Cherokee XJ
This 1997 Jeep Cherokee 4.0 Limited was my trusty daily driver for more than eight years. It featured a 3″ Skyjacker suspension system, a Rubicon Express Slip Yoke Eliminator and CV drive shaft, and 31″ tires.
After a career change at the end of 2003, that requires a once-a-week commute of 50 miles, I drove the XJ for another two years. In 2005, however, I finally decided that it was time to get something more comfortable and faster for those longish weekly trips, and I sold the XJ.
Web Site Update
The installation guide you can find on these pages gives you detailed installation instructions for the Skyjacker suspension and the SYE, based on my own experiences. As a matter of fact, this guide was the first “real” content I published on the web, and it has become rather popular with fellow Jeepers. Therefore, I decided to leave the pages online even after I sold the Cherokee.
After a website overhaul, I have removed some of the original pages, including the gallery, resources and credits pages. Since there were some people that provided invaluable tips and moral support during both the actual work and the write-up, I simply must include the original credits section here:
Credits
Modifying and driving an off-highway vehicle needs quite a bit of experience and, to make it really fun, good friends to share your enthusiasm with. Therefore, I would like to thank some people who were instrumental in my expeditions into four-wheel country.
First and foremost, a gigantic thank you to my buddy Tom Grancy and his family for their friendship and hospitality. Participating in the CA4WDC Winter Fun Fests 99 and 2k as a passenger on their (then literally) cool TJ was absolutely awesome! Big thanks also to the nice folks of the Grass Valley Four-Wheelers whom I met during the WFF trips, and especially to Martin for letting me test-drive his vintage Jeep.
With regards to XJ-specific issues, the members of the Cherokee forum at Jeeps Unlimited (see Resources) not only have loads of experience, they also freely share it with others, including total newbies. I am very grateful to these people, because their tips and tricks saved me a lot of headaches. Actually, their willingness to freely share their expertise with others was my motivation to create this website and share what I learned during the work on Gold-Digger with those XJ’ers who are just starting off in their wrencher’s careers. Thanks, guys!
Last, but not least: a big hug to my Mom and Dad, who are kind enough to surrender their spacious garage for my wrenching sessions!
I hope you find the installation guide helpful. If you run into any problems or find any errors in the instructions, please do not hesitate to contact me via email. Thanks for reading!