The Cherokee is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Jeep world: "I get no respect." To many tent-drivers, it is just a station wagon. Introduced in 1983, you could still buy one new in 2001. There were almost three million produced over its life span, there are still tons of them out there, and as far as we can tell, it's the third most popular Jeep among our readers. Not bad for something that hasn't been sold in almost a decade.
Unlike the other Jeeps in our special section, the XJ is the only one with a Unitbody and some of the issues are related to that. It also shares many drivetrain components with both the TJ and YJ, so we won't cover all of that again. But we will deal with things that tend to go wrong and are unique to the XJ, how you can fix them, and how you can prevent them from happening to your XJ.
Steamed
If it rains, and your windshield steams up, you have a problem. The body of the Cherokee is also the frame, and we all know that both flex. Over time, it will flex enough to break the seal on the windshield; rainwater will seep in and sit on the floorboards, rusting them a little bit each time. This XJ leaked when we bought it with 190,000 miles on the clock and it had never even been wheeled. The twisting and flexing of off-roading only serve to break the windshield seal faster.
Prevention: Put a cage in the Jeep as soon as you can and tie it into the top of the A-, B-, C-, and D-pillars.
Cure: Pull the trim from around the windshield and re-seal it yourself, which will most likely only cure some of the problem and likely come loose again. Then put a cage and Unitbody stiffeners or plates in it. T&J Performance and TnT Customs both make good kits. Once your Unitbody is stiff then have a glass shop pull the windshield and reinstall.
Or, pop the drain plugs out, ignore it, and hope your floor doesn't rust out.
Shackled
If you haven't done it already, it is probably too late, but we'll tell you anyway.
The bolt that holds the shackle to the Unitbody is problematic. The bolt loves to rust to the captured nut in the frame, or the welds that hold the nut in place like to break loose. Either way, we are way under 50 percent at getting them loose without having to "window" the Unitbody. Some have had better luck, but you've read our stories and know how often things go wrong for us. And, you can tell yourself you'll never remove that bolt and suffer with the short, twisty, light-gauge factory shackles, but if you keep and drive the Jeep, it will need to come out eventually.
Prevention: Go back to the designer of the Jeep and smack that guy. Technically, it is a slick design, because the gas tank is right on the other side, but the guy who did it either messed up the amount of zinc coating needed or the amount of voltage needed to weld that nut to the sheet metal. Another preventative could be to pull the bolt out of the Jeep when it rolled off the line so you can smear anti-seize on it. Use the copper stuff, it works way better than the silver stuff.
Cures: If you can get the bolt out, use the above anti-seize method. If you can't, or suspect it won't come out (you know your area and your Jeep by now), try drilling a little hole below the approximate location and squirt some PB Blaster up in the hole on the end of the bolt and captured nut. Also squirt either side of the shackle. You are trying to break the bolt loose from the captured nut and from the sleeve inside the shackle. Do so every day for a week or so, and then try removal. If that doesn't work, and it still breaks loose from the frame, you can cut the head off the bolt and push it into the Unitbody and then remove it from the rear. Or, if it strips the bolt, you'll need to cut a window in the "frame" to get it out and weld a new one in.
Run, Run, Rudolph
Maybe it is age, maybe it is mileage, but we've seen a lot of Renix-era ('87-'90) Cherokees where the bolts holding the intake and exhaust manifold to the six-cylinder engine work themselves loose and cause the engine to race around 2,000 rpm.
Prevention: Tighten the bolts, dummy!
Cure: Tighten the bolts, dummy!
Seriously though, if your Jeep isn't doing this yet, just check the bolts. If it is idling erratically, grab your 9/16-inch wrench, get the Jeep to operating temperature and tighten the bolts while the Jeep is hot. Be wary of over tightening, though-they like to snap. If you let the leak go for too long you might need to just bite the bullet and put in a new gasket, but often tightening is all that is needed.