02 Liberty Renegade Limited...Resurrection

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JeepCoMJ

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Well, all joking aside from my previous venture here, I finally found a donor for the rolled '02 Renegade my brother had.

Maybe some of you remember awhile back when I posted a "what to do with this" thread about my brother's rolled (totalled) 2002 Liberty Renegade on 3" or so lift and 32" Hankook MT's.

http://s248.beta.pho...912394281319418

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Well, the time has come. We've sat on it for quite some time, and finally found a new body with a bad motor.

Bring on the 2002 Limited Liberty Renegade

This Luxurious model features power windows, locks, power defrost mirrors, defrosted rear window with wiper, cruise, a/c, premium surround, heated seats, leather, sunroof, and Renegade light bar.

For the "Rugged" types among you, it also features a 3" OME/Skyjacker lift combo, 32x11.50R16 Hankook MT's, 4.11 gears all around.

Lol.

So, I've started tearing into it for Steve (my brother). After some tinkering, with the original intent of just swapping the motor and selling it, I decided that dropping the engine/trans/k-member/front suspension was the easiest way to do this project. So, I stripped out the front clip, cooling and a/c system, disconnected the entire engine side engine bay harness from the engine bay itself, layed it over the motor, and moved on to popping the upper ball joints off in order to hang the calipers up and out of my way.

After this, I proceeded to unbolt the trans crossmember, which was a chore in and of itself....this is a horrible design. Extra long bolts going through the crossmember through sleeves that like to hold water, promoting rust. Only broke one bolt.

After that, I came here to type all of this up, and post links to all the pics. More tomorrow following the second post.

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Valve seat on the exhaust valve fell out, hung up the valve, causing the cam to smash the rocker in a funny way after loss of contact on the roller, and break the casting around the lifter

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JeepCoMJ

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Here are what remains of the ****** crossmember bolts. If they come out that bad from the other liberty, I will replace them
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Driver's side all disconnected
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Passenger side all disconnected
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Everything laid over the engine
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Guess the ugly guy working on it me. For your own sake, We had to avoid taking pictures directly of his face.
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JeepCoMJ

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Engine, trans, tcase, y-pipe, front diff, lower front suspension, all out

Just before pulling...using the pallet jack to support the K member and the engine hoist as a car lift. Don't worry, everything was blocked appropriately for safety, with jack stands and supports getting ratcheted up all the way, and we did not get under it once it was time to pull.

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Steve posing
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Clear engine bay
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They're not that bad now that I've dug into one.
 

JeepCoMJ

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To be honest, they're not bad to work on. Some design flaws, but the xj had some too. And they take a roll better than an xj. I really didn't like the ****** crossmember design as far as holding water and causing rust on the bolts, but it all worked out.
 

JeepCoMJ

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Well, a bit of frustration pulling the "new" K-member, motor, trans, tcase, y-pipe, front suspension.

I got everything done in record time as far as disconnecting...had about 2.5 hours into that this morning.

When it got time to pull it, we found that our second pallet jack won't hold pressure and stay up...oh well, used it anyways, it got a little hectic but came out safely, with no one injured.

pics

everything pulled up top
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and what it's going into
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Sorry for the "hazy" pics folks. The halogen lighting in the shop is detrimental to pictures...cannot use the flash on the camera or they're too dark to see, and without flash you can't so much as breathe while taking pics.

But we've made progress. I have to reposition it on the pallet jack, then we will finish cleaning out the new body's engine bay, undercoating everything that should be prior to installing, then put the upper A arms in before the install.

I figure it should be running by sunday, and that we'll have the rear suspension in by wednesday, that's with all the other crap we've got going in the meantime
 

JeepCoMJ

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Well, after a day or two off for work, I'm back at it. Swapped the nv242 off the KJ's old drivetrain onto this one, slid it under, lined it up, adjusted the K-member, lightly installed all the bolts for the trans x-member and exhaust, and got the coils and upper a-arms in on Friday morning.

Today I didn't get back from the swim meet (I coach a h.s. team) and in the shop until around 3pm. Spent a couple hours tearing down the old motor to find cause and effect of damage....the front cylinder exhaust side valve seat had come partially out, which dropped the roller rocker out, and when the cam came back down and hit it, it busted the lifter housing out of the head. I'll post pics of that later. Luckily, the short block is good, and I have a buyer who has good heads.

Once done with that, I finished aligning everything, hooked up the steering shaft, put the calipers on, then layed the harness back out and plugged it all in.
Once I got that done, computers back in, I hooked up most of the a/c system (except to the radiator since that will come back out to put a new water pump and the mechanical fan in).
After that, it was a simple matter of mounting the power steering line brackets and cooler, sliding the radiator in, hooking up trans cooling lines so that I could test run it. Test run went great.

I'll button up the front end tomorrow, except the front bumper itself, and then turn it around so I can swap the rear axle out for the 4.10 geared rear and lift kit, skid plates for the gas tank, transfercase, and the rear driveshaft.

We do have to do some light trimming and probably ditch the inner fenders in order for the 32x11.50's to fit. I don't want to, but my bro doesn't want to buy different tires. It should come out OK.

Once all the mechanical is done, we still need to swap out the interior to charcoal since this "grey" looks more "tan", and kinda ugly. We will keep the light grey seats as that is a color combo available from factory, and they are heated leather.

On to the pics!

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Of course we also still need to wash the engine bay completely to get rid of the dust from the "new" parts, and then wax the jeep. It is going to get a lightbar if we can dig up one that's in good shape.
 

JeepCoMJ

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Finished up the engine bay this morning. dropped the grille and front bumper on loosely so that I can see what it looks like...still have to do some work in that area as the very edge of the tires just barely rub the fender flares when turning. Under compression, that could be very troublesome. we will see what I come up with there.

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Now I have to hook up the shift linkage, front driveshaft, and muffler, then turn it around so we can put the rear end and lift in it. gettin closer.
 

JeepCoMJ

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Thanks.

Got everything in the front done after a few more days off. reorganized and shuffled things so the silver one is out in the middle, and the green one is in the open bay to strip.

this is mocked with the rear axle drooped, body on jack stands, rear tires just sitting on. still have to swap the rear end.

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Also pulled the busted up lightbar from the renegade, set it on the roof for mockup prior to moving the jeeps around

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A guy stopped in before we started this project, seeing the silver one sitting outside on the tow dolly, and talked about one he had picked up that was t-boned in the driver's side. we were going to sell him the parts to fix it, but the frame rail is rippled. Once we looked at it, we decided to buy it. it's got a new motor in it, 205k on the ticker, rescue green Renegade with intact lightbar, color match wheels (good $$$ there) with new tires on it.

Boy did it get hit hard. But, looks like we're looking for another body to do this again now, as we still have all the lower miles trans and k-member to put the new motor on so we can build a good one.

Bright side....we have a good lightbar now. And a spare to go on my xj
 

JeepCoMJ

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It's Cactus green, not rescue green.
"new" one

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The hammer is for asthetics
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good, uncracked light bar set on. much better
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Spare tire fits, door glas just skims by it, and it doesn't seem to affect the hinges (I'm sure it will over a long time, but not long enough for me to care much)
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The ol' renegade pretty much stripped. finishing interior and rear end, then on to swapping that all in.
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darn camera is just fuzzy in the shop lighting.
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We're swapping the charcoal interior in, less seats, as that was a color combo available from factory, and frankly...the charcoal interior actually looks good and the creamy grey/tan that is in the silver one looks like puke.
 

JeepCoMJ

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finished gutting the interior in both liberties. Have to swap the dash harness no matter what to install the Renegade roof lights, or splice into the high/low beam harness. I'm glad I've got the parts to do it right.

charcoal interior panels removed

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again, sorry for the grainy pics. green renegade interior stripped except carpet, heaterbox.
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tire carrier removed
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Silver Limited interior gutted, less carpet (will be switching, but it was easier to vacuum while still installed)
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pile of grey(ish) interior. will be reusing grey leather in it, but I think we found nicer ones to go in. power and heated
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all of the charcoal interior in a pile. gotta clean to install
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old dash removed. goodbye ugly
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It's funny. We decided to swap the interior once we really realized how dirty the headliner was. As there is no "good" way to clean it while installed, and it likely would result in the headliner falling down if we did, we are recovering it. I just hated the grey interior.
 

JeepCoMJ

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got the dash in

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...and light bar working today. there was one wire missing in the limited engine harness to make that work, so I carefully pulled that wire and installed it in this harness as I didn't want to tear the engine bay apart again. works good.

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Just need to mount it then it's good to go.

Also got to finally testing out the fog lights etc. and everything works
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Also started on the door panels. Wanted to make them even nicer, so we swapped the brushed aluminum luck parts into them.

old look
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new look
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Just picked up the parts necessary to instal the light bar. Getting that done, then installing the interior today. Want this thing done by tuesday or wednesday, registered, insured, ready to drive.
 

JeepCoMJ

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Well, I know it's sunday but I've been up since 3am....fell asleep early last night and just couldn't stay asleep. Guess that's what eating a whole jar of jalapenos does to you lol.

Anyways, the lightbar is now installed, and functional. on to rust proofing the floors, then installing the headliner, door panels, and waiting for the paint to dry before I put the carpet in.

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required tools;

drill
5/16" drill bit
1" hole saw
6 1/4x20 nut-serts and tool
small amount of windshield glue/adhesive
6 1/4x20 1" long bolts (stainless)
2 1/4x20 nuts (stainless)
6 1/4" washers
6 1/4" lock washers
tape measure to square it off to the factory location (outer front mounting bolts 3" in on center from outer forward roof edge)

I ran the rear two bolts up from underneath to help square it off and keep it from sliding forward once in position. I'd have liked to do that on all of them, but you cannot access behind the 4 forward mounting locations. I used the polyeurothane windshield adhesive upon install, after install, and on the bolts when running them in. I don't think that I will have any issues with leaks on it this way. Ideally, it would have been best to order riv-nuts with M8 coarse thread poppets, but that wasn't in the cards...couldn't wait until next friday to get them.

more to come yet today.
 

JeepCoMJ

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Headliner back in

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A pillars installed. Also, dash complete

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JeepCoMJ

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thanks. it's not hard work at all, it's just the time spent that's the pain.

called it a day after we finished cleaning and prepping the floors. we will have the interior done tomorrow, and likely finish it by tuesday.
 

Dave

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Awesome work and good thread JeepCoMJ.

Dave
 

jdonovan

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Wondering how much you would want for the foam sound deadening under the drivers side carpeting? John
 

JeepCoMJ

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I don't know honestly. send me a pm with an offer. basically, I'm not willing to eat shipping, but that part would be cheap anyways so I'm not going to argue with your price much if at all.
 

JeepCoMJ

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Well, haven't updated this for a couple days.

As it stands, we have not got much left to do.

We finished the interior, just need to detail it. finished routing the roof light wire to it's proper location in a non-intrusive manor, picked up the other liberty, and got the rear axle and lift (OME) out of the old totalled Renegade.

Pulling the rear end took me 20 minutes start to finish. I got my 10mm impact socket on 3/8" cornwell gun, 21mm and 15mm impact sockets on 1/2" cornwell gun, air, 21mm wrench, 12mm brake line wrench, interior clip removal tool for the wiring on the upper link, and buzzed it all out. hardest part was lining up the jack, and disassembling the rear brakes to disconnect the e-brake cables.

What's left to do is remove the A pillar trim, sun visors, front and rear tow hooks, and brand spanking new front (drilled slotted rotors, nice pads) and rear (full drums, etc.) brakes off of the renegade we just picked up, and put them on the silver one.



I also removed the rear end and suspension from the silver one, so we need to put the "new" one with lift in the rear, re-bleed the brakes, drain trans, add drain plug to drain pan, do an all over fluid replacement/change, and then do a final detail on the silver one. Then it's driveable.


pics.

one has grown to three. FML

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Carpet in

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Seats in. I did try to do some restoration, and it does look better, but that is where my area of expertise ends.

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cargo area cover as well

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completed and installed door panels. Swapping the black handles and bezels out for the brushed ones really was very straight forward

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