WJ build for outdoor fun

[J.M.]

I bought the '02 Grand in 2007 for the fact that it is spacious, off-road capable, offers car like comfort/interior and has a V8. After babying it to maintain resell value, I realized in 2012 that there was never a resell value to it (more or less). That kicked off the adventures off the road and consecutive upgrades.
This is my stock Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited V8 H.O. the day i picked it up:





I will also include information on repairs and 'standard' issues that i encountered over the years.
I want to share my ideas and experience from working on this vehicle, and document the progression. If you have any questions or recommendations, feel free to let me know.

[J.M.]

The first modifications came out of necessity of sorts. For one, we picked up camping and needed more room to comfortably fit all equipment and supplies for a family of 4. So i got Jeep load bars off of Ebay and mounted a basic Rola roof rack.
The other mod came because of a transmission fluid line (to the transmission oil cooler inside the radiator) that broke. The mechanic decided to replace the thin, specifically bend (around the upper control arm) line with a thick rubber oil hose. 2 weeks later, the control arm finally rubbed long enough to cut the hose. In order to get the hose out of the UCA reach i got a 2 inch budged boost and installed it along with a new oil hose.

before:


after BB install:


Problem solved and looks a lot better too.

Here, the rack fully packed on one of the camping trips:

[J.M.]

The 17" chrome rims were deteriorating, and in combination with the stock 235/65/17 not offering much sidewall. So I picked up 5 steel JK take offs in 16" and mounted up 265/70/16 tires.





After a while i added JKS sway bar disconnects and had to cut out the fender liner in the front. I rammed the front bumper's corners and fog lights into the ground on a couple instances, trying to take on obstacles with the tire. I never used the fog lights anyway, so i cut out the corners. Cutting the corners also required to relocate the washer reservoir. This is still not done correctly, and currently I am using a plastic bottle wedged between ABS block and fender. I will fix that eventually.



Around the same time, I also got the extension for the Rola roof rack. We accumulated too much equipment and gimmicks so I needed more storage space.





to be continued...

[The_War_Wagon]

Get to the GOOD point - the new stereo!!!

[J.M.]

The dual climate control broke early on. Passenger side blew only cold air. The usual thing that goes wrong, is that the plastic connection from the passenger side actuator to the blend door breaks. The dealer charges around 1K to replace the actuator/blend door. The low cost option is to cut into the air duct under the glove compartment and connect the passenger side blend door to the driver side blend door. Part kits for that can be found online for $80 - $90.

The dvd changer was taken out to make room for some quick fist clamps to hold equipment. I just ordered another one to mount the tow straps next to the first aid kit.



Talking of audio equipment, the stock head unit stopped playing CDs and did not offer an AUX input to hook up my phone. The_War_Wagon was selling a Radio out of a Commander that offers the needed AUX. Nothing can replace the tactile feedback of real knobs and buttons and so the cheap radios from Pioneer and so on were not an option. The Commander radio sits really tight in the WJ but works. I fab'ed a bezel for the radio, and now it looks pretty close to a stock setup.



Thanks to The_War_Wagon for the radio.

[J.M.]

Annoying problems:
The sunroof is opened/closed by a steel wire that runs on the sides of the frame. The frame is connected to the wire by a plastic bracket holding a 'bead' on the wire. That bracket broke and now the roof opens fine, but when trying to close, the bead runs forward without taking the glass pane with it. I have no intention to deal with this, so I pulled the fuse of the sunroof.

The radiator started leaking out of a little crack right below the upper hose connection elbow. I got very efficient in replacing the radiator, because i did it 3 times in 40 days. The first I bought from Napa and the tank-radiator seam started leaking after a week. I returned the radiator and got a new one. This one lasted about 2 weeks, before the plastic tank on one side cracked wide open. I lost all water. Luckily this happened as i was parking in front of my house. On the highway this could have been a blown head gasket. I returned the radiator and picked one up from the dealer ship. Warning: the Napa radiators all came with the rubber mounts already installed, and were returned the same way. The dealership radiator did not come with rubber mounts!
This radiator has lasted me 1.5 years so far with no signs of a problem. Way to go.
A word on replacing the radiator if you have a hydraulic fan:
You can slide the radiator out the top after you take off the front and disconnect all lines going to the radiator (coolant, transmission cooler). No need to disconnect AC condenser, hydraulic cooling fan, hydraulic fluid cooler.



You have to cut back the corners on top of the fan shroud to allow the radiator to come up. This does not have any negative effects on the cooling performance or anything else.



The power steering pump seems to go bad every 1.5 to 2 years. I had the first installed by a shop, don't know what brand aftermarket pump they used. It was dead again within 3 days. Got towed back to the shop, replaced it again, worked for about 2 years. I put the next one in myself. I bought it from Advance Autoparts. About 1.5 years in, it started to squeal for the first 5 minutes after startup. I figured i'll replace it before it breaks and i have to get towed again. Got a new one from Advance Autoparts. It's now 1 year old and runs fine, except when temperatures go below 20 in the winter. Then it screams like it has no fluid i it, which is not the case. No idea what is going on there.
I have changed the fluid after every replacement of the pump and have been trying different fluids every time. I did not notice any difference between different PS fluids and even the synthetic ATF i am running right now.

The camshaft/crankshaft position sensor went bad. This can manifest in 2 different ways. A check engine light while driving and not firing up after you turn it off, or check engine light and engine stalling while driving. The error code pointed out the camshaft sensor as faulty, but replacing the camshaft sensor did nothing to fix it. Replacing both sensors was the only cure. Really annoying, intermittent issue that can get you stranded easily. Mine just stalled randomly when the problem showed up, and I got towed twice because of this.

The e-brake lever ratcheting mechanism broke (release button shot out the front) and the brake would not stay engaged. I found a used e-brake lever assembly on ebay. Not too bad, but i have never seen this happening on any vehicle i had in my 21 years of automotive adventures.

The front rotors warp within 1000 miles of putting new ones on. My WJ has the ATE calipers, which get blamed for this issue. I did not do anything about it yet. I just hold on tight to the steering wheel when slowing down from highway speeds.

[J.M.]

The next couple modifications were a 'cold' air intake, removable rear seat cushions and a storage compartment in the spare tire well.
I build the intake from DIY intake pipes. Unfortunately they are aluminium, which defeats the purpose. They do not offer any insulation. All the heat in the engine compartment gets right through them to the intake air. I want to replace them with plastic ones from an Airaid U-Build-It kit in the future. Link (That will probably happen at the same time when i finally build a snorkel)
I cut the resonator in half and used it as heat shield and mounting point. The filter is suspended in the front, right behind the headlight. A short aluminum profile is supporting the duct work near the flange of the filter.





You can also see the plastic bottle that serves as washer reservoir (that is actually embarrassing).

The hinge pins of the rear seat cushions got drilled out and replaced with lock pins. When I fold the rear bench down, i can remove the seats, and free up extra storage behind the front seat.





The spare tire well offers a good amount of storage, but accessibility was an issue. The cover is too large and has no hinge or such. I cut a access door into it and braced the cover with a 2x4. Now i can access the storage area without removing the cover, and the door leans against the rear seats to stay open.

[J.M.]

My DIY awning:





A 4 foot section mounted to the roof rail, and another 4 foot section hinges towards the front from that. The other end is made up of 2 more sections, each 4 foot, hinged in a way so that they form a gable. 2 telescopic painters poles as legs and another one to stretch the tarp, from truck to gable. On calm days it can be used free standing without the guy lines. The gable part has the tarp and legs attached, you fold it in half, then roll up the tarp. It stores perfectly behind the rear seats where you would otherwise have a trunk cover.
The smallest possible package size for a 8x10 awning.

[J.M.]

Next up: 4" Rough Country X-Flex lift, JK take offs 255/75/17, 1.5 inch wheel spacers, adjustable front upper control arms and new steering stabilizer.







All this upgrades were spread out over a couple month, but fit together in one post nicely.
As always, you get what you pay for:
Rough Country is selling cheap, but less than desirable quality products, and so i had death wobble starting a few months after installing the lift. It turned out to be a worn heim joint on the adjustable track bar. I ordered a $12 heim from ebay, and look at the difference:





[rant] RC charges roughly $750 for the lift kit, and the joints used are worth nothing. [/rant]

Well, the Jeep is fun to drive, though.

[J.M.]

Fawkes Fabrication Standalone shackle tabs for WJ. They are solid!



Installation is easy, but you have to drill out one of the mounting holes in the frame. A step drill bit is highly recommended. They come with a plate for the inside of the frame for added support and are covered by awesome warranty: "If You Can Break It, We'll Replace It" UNLimited Lifetime Warranty





The front bumper did not require any cutouts to fit over them. Maybe a slight trimming of the edges, can't remember exactly.

[OverkillZJ]

I love moderately built grands!!! And by moderate, I mean anything that isn't hacked and caged, I wish I still had my ZJ on 35's before it ended up a too-heavy buggy on 42's, it just wasn't as much fun and too much work to play with.

[J.M.]

Summer was approaching and we planed for a 7 day camping trip to a remote area. In order to bring some meat for the grill i set out to install a fridge/freezer and the appropriate power source.
The specialized 12v offerings from ARB or Engel are not an option. $700+ is insane for something like that.
I picked up a 1.7 cu.ft. mini fridge from craigslist for $25 and went to town on it. I turned the compressor 90 degrees to be in the right orientation to use the fridge as a trunk style fridge (door on top). Mounted 4 feet on the back, moved the condenser around and moved the evaporator around slightly. Extra insulation between compressor and fridge keep the compressor from heating up the interior.
In order to power the fridge you need an inverter. A pure sine inverter is the only good option (I can provide more info on that if somebody is interested). The inverter i chose was the Xantrex SWProWatt 600. The factors for that were: temperature controled fan (only on when really needed), good peak power supply (measured, not what's printed on the box), remote control available.
The inverter was mounted behind the right (wider) bench, because the left would be folded down to accommodate the fridge.



The remote was installed in place of the switch for the heated seats (heated seats never worked).



The inverter can draw up to 50 amps from the battery under full load. This requires appropriate sized wiring (2 gauge) and short wire lenght (in my case 4 feet) between the battery and the inverter.
This is not something you want to run off your main battery and it also has to stay on over night when the vehicle is not running. So i installed additional batteries and an isolator module. The fancy turnkey battery management systems are going overboard in price and functionality. Way to many lights, bells and whistles. The functionality really needed is: charge the house batteries when the engine is running, separate them when the engine is off, solid state system for higher reliability (no wear on contacts and so on). A plus would be to manually override the system (emergency start) in case your main battery dies.
All of that is provided by the BEP VSR 710-300. It can switch loads up to 300 amps and withstand surges of 1200 amps for 3 seconds.



The extra batteries found a home in the spare tire well and are hooked up with 0 gauge wire. Yes, 0 gauge is necessary as we are looking at the possibility of a 140 amp alternator and a fully charged main battery pumping all they got towards 2 (fully depleted) batteries in the back.





I used poly-urethane foam to provide a larger surface area to support the battery trays.
The fridge is placed on a base that includes a fan for air circulation along the condenser (underneath it). The base is installed on the back of the folded down rear seat and held in place by ratchet straps to the seat mounts.



That makes the fridge accessible during breaks and even while driving if necessary.

[J.M.]

I love moderately built grands!!! And by moderate, I mean anything that isn't hacked and caged, I wish I still had my ZJ on 35's before it ended up a too-heavy buggy on 42's, it just wasn't as much fun and too much work to play with.

This is also my DD and I want to keep it as such. It is a fine line between a lot of modifications and too many. I am getting closer to the limit of daily drive-ability. I am surprised how well behaved it runs on 35s, though.

[J.M.]

On our way back from the camping trip we hit a significant milestone:



Funny side note: the same week, i also hit 150k on our other vehicle.

[OverkillZJ]

Smart. I sold all of my rigs when we moved and decided to start a family. My boys only 3 months right now, but a motivating factor to build something similar in the future again, that can remain fun, safe, and street-able. Well, you know, street-able enough! Nice rig.

[J.M.]

This post is a dedicated to 'WJ Lizard' who selflessly 'volunteered' to materialize my ideas in regards to sheet metal modifications. Thanks man!











The front fenders were cut, the rear were folded.



Ready for bigger tires!

[J.M.]

a few months later, I finally found a set of used, inexpensive 35s to mount up and find out where they would rub.
this is the current status of my 'build':







The tires stick out about an 1/2 inch. It looks much worse in the pictures then in person.
So far it flexes fine when the sway bar is connected. I need to go through a couple rounds of 'disconnect - flex - trim' to get it trail ready. So far it looks like not to much will be needed.

I will update this thread as I go. Let me know if there are any questions.

[DMG]

Cool versatile build.

[hyperbuzzin]

Nice job so far. Ya don't see too many Grands build to still look kinda stock yet ready for the trails.
And interesting job with the fridge!!

[jopickens]

Nice work... great stance/look to it!

[J.M.]

New problem that I already predicted when i put the Rough Country lift on. RC relocates the rear shocks to the outside of the shock mount bracket. I expected the shock mounts to bend. Not only that happened, but worse:



The outside hole for the screw ripped out on both shock mounts.



This is how it got fixed and reinforced:

The RC bracket got welded in place to strengthen the outside:



The inside got doubled up with a washer:


Then everything boxed in:

[J.M.]

I was driving with a leaking heater core for a long time, until it was not doable anymore (too much fogging and coolant loss). I bypassed the heater core to buy some more time. In February it got too much. You can't use a daily driver that has no heat in 0 degree weather. I replaced the heater core with the help of a dear friend. I also fixed a couple issues i found in the process.
One of them was a broken sun roof drain forming icicles all the way from the windscreen to the passenger floor. Had to carefully melt and break the ice to get the harnesses and connectors out.

Here some pics:

[J.M.]

At it again. This time another upgrade that no-one will ever notice, however it's needed for adjust-ability and added flex. The rear A-Arm upgrade.

[The_War_Wagon]

That thing is coming along REALLY nice! Glad to see you getting use out of it, and making it FIT your needs!

[J.M.]

Thanks. Next on the immediate To-Do-List is to swap in the Moog steering linkage that's been hanging out in my basement for over 5 months now. After that weld up the tire carrier rear bumper and replace the rusted rockers with 2x5 3/16 steel. I have an extensive camping trip planned for mid July and hope to get the bumper done before that, so I can bring along a spare tire.