DIY: Jeep Cherokee Leaf Spring and Rust Hole FIX

This 1998 Jeep Cherokee was sagging really bad in the back and riding on the bump stops all the time! It was due for Inspection and had a rust hole in the frame. so took a couple days to take the springs out, fix and treat the rust!
This video can help you remove Jeep Cherokee Leaf springs, lift your Jeep Cherokee, remove leaf spring bolts forJeep Cherokee, and remove Jeep Cherokee rear Leaf spring shackle.
Stop out to the shop anytime and see whats going on this week.
I spend a lot of time out in the workshop and i am always fixing, scraping and recycling things to try to make this world a better place and keep the 'Do it yourself" spirit alive.
I am a computer Network Engineer by profession but my parents and grand parents are Plumbers, engineers, and Teachers so I hope to pass the same Can_Do onto my kids, and maybe some people on youtube.

[@firingallcylinders2949]

Fluid Film is goated, I tell people to do it but nobody wants to get dirty or lay under their car I guess. I fluid film all my cars, I have an 01 XJ with 0 rot anywhere. Every other year I get under it and spray it down with the oil. I live in the rust belt and never have issues. It makes the undercarriage disgusting and anytime you work on something you're gonna get oily, but I think that's a good trade off for not having a rusty car, passing inspection in PA can be hard.

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

100% agree. My truck is fluid film and I’m sold on it. Most of what I work on is other peoples cars, or things that just came to me. So… I don’t have much say in their history or future.

[@davidmohr4004]

Great work...enjoyed watching some of your solutions. Appreciate the content.

[@mattscullin5844]

Thanks for this video. I have the exact same rust hole in the same spot. And I might be moving back to PA soon so I better get busy!

[@XJ290]

Dude this video was awesome. I wished I had seen something like it when me and a buddy barely figured out how to install my add-a-leaf that’s now sagging 10 years later 😂 At least i know what to do this time around. God bless.

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

Thanks for watching! I hope the next round goes better than the last! I just recently had to do it again with my daughters jeep and it went very well! good luck this time around!

[@nathanmccumber8965]

​@@MalarkeyTaylorI got XJ with broken leaf springs it's look lifted should I buy 3inch leaf spring or can I install a new stock one ?

[@rocknhardspotcherokeexjres5959]

This is what it takes on these 20- year old Jeeps! Nice work!

[@patriot72]

It’s cool that you help your brother out. Nice Jeep’s! I have our current and former XJ’s on our channel Patriot72. I will be tackling our leaf springs this weekend. Should go decent with help from The Lord Jesus and The Holy Spirit! I enjoyed the video. I subscribed. Keep it up. God bless!

[@citizenatlrge]

Thank you algorithm. This is a great video.. I was looking for a little advice on which leaf to remove in the rear of my '98 to smooth her ass a little and here this is. Whoever's doing the editing and music selection needs a raise. No shit, I'd love if some of the bigger Jeep channels had half of this groove. Subbed.

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

Thanks for watching, and for your kind words. I’m Just a guy in his garage that does all his own stunts (editing too) I’m so glad to hear when people enjoy watching. And I do hope to share more as I get things done. Thanks again for watching!

[@brustdiesel]

For rust proofing, I have always used phosphate etch, followed by Bill Hirsch Miracle Paint. Then an overcoat of undercoat, or paint, depending on if it is visible or not

[@XJ290]

Question - I’m new to the northeast and road salt. Is all that rust and corrosion just from the salt and humidity? My XJ is starting to show a tiny bit of rust…I got this stuff called fluid film and a spray gun. Hopefully I can head this off. EDIT: I saw in the video he talked about using fluid film. Glad I got the stuff!

[@Jack-ns5mn]

A steel cross member from a warehouse pallet rack makes excellent repair material for the rear rusted frame area. Already the perfect width to slip right over the weakened frame and about 1/8 inch thick so it welds real nice. Bevel and stitch a few pieces together to make a neat repair and I ran my repair from the bump stops to right under the trailer hitch. Now I feel confident the hitch will never break free. Those rear bolts took me about two hours each to extract damage free. Lots of penetrating oil and a fancy homemade bolt extractor.

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

Great to hear I’ll have to hunt for some pallet racking next time I have to tackle one of these. If you have any videos of the home made bolt extractor I’d love to see them. I’ve don’t many of these XJ and they seem to come out or not and most of the time they damage the bucket without even knowing it’s bound up yet. But feel free to share a better way.

[@hayzersolar]

i have a 96 xj and need to do that same thing. my rust is more bad then yours but i cut out frame rails out of a 99 xj. im using it for patches but sounds good

[@SevenSlotSociety]

Awesome patch job!

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

Thanks!

[@projectbumblejeep4190]

Always a good idea to presoak all nuts and bolts with your favorite penetrating oil a couple of days prior to a job like this. I've been known to mix PB Blaster with Deep Creep. Remember, more is better. God bless and stay well.

[@JamesDonald-bl3zp]

Anytime you do anything to a 1998 jeep cherokee let me know please ,,,thanks !

[@etc-and-more]

That was very entertaining and informative. I guess one of the takeaways is that if you are going to start a job like this make sure you have a nearly empty gas tank. It would have been a lot more work removing the tank if it had 20 gallons of fuel in it. To make the bottom of the Jeep look better why didn't you hit the "new" leaf springs with some black paint before installing?

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

Thanks for watching! The leaf pack I built for it was PlanB and semi temporary. My brother was planning to lift the Jeep but had some financial commitments take precedence. And so the lift is delayed but not canceled. He still plans to replace the springs with new ones within the next year or two, so spray paint on them for aesthetics was not high priority. And yes a full fuel tank is very hard to get out, but it’s also fairly easy to disconnect the fuel line and jumper the fuel pump to just have the fuel pump empty the tank into a fuel can to save it from getting all over the place.

[@johnr5545]

Thanks you did a nice job god bless

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

Thanks!

[@jeeperalainbigal]

Great job !

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

Thanks!

[@nathanmccumber8965]

Can I add 4 1/2 leaf springs to a 3-inch lift in the front so it doesn't sag in the back or do I got to drop the transfer case?

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

I wouldn’t do 4.5 in the back and 3 in the front. Do three in both. And if the back sags a little get longer shackles. But yes anything over 3” you will need drop kit. Anything over 4” id recommend an SYE.

[@nathanmccumber8965]

@@MalarkeyTaylor thank you sir.

[@nathanmccumber8965]

@@MalarkeyTaylor can I run 3-inch shocks always around and the original leaf springs with longer shackles?

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

@@nathanmccumber8965 you may want to change the shock mounts if you try to run shocks that are a little short. You could have the factory mounts cut off and replaced with some bolt through style so the axle angle can adjust without tweaking the bushing.

[@rjmills126]

How many hours did this job take ya? I need to replace the springs and shocks in mine as well

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

It’s been a while since I did this project. But I think we did it in two evenings and a Saturday. So I think we worked on it for around 20 hours. Give or take.

[@danielengel1295]

I just bought a 1996 cherokee sport. it was a must tow no start deal. Well stupid me i did not do an inspection underneath and man the leaf springs are not holding on by very much. My fault for not looking. It was an older couple, she is disabled and he is a handyman who is in his early 60's....They seemed very open and upfront about why and what was going on with the vehicle. I did not do a deep investigation because i thought i could trust them. Still my fault. i took it for 950 cash so lesson is ill never not bring my jump box , code reader and coolant combustion test fluid kit. 3 tools along with a decent list of check offs. But for 950 i figured id throw 500 in it and have a winter driver. But i hear to many stories about what happens if the leafs go on you and you are say on the free way. Nobody has removed them and did a video to show the viewers...........I wanted to be sick about this but said cut the loss at 950 and do not let it be a 3500 loss.

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

Sorry to hear that. The XJ's are getting hard to get any more. I'm sure you can recover some of your losses on that by selling it to a scrapper or someone that might be interested in parts. The '96 is my favorite year by far and the best of the "OG" style IMHO. or find a good welder and have those leaf springs put back in! Good luck!

[@danielengel1295]

@@MalarkeyTaylor I am handy and good with car repair but a newbie to welding. I will have to try to seek out someone who does welding to see what they can do with it. I understand nothing is free but to me if this could be done I’d think as long as it was under 500 for the welding work I would be ok. I even thought what if I bought new leaf brackets and had welders re plate the frame wall and go up through the back floor and across then down into the underneath to reinforce it all. I would fully understand if a welder said ok but you need to sign a I am not liable when u drive this.

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

@@danielengel1295 yeah , good luck!

[@danielninedorf5502]

Mid-1970s Chevy pickup rear springs also broke. On the interstate west of Fargo ND I saw a piece of metal, on the next turn in the median was a Chevy pickup with rear axle catty-wampus.

[@alsimms7259]

My driver side is sagging so it could need this work

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

Yeah, a surprising number of them are broken when I take them apart lately. It’s possible you have a broken leaf or two.

[@rafalica5253]

Jest ciekawy pomysł

[@796andy2]

ahhh , jeep life in Pa ...

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

Yeah, the sad reality of “salt life” and we aren’t talking the salt that come from the beach. 🥴

[@crpage1984]

Why didn't the jeep get lifted more with so much more leaf?

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

Well the new pack actually has less leaf springs in it than the old one did. I replaced the two lower leaf packs that a stock spring had in it with an overload spring that was thicker. The new pack lifted the Jeep about 1.75” from where it was sagged to, and put it back up to about level with the front. And it has much better load hauling abilities now. When it has a trailer or weight in the back it doesn’t sag nearly as much as it did before. His budget did not allow for new springs yet, but they are in the plan at some point he hopes to lift the Jeep for some larger tires eventually when his budget allows.

[@JamesDonald-bl3zp]

Or ANY Cherokee !

[@johnr5545]

Restaurant Restaurant what the heck

[@MalarkeyTaylor]

🤷‍♂️I’m not sure?