WRECKED J IS BACK!!! - JEEP XJ LIFT GATE LATE FIX - CHEROKEE WALK AROUND AND 2 YEAR REVIEW

[Music] got a nice little snowman here and even better we got a XJ over here welcome back wck J [Music] hey what's up guys I'm Dan H and welcome to the project we got a special guest here today it is wck J W J was built and uh recovered from a a wrecked XJ so uh it has been fully restored it is on the road and it's been driven for the last year and a half that's that's probably a year and a half since we did this lift it's uh it's my dad's Jeep now he takes it to go skiing it's a 2001 XJ limited got a nice little lift on it a couple other dads and knickknacks and we're going to we're going to go into it and see how it's been holding up all right guys here is Rec J 2001 Jeep Cherokee XJ limited we did a little bit of work on this bad boy it's got my old Jeep tailgate with the gorgeous Orvis spoiler I uh didn't want to let that go to waste well not waste I sold the perfect XJ I sold my black beauty a couple years ago and I couldn't let this rare part part so I kept kept it we put it on my dad's wck J I love that thing much better than that ugly Jolly Rancher light and uh yeah so here she is sitting on Factory icon 16-in Wheels wrapped in General Grabber tires they are 24575 R16s we got ourselves a Rough Country 3-in lift I think this is the perfect stance so we'll go over Rec J front to rear I guess then top to bottom so on and so forth yeah so this whole front was completely smashed up Grill was smashed AC condenser was smashed radiator support bracket was smashed the radiator was smashed the electric fan was smashed got terrible impact right here and this this whole bumper support is pushed in but uh yeah so we got uh new bumper ends uh well the whole bumper is new this was a bumper from my twood door my blue Jeep um we put in new fog lights uh few months back this Grill is all spray painted this is that Home Depot hammered black goes off pretty cool with the the black this is not Factory black this and this and this this is all Rustoleum gloss paint right from Home Depot right out of the spray can it's a pretty darn good match to the factory Jeep paint it's not too bad it Blends in real nice so this door is Factory Jeep Paint This Is My Home Depot spray paint uh let's go over all the actual body workor so we can see if we could find a difference uh Home Depot Home Depot Home Depot we uh we got a little hand print in the clear coat when we were painting it we really put our print on this one and this is all Factory Jeep parts just refurbished again more Home Depot paint Home Depot Home Depot what the heck this is another handprint we are not professional painters and moving along Yeah so basically the whole front is uh is Home Depot paint I do believe this uh this part of the cowl was banged up you know hit this down with a hammer a little swipe of Bondo and uh that's it the front is repaired new fenders new header panel new new new here we go this is shiny here this door is Factory XJ paint and we picked off the emblems the The Limited emblem was peeling and we pulled off the the door trim I really hate the door trim uh 97 01s uh the old XJ trim that goes down here with the ribs I think that looks a lot better but whatever so I take an XJ and I peel that off no big deal and coming along here factory rear door Factory rear quarter up to here this part was all spring painted because this in here on both sides of this this window cell it was rusted it was rusted pretty bad head down in here so we took out the glass and we ground down the rust put a little Bondo on it and then painted it up nice and neat so it uh it is rust free and what I did to blend the old paint with the new paint was I drew a line and made a nice little pinstripe if you remember from the perfect XJ video I explained that on Black Beauty I got a reflective pinstripe and moving up from there is my reflective black pinstripe I got this black pinstripe to go over the Hideous white pinstripe that came from the factory so I did the same thing to this Jeep I put on my reflective pinstripe to match the two colors in the rear and from this angle thanks to the snow on the ground you can see this isn't exactly as shiny is the factory because it's a spray can and I don't even think we polished it we didn't buff it we even left our prints on it so that is the body what else oh yeah we did a little rust repair work there was some holes in the the Rockers so we ground out the rust filled in a little bit with some metal and then Bondo that too uh anything to cut the rust out we did cuz rust is bad okay here we go the tail lights our Factory this is my Black Beauty hatch once again rear bumper was sanded down and painted we got our Factory bumper ends looking pretty crusty what are the chances yep yep that figures yikes cuz that was a little rusty Factory tail lights and the same thing over here we got our paint up top and we got the factory quarter panel paint down here factory doors and again the Rockers right there were done got a little bit of rust poking through this door that sucks must be new must be new this is my dad's skiing vehicle he goes up to Vermont so from Long Island to Vermont multiple times a year to ski this thing gets quite a bit of salty snow and muck on it but she's holding up real nice got a Dan H sticker here shout out to bug it's uh It's A Bug's Life well she's goat now goat off-road and my DNA in a garage sticker peeled off sorry DNA I got to pop a new one on but hey I'm wearing the d& shirt there it is so there we go paint is looking good it's not perfect but you know hey not bad for a 20-year-old XJ and we also did the roof gloss black too so there we have it looking good not a bad looking Jeep not bad at all oh I also got these LED headlights these look really cool and the fog lights are LED I think I mentioned that before uh it's got all these crazy uh LEDs wired up to these fog lights uh these are going to have to go so nice bright lighting Let's uh let's take a look under the hood to do that we'll open up the door I did have to rehang this door I got a video on it of course the door checks do its pop pop thing they all do but uh I redid the hinges on this door and uh I got a video for that I'll I'll leave a link to the videos I'll leave a link to the whole playlist why not so popping This Hood this is probably one of the worst XJ doors I have ever seen we got some bad hinges right in here those are completely shot and the hinge itself is ripping off the body yeah not good all right here is our Factory 4.0 we even have a working Hood light I'm proud of that one not many people still have those this is it nothing special here the only uh claim to fame is I was able to restore this thing every nut and bolt back to 100% Factory original let's take a look at the damage I fixed this corner unibody is pretty well bashed now I had taken a straight bracket and you could see how far it's off this is supposed to screw in through here and this is supposed to screw in through here we got uh we got a lot of work to do to straighten this out but fortunately we don't have to we are just going to cut out this whole piece I think I did a pretty good job but uh this inner Fender quarter this this whole part of the unibody was drilled out and replaced there it is guys we got this baby out check it out so far all I did was just lay this baby in place and uh wow so far so good went ahead and weld it back in but I made sure I measured everything I I cornered it measured it made sure everything was equal everything lined up just perfectly I measured from this body hole to this corner piece right there and I got the same dimensions from this body hole right here to this front piece and then I also crossed it up from that same body hole to this front body hole and then of course right back this way measure that it's just about the same so I know it is square this whole front end was completely wrecked smashed in hence the name wck j but uh again all Factory Original Part and it is looking 100% brand new well as good as it's going to look for a 20 something year old Jeep so going over all the components basically the engine itself was untouched uh we put all Factory tubes and bottles and brackets in uh this whole area was smashed in that's a new power steering reservoir power steering pump we had to go through a couple pumps I think we got rebuilt ones and the first one we got was crappy uh we had a little problem with the Dorman Inlet tube uh I put that in brand new oh look it's rusting already son of a bee sh a brand new Inlet tube came with pin holes and it was leaking look at this sh this Dorman water inlet is leaking at the weld from the nut to the inlet tube so that's uh that's all JB Weld in a custom Coke canned collar held together by a little hose clamp so that's uh that's in we did uh the water pump timing chain all that other good stuff this thing was running like a top really good strong engine I am so happy Rec J is running like new all right moving down here underneath the Jeep didn't do too much down here we only took off the whole front end because we had to put a lift on but while we were at it we dressed up the front end we rebuilt it uh we had the front end out so it was a good time to put a oil pump in and while the oil pan was dropped old oil pan is finally out this thing took a nasty hit we had access to the connecting rod bearings so we went ahead and replac the rod bearings while we were at it and I'm going to clip in my new clevite bearing there she is looking good here is a look at the front Ed and we rebuilt it with a 3-in Rough Country lift there is a track bar drop bracket everything handles really great only problem is it's a ski vehicle so it's covered in Road sludge just is fresh from the mountain so we got to make sure we clean the heck out of this stuff so it doesn't rot to Pieces that's just a fact of life up here in the Northeast to the back still got our Rough Country 3-in lift going on we got 3in lift leaf springs we got our shocks back here we got this awesome G2 diff cover the diff was done along with everything else I got a good video that goes over some postlift procedures you might want to try also right here we got the rear disc brake conversions can't forget that we got nice disc brakes on this XJ unfortunately the rust has claimed another exhaust we'll have to address that uh there's always rust issues with exhaust another thing that happens ow another thing that happens is uh these evap lines where are they connect to the metal sometimes you get an EVAP leak here we go here's an EVAP line got to watch out for these sometimes the ends of these rot they dry rot and you'll get a a gross leak or a or a small leak code usually a line like this is a gross leak that or the gas cap but yeah take a look at your evap lines make sure they're in good shape now check out this development yikes this just happened within the last couple years well it took 20 years of its life to start rotting this was a plate made by the previous owner I think I don't know how I missed it it must have been Blended in real nice but it rotted all around it this was covering some pretty bad floor pan rot and we're going to have to address this floor pan cuz this is the rug and uh that that is not good right there hello rug my word I don't know that that that sucks that's kind of a heartbreaker right there oh well we'll do a floor pan No Worries it looks like a bolt is actually broken I'm going to have to adjust that too there is W J on the outside not too bad for a wed XJ we uh we did a good job getting her up and running still some things to address like the exhaust and the floor pan obviously uh 20 something year old Jeep we're going to have some Rust especially up here in the Northeast what are you going to do but inside is looking pretty nice we have limited seats they are fully adjustable and they work limited style these were from Beach Jeep I do believe there's my the rips from my gun oh yeah so uh here we have just a clean Factory dashboard we still got the heated seat buttons this Jeep has a 231 command track track transfer case my other limiteds had a 242 anyhow center console is solid with that jcr bracket matching leather passenger seat again stock dashboard this used to have the XJ limited radio but uh it crapped out unfortunately uh now it's got a WJ radio in there so it uh it looks almost Factory xjay but it is not and here's the dash we got uh look at that LEDs in there so pretty clean Factory unmolested interior uh in the front in the back we have uh a no back seat this thing is a ski vehicle so we put equipment in there uh it just goes up to the mountains full of gear and skis and whatnot so of course you need a shovel to dig yourself out uh good to have the old bottle of wind windshield wiper fluid and a top on jumper coming around inside the cargo compartment just a few short hours ago we couldn't open this classic XJ rear hatch fail it failed right here on the Spot Classic XJ hatch we got to go inside yep yeah I know it sucks so what we did with that was we had my dad go inside all right you got to climb back there reach your hand behind that panel and feel for that little I guess threaded Rod pull up on that yeah we pulled this out he reached his hands down in there he was able to pull on that little lever we got this sucker open pull it be strong you got you got it yeah all right give it a pull got it and then once it was open we dropped this interior panel there's two clips right there you go we reattach that little Rod that opens up the tailgate and we made ourselves a nice little modification there we go guys that is the key to the fix if you thread on two 10x 24 little nuts and tighten them down on there you'll have a nice little slide proof latch this should get the job done so let's see if it works here we go crap it's it's locked here we go unlock all right Dad I'll let you do the honors again there we go nice all right that should be a permanent fix beautiful nice all right let's put this back together you put the 10x 24 nuts on there and that should clamp down that little piece that sucker shouldn't budge in a long long time so that was our fix and working every time now beautiful so in here this is our XJ Cargo Carrier it's got a ner little uh cargo utility spare tire cover always got some oil and trans fluid ready to go you never know when an XJ is going to spring a leak um yeah that's it uh got a nice matching spare tire another icon wheel in hair but I don't believe that icon wheel is painted like these are we uh we did a nice once over on these wheels painted them up then we got the general Grabbers on there so yeah this is the W J now let's start her up there we go she starts right up but as you can hear yep it's got a little tapping doesn't sound great I'm not quite sure if it's tapping like a like a lifter tapping or a knock like a rod knock or a piston slap I haven't yet determined it I got to keep an eye on it but it gradually over time it became a little worse so it's not the connecting rod bearings it's something else but I think we're just going to let this baby ride until something catastrophic happens I mean I got some x-ray engines in the back we'll just pop a new engine in right now it's not broke you know so if it's not broke don't fix it well let me know what you guys think what do we got a rod knock we got piston slap or is that a a lifter tick I don't know it does go away or it does lessen when it's warm warm right now it's pretty darn cold pretty loud and pretty gross all right so one of the reasons why we're even making this video is because on the way to and from Vermont my dad was driving and a check engine light popped on um no big deal happens all the time right it's an old Jeep but uh the odd part was it went off and then uh a little later it popped on again and a little later it turned back off again so there's an intermittent check engine light not really sure what's going on uh I did get this new launch Creer a launch CER I don't know what it is but uh I'm going to test it out see if this works see if it could tell me what's going on with that cal um I have a suspicion it could be a O2 sensor wire maybe shorting out and another thing was um I remember it did have a evap a gross leak uh but that could have been the the fuel cap not tightened so that's off and the uh the other check engine lights off but let's plug this in and we'll we'll see what's going on with it so here is the launch creater maybe it stands for C reader as in car reader I got these little uh gel packets don't eat them they tell you not to eat them so uh let's not eat them and this is what it looks like we got to uh just plug her into the OBD2 to get power oh look at this there's a reader in here already Hey Dad I found it is that mine or yours yeah it's yours I never even took it I never put it in we were looking for this for like a month yeah here we go let's turn the ignition to the Run position plug this thing in and let's see if uh see we can get some information out of it all right booted right up that's good let's uh let's move this sucker over to diagnose let's see if we can diagnose it cuz that's what we want we'll hit okay so it's kind of lightweight it's got nice uh push buttons feels pretty good no complaints there and a nice it's very easy to read screen I do like the display why is everything failing what is that oh here we go uh status okay dtc's we got one it's it's all ready everything is ready Readiness complete complete seven not complete okay so it passed all its monitors this thing will pass inspection CU there are no check engine lights but we we have something to address uh what is it can it tell me what it is um I don't know what's I am do I don't know hit okay okay let's uh read codes all right processing hey look at that an O2 sensor bank to Sensor 2 this thing again that's exactly what I thought it was from last time I I do believe we got a a bad wire in there just uh tapping around and uh messing things up so we we'll check that out let's see if we can go back uh I'm going to erase codes okay okay clear reset di Mission are you sure yes I'm sure I'm going to hit okay and not go back please turn on turn ignition on with engine off okay press to continue so it don't start it just turn the ignition on oh it is on ignition on engine off okay processing key on engine off that is is the key to codes emissions related diagnostic information has been cleared all right well I don't have emissions problems but whatever let's read them again see if it pops up or not no call okay well well that's cool right there it reads codes and clears codes that's like 90% of uh the work you want a reader to do especially if you own a Jeep find the problem ignore the problem perfect for xjs so yeah let's see we got a hey look at this I like this evap check uh cat O2 sensors that might be catalytic converters and O2 sensor related there so yeah we do have a O2 sensor issue we'll have to address this um not a big deal but uh look O2 sensor test this is pretty cool this says a lot more than I thought it would and uh it did what we wanted to do it was right on the money with what I thought the problem was so I'm going to give this system a pass I'll give it a thumbs up in my book what else could it do battery let's see what it says about the battery entering system like it's got to like it's got to hack into the Jeep like it's a hacker here we go go ahead go crack the Jeep code battery abnormal 11.6 Vol well I'm drawing some juice we got lights on right here cuz the door's wide open and we had the hatch open you know all morning fixing that stupid little latch problem so uh not too worried about that and let's go back that's pretty cool hey uh so this launch thing I'm going to give it two thumbs up up I'm not going to go into this whole thing because uh I don't know if I have a manual and I'm not going to waste your guys time but uh I'll see if I can put a link in the description of this video so if you guys want to buy it that would give me some uh some oh here look it was stuffed at the bottom uh I'll take a once over of this and then uh yeah I'll leave any info in the description for you guys all right so there we go one more time the launch cre reader V I'm going to call it the launch car reader 5 so this is pretty cool I'm going to leave this here for my dad and I'm going to take back my OBD2 bluetooth reader cuz I hooked that up to my phone and now my dad could look up stuff on his Jeep with his codes and we're going to eat these now here here's your packet all right thank you very much I'm hungry should we put it in water or just down the hatch drink water after all right guys well there we have it there is wck J about a year and a half after the lift maybe about 2 years plus since we restored it from uh from Smash Condition it's a daily driver now it's it's a h it's a travel Jeep it's reliable enough to go from uh from Long Island New York all the way up to Vermont for skiing multiple times a year multiple times don't drink me don't drink he still races skiing so we got to get him onto the mountain he's uh he needs to ski so that's it that's uh that's the wck Jay right there I'll give another once over [Music] I all right guys that is it for uh for wck J's review and uh hard to believe this was that same smash wreck Jeep in my backyard a few years ago that's it guys appreciate your views remember to like And subscribe uh let me know what you think about that engine noise uh what I need to dig into to uh fix that noise and we're going to do a floor pan eventually some other stuff hey it's a Jeep it's always going to need some love but uh that's why I have a YouTube channel so we could fix jeeps and help you guys fix your Jeeps so that's it like subscribe and I'll catch you guys on the next project peace battery was a little weak clinky [Applause] clanky exhaust vibrating tappity tappy nothing like an old Jeep later Rec [Music] J I know you're you got to feel

Channel: Project Dan H

Views: 5,288

Keywords: jeep, cherokee, xj, lift, kit, suspension, rough country, rubicon express, budget boost, axle, front end, lifted, beef, steering, 3 inch, leaf spring, rear lift, procedure, specs torque, review, 1 year, walk around, 2 years, knock, tap, slap

Id: pcdnMLC5ahM

Length: 30min 5sec (1805 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 17 2024