desired. Turns out the perfect candidate was less than 5 minutes away at a relative's house! Well that's just how things go...

Anyways, I was looking to buy an original shop manual and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. Also, would anyone recommend/discourage the shop manuals available on CD-ROM as opposed to books? Any tips would be helpful and I hope to post some decent pics once I get it back to my house. Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the forum and good luck with the project. Check this link out for manuals.

http://thejeep.com/shop/TECH+MANUALS/

[Christiansok]

Quick question: Ideally I'd like my Cherokee to be sitting on 35's some day but I just can't sacrifice those W/T flares, I love em. Is it possible to fit 35's with just a lift kit or a combination of suspension lift and body lift thats resonable? I wouldn't mind settling on 33's but the idea of 35's just seems cooler haha. So how much lift would it take to get 35's under the jeep without trimming the fenders? (The trucks gonna be my summer cruiser, most likely it will rarely see any trail driving)

[Carleysjeep]

That is a cool cherokee you have there. Are those the wagon whels on it or the slotted GM type?
Here is a pic of will e cherokee. It has 35's soa on front not sure of the rear springs.
http://api.photoshop.com/home_92f35a9a23894892820cdaebf0976173/adobe-px-assets/34a272fbdc9047d3b4fc647c7770c885

[Christiansok]

That is a cool cherokee you have there. Are those the wagon whels on it or the slotted GM type?
Here is a pic of will e cherokee. It has 35's soa on front not sure of the rear springs.

Nah they're just some generic white wagon wheels, its got 31x10.50 tires on it at the moment but they're in rough shape. I saw in the 'what fits, what hits' thread that sittingbull managed to fit 35x12.5 tires on a W/T (no trimming) with a 4" lift in front, 6" lift in rear +3" body lift. Would you just buy a 4" lift with front/rear springs then get some extra rear blocks for the other 2"? And does anyone have any pics of a wagoneer/cherokee with a 2" higher lift in the rear? Kinda interested to see what the stance looks like.

[Christiansok]

Well I got to drive the Cherokee home today after disconnecting the plow and getting the bumper put back on. Boy did the front end appreciate the weight lifted off it. The drive home was pretty interesting with the alignment and it really likes to turn left when braking. Hopefully tomorrow morning I'll be able to start cleaning it up and assess what needs to be done. If I have time I'll try to get some pics up.

[wickedwagon767]

congratulations man

I'm exited for you

To fit 35's all you need is a 6" lift. You don't need a body lift. You can get 6" by either using 6" front/rear leaf springs , like those that they sell at www.bjsoffroad.com (http://www.bjsoffroad.com) (a business that I HIGHLY recommend, they are great) or by doing whats called "SOA" spring-over-axle. The front leaf springs that suspend the truck are mounted under the axle,by flipping them on top you get about 6-7" of lift. You can then lift the rear 6" with springs or by doing whats called a "shackle flip" where you keep the stock leaf springs (if you want to) and flip the mounting brackets for them down to give you about 7" of lift.

The 6" spring lift is not as complicated as the SOA/shackle flip

[wickedwagon767]

The drive home was pretty interesting with the alignment and it really likes to turn left when braking. Hopefully tomorrow morning I'll be able to start cleaning it up and assess what needs to be done. If I have time I'll try to get some pics up.

you might have a sticky caliper or iffy ball joints up front.

Great looking Cherokee. Must have been painted AFTER plow season:cool:

[Christiansok]

Well took some time to clean the Chero this morning before I have to go out of town for a wedding (boy I'm gonna miss it haha). Turns out the truck wasn't only a plow truck but also doubled as a mouse hotel? Who knew...But here are some pics of the outside after a good washing and with the bumper mounted on.

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/CleanCherokee2.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/CleanCherokee3.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/CleanCherokee4.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/CleanCherokee.jpg

[will e]

Wow, that's a nice looking rig. The paint scheme is just like mine.

a 6" spring lift will do the trick for 35" tires. And it is easier than a soa/sf. However, ride quailty is impacted because the springs are much stiffer and more arched. That means a stiffer ride.

[Christiansok]

I don't think a stiffer ride would bother me all that much if the Chero is just my summer cruiser. Looks like I'm going to have to start saving for a 6" kit from BJs. What width would a 6" spring lift make room for tire wise? 10.5, 11.5, 12.5??

[Christiansok]

Well after getting back in town I finally had a decent chunk of time to work on the Chero. I got the rear window working a little more smoothly but when the rear gate was replaced they didn't quite line it up so it doesn't latch as smoothly as I'd like. Just another project to add to the list at this point. I took the carpet out in the back (can't get the rubber mats out until I get a large star head screwdriver/allen wrench) and got the headliner taken out along with the huge stash of acorns and a dead mouse to boot! Gotta love vehicles that have been sitting for awhile.

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/100_0652.jpg

I'd like to herculiner at least the back cargo area and under the rear seat, up to the lip in the floor. I would just herculiner the floors from front to back but I think I'd need something more to keep up some of the heat/noise up front. Anyone have any suggestions about what to do with the floor? The gross red carpet definetly has to go!

[jpcoutts]

Sweet Cherokee! Welcome... to the madness.

I say keep it stock.

[Christiansok]

Well I got some time and some nice weather after work today to try and get the front seats removed, the front carpet out and get those pesky rear seatbelts out. I managed to loosen one of the rear seat belt bolts but the other won't budge without a good soaking so it'll have to wait :(. I moved on to taking out the front seats with a little more success. :thumbsup:

Here's the interior before I started taking anything out, front and back:
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/InteriorFrontBefore.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/InteriorBackBefore.jpg

The passenger side seat's bolts were not as rusted as the drivers side but still put up a good fight. After soaking the drivers side rusted bolts in some WD-40, then bolt blaster then taking a torch to them a little bit I wasn't making any progress on them so left em for another day :(. So the carpet stayed in but I hope to get the drivers seat out tomorrow after work then get that grungy carpet outta there.

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/SeatRemoval2.jpg

Eventually I'd like to replace the sorry excuse for a center seat with a center console. Has anyone done a swap like this and know a make/model that I can swap in for a good fit?:confused:

I took a walk around one of the area junkyards and found a couple good looking canidates, both out of 90's blazers.


http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/CenterConsoles2.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/CenterConsoles5.jpg

Also when I was crawling under the Jeep in the back trying to lube up the rear seat belt bolts from the bottom I snapped some pics of a bracket holding one end of the rear leaf spring. I know it'll need replacing. The rear section of my frame is going to get some serious fabricating to fix up some bad spots but I don't think I'll be able to fab up these brackets with any success. What are these brackets called? (rear shackles??) and where can I get some replacement stock ones? Thanks ahead of time.

Rear leaf spring brackets:
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/RearShackle-1.jpg

[Tad]

...What are these brackets called? (rear shackles??) and where can I get some replacement stock ones? Thanks ahead of time.

Rear leaf spring brackets:
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/RearShackle-1.jpg Most folks here just call them the new style box mount hangers (as opposed to the older post mount ones).
I think I may have some.
I'll have to check when I get home this afternoon.

[Christiansok]

One of my buddies stopped over after work to do a little wrenching with me on the Jeep and we managed to get a lot of work done. The bolts holding the back seat belts still won't budge so the rubber is stuck in the back for now. But we did manage to get the last two rusted bolts out using just about every tool I own haha. Once the driver seat was out I pulled out the carpet. The drivers side came up real easy, no real surprises under the floor, looked real solid. I started pulling up the passenger side, it came up easy enough, the floor looked pretty good but looking closer I saw it was swarming with ants. Tons of tiny ants pretty much took over the passenger side floor and I spent a good deal of time vacuuming them up before I started to tear at the carpet again. Here's some pics of the floor once everything was tore out.

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/FrontCarpetRemoved2.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/FrontCarpetRemoved3.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/FrontCarpetRemoved.jpg

One thing I noticed is there is a replacement panel on the passenger side which is fine. But along the edges of the carpet in the front and also along the edges/wheel wells in the back it almost looked like its patched with fiberglass. I took a magnet to these patches to see if it would stick and it did but it seemed a little weaker. I'll try to get a good clear picture up to show you what I'm talking about. If it isn't fiberglass I'm guessing it is just glued fibers from the carpet bottom that stuck when I tore it out. Anyways time will tell once I start to clean up the floor. Its nice to finally have the carpet out and see exactly what I've got to work with under there.:thumbsup:

[Christiansok]

Just a little update: The back seat is out as well as the front and back seat belts finally. The only thing left to take out is the drivers side floor shoulder belt roller. Its going to be a lot of fun because it took some searching to even find the bolt head cuz its has just rusted so much it became one with the bracket :(...

[Carleysjeep]

Just a little update: The back seat is out as well as the front and back seat belts finally. The only thing left to take out is the drivers side floor shoulder belt roller. Its going to be a lot of fun because it took some searching to even find the bolt head cuz its has just rusted so much it became one with the bracket :(...

And the adventure continues! Hang in there Kyle you will get it!
of course by then you may not want it. lol

[Christiansok]

Any suggestions about cleaning all the interior metal? The passenger side it looks like they put grease or something all around the edge of the patch panel they put in...I was thinking of trying a flap disk or something to clean things up? I dont have a sandblaster or anything like that...

[Christiansok]

Forgot to post an update but I figured I'd wait until I've got the interior really clean looking. I took some citrus degreaser to the tar on the passenger side and it worked like a charm. I starded to clean up the fiberglass on the floor and some of the surface rust on the drivers side. After about 10 mins sanding that with a flap disk the dust was outta control. I'm hoping to put a tarp or something over the door to trap the dust inside. Dad wasn't too thrilled about the nice layer of dust sitting on his camaro :( but it was his idea to get the Jeep in the shop cuz the passenger side door weather stripping was leaking so ha! :thumbsup:

I'll try and get some pics up if I get some time to work on it thursday or friday. Til then :drivin:

[jeepjerry]

Pretty nice looking Cherokee you've got there! Ive got an '80 chief. What area of WI are you in?

Too bad the original front seats arent in it. Im always up for leaving the stock interiors in these things. Jeep used really cool upholstry. May be ugly to some but its so unique. By the looks in the pics, i think both sides of the floor pans have been replaced. Someone has painted the black up the sides of the transmission tunnel. No big deal, most restored vehicles have new floor pans.

If you dont plan on off-roading this thing excessively, a 4" lift will allow you to swing 35" tires. My brother ran 35" tires on his j-10 for long time with a 4".

[Christiansok]

I live in Wisconsin Rapids and go to school in Platteville.



If you dont plan on off-roading this thing excessively, a 4" lift will allow you to swing 35" tires.


Thats kinda what I figured but I'll probably just be safe and get a 6" that way I won't have to worry about it...plus it'll look that much cooler haha

[Christiansok]

Got some pics to update with finally :thumbsup:.

This is where I was working on the Jeep before
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/OutsideSpot.jpg
And where I get to work on it now, muuuuch better
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/NewSpot.jpg


Here's some before/after pictures of the tar on the passenger side, came out looking pretty nice

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/PassengerFloorBefore.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/PassengerFloorAfter.jpg

I took an 80 grit flap disc and a grinding disc to the drivers side to clean up some spots and see exactly what kinda shape it was in...heres a before pic
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/DriverFloorBefore.jpg

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/DriverFloorAfter2.jpg

Found a little rust hole behind one of the bolt holes for the seat so I figured I'd take a whack at cutting it out. My first time cutting any metal with a cut off wheel on an angle grinder, turned out pretty well I thought :thumbsup:
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/SmallRustHoleBefore.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/SmallRustHoleAfter.jpg

Also I took the exhaust pipe off from the muffler back a couple of weeks ago, tip is all rusted plus the bend has some big kinks in it...
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/christiansok/RearPipe.jpg
sounds much better with it off, I could post a movie of the exhaust sound before/after but I figure I've flooded this thread with enough pics already :D