Driving a 77 Jeep 903 Miles- I may be a Dummy

[ThisGuyUKnow]

I am pulling the trigger on a jeep I found for sale in New York state. I am probably dumb as dumb can be but if its as good condition and has the specs the guy says and the pics look its too good of a deal to pass up.

I am probably about to fly across the country with a stack of money into some sort of deliverance situation. Assuming this guy doesn't murder me I just have to make it home with a 36 year old vehicle over 903 miles. I am thinking if i luck out and the guy isnt the new craigslist killer then surely I will have some kind of mechanical trouble over that large distance.

Anyone between Binghampton Ny and Chicago that can give assistance if a break down occurs I would greatly appreciate a pm with contact info. I am not asking for room and board in the event of a jeep meltdown just a ride to a hotel or maybe a tow to a mechanics shop. I will be taking a route through the northern part of PA and then hugging the great lakes all the way to chicago once I hit Chicago its a 3 hour shot south to my house. Thanks in advance if anyone out there is willing to potentially help out.

 

[coldair]

Road trip!!!! I like your kind of thinking. Your young make it an adventure. You need to take pictures LOTS of pictures!!

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

Road trip!!!! I like your kind of thinking. Your young make it an adventure. You need to take pictures LOTS of pictures!!

Its an old school cherokee chief i dont know if that matters as far as your interest i have pictures is concerned. If you look at my thread titled something along the lines of the "anyone near binghampton want to do some tire kickin" in this same forum i have the picks the owner sent me. I should take back roads and in every state i pass through take a nice scenic picture with the jeep in the fore ground.

 

[coldair]

Its an old school cherokee chief i dont know if that matters as far as your interest i have pictures is concerned. If you look at my thread titled something along the lines of the "anyone near binghampton want to do some tire kickin" in this same forum i have the picks the owner sent me. I should take back roads and in every state i pass through take a nice scenic picture with the jeep in the fore ground.

I think it would be a fun trip no matter what it is. Ive done some pretty crazy things that i look back on and think man that was fun. All your doing is making memories.

 

[IOPort51]

All it has to do is run for about 15 hours. just maintain an even strain and keep an eye on wheel bearing and tire temps. and don't run below 1/4 tank. If there is at the bottom maybe you won't find it.
and the story will begin " And then there was the time back in twenty twelve when I......."

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

Well it wasn't immaculate. There are some rot issues in the fender wells and ti think i need to completely redo the interior. I took some money off the top and made the deal.

I wasn't looking for a huge fixer upper but I think I can handle this one. Plus it looks so freaking cool.

 

[ZiggyManSaad]

Very nice looking.


Sent from Tapatalk on a small phone, forgive the misspelling.

 

[ken98k]

Are we there yet?

 

[mtnwhlr]

Very cool I always wanted a full size Cherokee. Does it have the V8 or the AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l :drool:

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

Very cool I always wanted a full size Cherokee. Does it have the V8 or the AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l :drool:

It has a 360 that was jasper rebuilt in 2003 with headers and true duals. It will be desmogged and then within the next year recieve my experimental Junyard TPI setup I have been building and an NV3550 Transmission . But first I got to strip the interior and grind down the floors and replace the rusted metal.

 

[ken98k]

It has a 360 that was jasper rebuilt in 2003 with headers and true duals. It will be desmogged and then within the next year recieve my experimental Junyard TPI setup I have been building and an NV3550 Transmission . But first I got to strip the interior and grind down the floors and replace the rusted metal.

I guess this means you survived the adventure?

 

[coldair]

Cool deal there is one of those running around where I just moved back to. You need to tell us about the trip.

 

[mtnwhlr]

Very nice the only ones I have been able to find have the AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l and lots of rust.

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

I guess this means you survived the adventure?

yessir i did. Drove straight through the night. Hit an enormous rain storm in Toledo, I almost stopped but that QT is a nice feature.

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

Cool deal there is one of those running around where I just moved back to. You need to tell us about the trip.

Well I talked to the guy a bunch of times and was very clear that I wasn't looking for a rusty rig. He assured me that another jeeper had been to the house thinking about buying the rig and had spent about 2 hours going through it and was super pleased with its condition. He told me there was no rot....

Well I flew out there and the guy pulls up at the airport in a 2 door tundra that had plastic sheet in place of the back wind and was so rusted you could reach through the front fender. When I got in the car I noticed that the key slot had been ripped out as well. I thought I was getting into the car with a serial killer... We pull up to his place, which is actually a very nice plot of land, and there is the jeep sitting in front of it. Man it was purdy.

It took me about 30 seconds to find the rust... The flares in the rear are starting to rot and the inner fender wells have rotted to where you can see into the interior. Other than that the frame and the floor pans seemed solid. I checked the cargo area and the floor was solid and the paint is dull but looks great. I mean its a 30 + year old vehicle so its going to have some rust. It also turned out that the "new" interior really amounted to that it had been reupholster some time in the last ten years and the carpet and headliner need to be junked and the wall paneling needs to be reworked. There is a whole in the perforated portion of the dash pad but otherwise the dash was in pretty good shape but the rig will definitely need a new steering column(which isn't too much of an issue because I was planning on swapping in a column from a manual fsj anyhow), I could tell with just a visual inspection that the wiring in the interior is going to have to be rewired or at least thoroughly gone through.

The motor was legit though, it still had the jasper tag on it and I called the jasper hot line and gave the serial and got the info. It was a stock rebuild in 2003. The truck has a 4BB ( i think the stock one from amc) and has actual headers on it which turn into some sick true duals. The suspension looks to be original but doesn't sag and with the 32" BFGs the clearence and the stance look bad ***. The springs still have the plastic inserts in between the leafs which you rarely see in a vehicle that old....

I kinda expected it needed work but when I saw that rust I still wanted to buy it but not for the agreed price of 4k. I think over all the truck was worth 4k. If it had been as good as the guy had said I would have easily forseen that thing selling around 5500-6 IMO. But with the rust I told him I was going to walk at 4. He got pissy but we started heading back to the airport and he was talking how he had an offer of 6500 and bla bla and I told him the most I would slap on the hood for a car with rust like that is 3500 and that i think is 500 more than what I would want to pay but considering the engine is pretty legit and over all the rot is currently in aplace where I might be able to repair it and not to mention the truck just looks freaking awesome I could do 3500. So he sighed and took the cash and handed me the title (which looked like it was stored in the bottom of a well) and off I rode into the sunset.

The only issues I had is that the rig started to run like butt at low speeds. When I was in the range of 35 to 45 mph it starts to kind of stumble like maybe it isnt getting gas or not firing right. But once I got it to highway speeds 55-75 the drive train purred like a kitten, ran smooth and responded well. Infact I checked the ODO against the mile markers and believe it or not the ODO seems to be reading exactly on the money. So I calculated out the economy. With the QT all time 4wheel I thought for sure I would be looking at 9 MPG but actually got 12-13!

 

[jamie]

i saw one of those for sale about 6 years ago with a 400 dollar price tag on the windshield. but it was either pay the rent or go homeless in a jeep.

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

i saw one of those for sale about 6 years ago with a 400 dollar price tag on the windshield. but it was either pay the rent or go homeless in a jeep.

The same condition for 400 bucks? I would have taken up a ramen noodle diet for 3 months for one that cheap.

 

[savedbyzero]

I would pay somebody to drive that distance....brave man.

 

[Niedhogg]

That's pretty nice, I love the cherokees.. my son and I were working in PA, last year, and while I was building my CJ out there, he found a '79 Cherokee S listed on CL, for 2500 bucks. We drove down and looked at it, the guy had bought it in Arizona a couple yrs prior, and his wife didn't really care for it too much. We offered him 1700 cash and he jumped on it. This Cherokee is completely rust free and totally original, I couldn't believe how nice it was and my son got a great Jeep for the money.. Odometer reads 59K, and we believe it to be accurate, he drives it every day.. Good luck with your restoration, these Jeeps are awesome!