York OBA Cherokee Install

York Cherokee Install Using Kilby Components

Kilby provides KE-1700 for the Cherokee, which is similar in every respect to the KE-1900 for the TJ. However, installation is not quite as cut and dry as the installation into a TJ.

First, the battery must be relocated. There are several options, and I chose to move my battery to behind my passenger seat. I ordered a nice racing battery enclosure and fabricated a bracket to hold the box. Your other option is to relocate the battery to where the air intake box is currently located. This means purchasing a XJ Diesel Battery Tray, a new air intake filter and canister which will sit above the fender well. The XJ Diesel Battery Tray seemed to be the more expensive route.

Second, the fan will hit the clutch housing on the compressor. It's unavoidable. It's recommended that a one half inch spacer be used, but the part numbers I was given were unobtainable. Flex-a-lite offers a spacer, but it was incompatible with my water pump. I finally chose to trim a 2 inch by one half inch diagonally cut sliver off the ends of each fan blade.

Third, the A/C lines will be in your way. They need to be moved. Kilby recommends a professional A/C shop perform the modification, but I was able to muscle mine out of the way. I basically rotated pipe running from the radiator to the A/C compressor so that it would lay flat under the York, and bent the hell out of the other one so it would run straight down and then run along the frame rail beneath the York. It's pure luck that I didn't break the lines. Take yours to an A/C shop.

The Kilby kit includes a pulley for the alternator. This pulley replaces the stock pulley with one of the exact same diameter, but the new pulley has a V-groove as well. The York can be purchased with a 6-groove serpentine clutch, but most of the ones pulled from junk yards, or ordered online, will have a dual V-groove clutch. The belt length between the York clutch and the new dual pulley attached to the alternator is 30 inches. That's about 76 centimeters, which is what you'll find at AutoZone. My Kilby kit included a belt that was 28 and five eighths inches, and was much too short. The 30 inch belt positioned the compressor at the exact center of the slotted bolt holes in the Kilby mounting bracket.

The steps to complete the install are as follows:

  1. Relocate battery.
  2. Remove alternator.
  3. Remove fan.
  4. Remove old pulley from alternator and replace with new Kilby pulley.
  5. Re-install alternator.
  6. Move AC lines until you're pretty sure that they won't be in the way.
  7. Install Kilby KE-1700 mounting bracket by following the instructions for the KE-1900. Actually, I found it easier to install the compressor onto the mounting plate before putting it in the Jeep. Leave the bolts just loose enough to allow the compressor to be moved up and down in the slotted bolt holes.
  8. Install the new 30 inch belt.
  9. Reposition compressor to tighten belt. Tighten compressor bolts.
  10. Re-install the Fan. Do not tighten bolts or belts.
  11. Look down into the engine compartment. Spin the fan. All directions henceforth are relative to the fan blade currently positioned in front of the York clutch. Mark the fan blade where the outer most edge of the clutch touches the inner most part of the top of the fan blade. I marked mine about 2 inches in from the outside end of the fan blade. Now mark how much the fan blade overhangs the compressor clutch. I marked mine about one half inch down from the top of the fan blade. These two marks should create a diagonal line that should be trimmed off. Repeat for each fan blade. For this process, I removed the fan again from the XJ. As it turns out, I ended up cutting about an extra eighth of an inch off to make it fit once it was reinstalled in the XJ.
  12. Re-install Fan.
  13. Install main belt.

Your York compressor is now installed. You need to plumb your tubing and all accessories, and install a switch in the cab to turn the clutch on and off.

Submitted by:
Robert Landrum

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