opinion on a jeep

[hopefulcj]

What do you guys think about this jeep? I checked out the VIN and it matches what he said/showed about the jeep. It has PS, PB, heats/vent, all gauges work except for clock, tub is rhinolined, seatbelts work, and all the lights work. The PO set the rig up for SOA but it hasnt been used. Tires have 80 % tread left, sterring is not great but not loose, says it "rides like a jeep." "No" rust on the frame or body, has 2 small dings/chips on the frame passenger side. He says that it has 30,000 miles on the original engine, the PO before him said that he bought it from a guy that used it on his farm, PO before this guy-not sure, and this guy has said that hes had his fun with it, and he wants to buy a boat. The tires have mud on them so it has been off-roaded, I have not seen the truck in person, but I plan on buying it this weekend for 6500. Does this seem reasonable? Oh yea, it has the original paint and Renegade decals.

 

[Purple77CJ7]

From the pictures it looks good. CJ7 's are going up in price like everything else. If you think it's worth it, then the price is right.

 

[BusaDave9]

It looks good. Only 30,000 miles?

The PO set the rig up for SOA but it hasnt been used.

You can't weld the spring perches on without removing the u-bolts and therefore the axle. My guess is the PO installed the SOA and the jeep was 6 inches higher than it is now. At that point the PO removed the SOA because it was ridiculously high.
It looks like it's at a good height now.
I think it's worth the price, especially if it only has 30,000 miles.

 

[Old Dog]

The once was SOA would make me wonder.
It looks to have a 4" lift with small lift shackles. the "it drives like a jeep"
is a combo of the shackles and the steering geomitry being out some which will cause some bump steer. It just comes with lifting one up that high.
If it's all it's said to be it sounds like a fair price.
Go look at it with a friend (4 eyes are better than 2) drive it around and than listen to that little voice in your head.

a word of caution, there are 2 little voices in your head. One will always be saying Oh boy oh boy a cj buy it. listen to the other more sane one.

 

[hopefulcj]

I hate that voice, but you're right, that voice has stopped me from buying 2 keeps so far. I'm digging this jeep, I hope it turns out to be what he says it is. I asked him about the milage and he was honest with me, he can't guarantee it but he's going off what the PPO told him. Anything I should look for besides the obvious? I'm somewhat new to carbs, I've disected and fixed one on a motorcycle but nothing like a jeep. The Soa is nice, I might go Soa with stock springs and eventually do a reverse shackles set up. Thanks for your replies.

 

[zuba]

Needs a little work,but nice . I would pick it up for that.

 

[SKT]

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Nice looking '7, but I can't see it only having 30,000 original miles.

Not trying to rain on your parade, and crazier things have happened, but judging from the pictures of the normal wear-n-tear it would appear to have more than 30K on it.

Good luck, and keep us posted!




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[Busted Knuckles]

This original post is almost a month old, so it would be interesting to know if he passed or bought it.

First Ive seen of this post, Im calling BS on this one, it does not pass the "smell test" for me, just sound of it, and then when I hit the pics, for starters the "Renegade " stickers on not OE, so Id assume its been painted, pics are poor enough you cant tell much of anything. Not to mention you can hide a mile of repairs under truck liner...

Then a jeep with no rust ? Aint no such thing, except maybe in the southwest desert, or one sitting in a climate controlled museum. My 83, has been stored since 1995, not been wet or driven once, with 26k ( I bought from the original owner ) on it and never winter driven, its still continues to rust.


Id have to see it in person, intuitively, Id say no way, the facts are miss-represented. Statistically speaking, its probably BS as well. Hate to rain on the parade, but he OP asked.

 

[SKT]

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Whatever became of this one?



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[Busted Knuckles]

I just sent "hopefulcj" a " so what happened" PM, lets see if he shows up and tells us the rest of the story..

 

[SKT]

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I just sent "hopefulcj" a " so what happened" PM, lets see if he shows up and tells us the rest of the story..

Thanks!

It's always nice to get a follow-up/closure from the OP on posts like this!



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[hopefulcj]

WellI ended up buying the jeep. I have been busy with school, a move, a wedding, and some small projects with the jeep. I got it for 6500 and I am pretty happy with it. I have put on some new bumpers, bikini top, steering stabalizer/brace/mount. I have also completed a tie rod flip kit with all new ends, this has greatly improved the steering, I still need to replace the ball joints, install 4* shims, and also add some wheel spacers. I know the spacers are looked down on but I think they will be fine with proper maintenance. I also bought a MC carb with new wires, distributor, and plugs from the ebay guy. I have also cleaned and lubed the heater assembly, I think i need a new/heat vent cable though because its pretty tough to operate and the hood vents stay open, I prob should just close them to stop it from leaking, however it does leak a small ammount of water through the windshield gasket.

I plan on ripping up the bedliner since it is already flaking off, no prob with me because i want to figure out what's under their, so far it looks good, bright green paint, this explains why the liner did not adhere to the unscuffed paint. In the farfuture I would like to paint the jeep OD green with all black parts, installnew autometer gauges, install new led rear lights, rebuild t case, put in TJ seats, new radio, and in the very far future I will need to redo the wiring harness since it is fairly ghetto.

In conclusion I am happy with this jeep, I know that i probably could have gotten him down to 6000 but thats what happens when you drive 400 miles with a car trailer, negotiating kind of goes out the wibdow since you are already their. It has started up every time, sometimes it takes a few seconds but once it starts it runs fine. Part of the reason that I bought the MC carb. Over the weekend I am going to chnage out all the fluids, I am hoping that this will stop or slow the t case from leaking. After looking over thr jeep, it does seem to have been painted or touched up, and the Renegade paint job as pointed out is not correct and has some smears and oversprays. I feel that the jeep has more likely 130000 mileson itand isin good condition, then again itcould have 30 and be in fair condition. I have no rust worse than surface rust on the jeep, the one area that needs to be addressed is the floorboard crossmember underneath the rear passenger seat area, it is coated with mud and after several power washings it has not come off so I need to get under their and get dirty.

Sorry for all the misspelled words, I'm on my phone and can't sleep.

 

[Busted Knuckles]

Thanks for the follow up, we where wondering what happened. Sounds like you have been busy, just on the jeep itself, good to hear you got a good deal and not a turd !

Share some pics when you get time, BK.

 

[hopefulcj]

I changed the engine oil, tcase and Transmission fluids tonight. it was actually very easy. It turns out that the PO put ATF in the T-4 tranny, I know that some people prefer this, but I went ahead and put in all dino oil, just like it came off the showroom floor. It's kind of early to tell, but it looks like most of the leaks are slowing already, I also added a little lucas oil preservative to the engine, tcase, and Transmission . Whats an easy way to change out the diffs, I was thinking of syphoning out the oil through the fill hole, that way I dont have to make new seals and hope that they actualy seal.

 

[Busted Knuckles]

Great to hear your doing P/Ms, but I think if you have an owners manual, and you look at your T-4 fluid spec, it will call for ATF, all the T-4 -T5s come with ATF. Not sure its really a preference, but more a lube engineering thing. BTW, ATF is Dino oil, with a different additive package than motor oil, and allot more detergent, and a anti-foaming agent (oh and some red dye too).

Way back when, I had a new pontiac, it had a T-5 , car was almost new, and so was the T-5 at that time. I had the oil changed out of the Transmission at a quick lube around 10k miles to get the "broke in" junk out. I knew they put the wrong lube in by the way the car shifted and the fact that the 80/90w they put in would cause the car to creep in neutral when it was cold out. The oil is so thick for that Transmission , it caused a sort of hydraulic action on the gear set.

You might want to google T-4 or T-5 and 80/90w, or gear oil, or something along those lines to learn what the long term affect on that Transmission is with that oil in it.

 

[1986cj7]

This original post is almost a month old, so it would be interesting to know if he passed or bought it.

First Ive seen of this post, Im calling BS on this one, it does not pass the "smell test" for me, just sound of it, and then when I hit the pics, for starters the "Renegade " stickers on not OE, so Id assume its been painted, pics are poor enough you cant tell much of anything. Not to mention you can hide a mile of repairs under truck liner...

Then a jeep with no rust ? Aint no such thing, except maybe in the southwest desert, or one sitting in a climate controlled museum. My 83, has been stored since 1995, not been wet or driven once, with 26k ( I bought from the original owner ) on it and never winter driven, its still continues to rust.
Id have to see it in person, intuitively, Id say no way, the facts are miss-represented. Statistically speaking, its probably BS as well. Hate to rain on the parade, but he OP asked.

Your right on bedliner hiding alot of rust. I've presonaly patched 2" holes in my floor board by cutting out the bad spot to good metal and pop rivioting mech down wire wheeling the whole floor board to bare metal and putting down bedliner to have a better look and to get more miles out of the jeep. It will have to be replaced right in future just not now. My tub was new when I bought the jeep it had some surface rust and I wire wheeled all the rust off it and put down bedliner on it also the protect it from elements. On the bedliner thing is to get under the jeep with a screw driver and start poking around to see how bad the rust is. Some might poopoo on this idea I used, but its been 4 years since i've done this and it looks good and is still soild. Just my 2 cents

 

[hopefulcj]

Bustedknuckles, I was curious about the ATF, my haynes manual calls for ATF in the T-5 but for all other thrans, it says to use the 90w. I took it down to the beach today, and the only thing I noticed is that its a little harder to put in to second, like the synchros are going out, and it sometimes felt like it wanted to pop out of secondand go into neutral. The other gears seemed to be smooth shifting. What do you other guys think, ATF or gear oil?

 

[Busted Knuckles]

As far as I know, the T-4 and T-5 are the same Transmission , the T-4 not having Overdrive . I think there is a factory service manual in PDF format in the DOCs section of this site. Loose the aftermarket manual, I dont have a ready analogy as to why not to use it, but will cause more problems than it will fix.

If you want your want youre own copy of the factory manual, go to Feebay, I dont own anything that I dont own the OE published manual, anything less is just not acceptable.

 

[SKT]

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Thanks for the update!

It does sound like you've been busy!

When you get a chance, we're looking forward to some recent pics!



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