tbrand

... you're glad when something reasonably normal and common breaks, so you don't have to troll the internet for months for find a replacement.

Had it been picked over pretty well, or was it mostly intact? I took the grille and surrounds, the seats, and the taillights.

In looking for a car for my wife, I thought I'd run the VIN on this truck. Looks like my title application never showed up in their system somehow, nor has it been registered as destroyed since I sent it to the junkyard. Last event on its record was 2005.

It would probably be easier to bob the longbed than to switch the shortbed over.

Why did you paint the terminals on the distributor cap and the spark plugs?

How comfortable are you with fabrication? If the answer isn't "very" then it's pretty much not possible. Why would you want to swap beds? Does one of the trucks have a lot of body damage?

I have State Farm - it's something like $30-40 a month for my truck, with high-limit liability and comprehensive. Collision isn't worth it to me - much as I love the truck, I could afford to find a replacement vehicle if I wreck it, and if someone else wrecks it, they'll be buying my replacement. Just not worth the extra money for a truck they'll say is worth a thousand bucks. Word of warning - be very cautious about justifying credit purchases in the name of "building credit." It can be very easy to let it get away from you and then have a bigger bill than you can afford. You don't need that burden at 18. Take it from someone who's been there - paying cash is nearly always the better way to go.

How hard could it be?

If it was $2500, and a 4.0 like he said it was, then I might have bothered with the title hassle. Worst case, my MJ gets a ton of sweet upgrades. But, since we're not desperate for a car, I'll keep looking.

I know, right? I've looked at that one a few times on CL, but $5k for nearly 180k miles makes me choke a little. The scary thing is, he's not too far out of line with local pricing. I actually called about this one, but the guy never put the title in his name, which is a big no-no with Idaho DMV, and the last thing we need is a perfectly good car that we can't legally register. http://boise.craigslist.org/cto/2535925052.html

Hahaha. I have free time all day, as I'm between work contracts. She wants something smaller, like the Civic she's been driving since she was 16. I think at least one 4wd vehicle could be useful this winter - it actually snows a little here in Boise, as opposed to Phoenix. Too bad my MJ is and will be 2wd for a while. If you see something really, really nice, we could probably stretch to $7k, but it would have to be near-perfect. I'm not opposed to flying out and driving it home, if it's within a long day's drive of Boise.

I've never seen one like that... could be a custom application.

I had a friend in Houston show me just how cheap cars are down there - same condition/mileage as cars here, selling for 50-70% of what people ask in Boise. It's crazy.

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/cto/2508661006.html 86 Jeep Comanche X 2wheel drive $900. New tags in May, clean title in hand, 2.5l Long bed, 18 city mpg, 24 hwy. 215,xxx, & 5 speed manuel. New rotors & brakes up front about 4 months ago. Waterpump & thermostat about 2 months ago. New bushing up front(steering stablizer bar,track bar,ect)Willing to trade for 4x4, jeeps, older trucks, or vans (cherokee,wagoneer,J-trucks,comando, scout, chexy swb, fs blazer or broncos, bronco 2s,ect.) Gotta be driveable w/ good tags OR be old enought to not need tags 1975 or older on Oregon. Trade needs to be driveable & have tags or tagable. Call or text works best.... nine 7one-six7eight-zero one one 7 I really need to sell perfably, I need to fix my other jeep & need some extra cash since i'm a college student on FA. PLEASE BE SERIOUS AS I AM. Looking to make a deal by the end of the weekend no sooner than friday evening. Thank you again for looking.

We're looking for an XJ for the wife, to replace her Civic that lost a timing belt. We've got about $4000 to spend for a pretty nice example. 97+, Auto, 4x4, power windows and locks would be good, but most of all we're looking for a mechanically solid Jeep. It will be strictly a DD, with the occasional mountain trips in the winter. Everyone around here seems to want a lot for their Jeeps, even with mystery mechanical issues. We're in Boise, but would be open to Jeeps near Portland and Seattle as well.

What experience do y'all have with a Mobil 1 filters? I've run Wix on my truck since I got it, but it appears that, if you watch the local AutoZone/O'Reilly's ads, you can get a Mobil1 oil and filter kit for less money than buying 6 quarts of good conventional and a Wix filter. Recommendation?

Taught the wife the basics of driving a stick-shift in the old MJ today. She's got the starting off figured out pretty well using the clutch only, no gas. That's the hardest part, in my opinion. Next lesson will be actual shifting.

Where are you located? 87warrior has a D30 plus other goodies if you're looking for a 4x4 conversion. I would have snapped it up, but he's not close enough. viewtopic.php?f=24&t=30765

I think the point on the V6/V8 8.8 was that it doesn't matter which engine it had, because the only difference was the mounting brackets that you will remove anyway.

So this second ZJ drove decently, but I noticed that it sort of had a vibration when stopped in Drive. I have no experience with automatic Jeeps - is that normal? It's a 4.0/AW4, full-time 4wd system. Other than that vibration, it ran fine and stopped fine, and the A/C worked great, which would be a big improvement over my MJ. It has 155k miles on it, interior is ok, exterior has some dings/scratches, but nothing awful. He's asking $2000, but it sounds like he's pretty anxious to sell. Think it's worth $1500? We're after something to tide us over while the wife's Civic is waiting to see its fate, and perhaps keep around for the snow this winter.

Good on ya for your service. I'd vote for save your pennies while you're in, and build a killer MJ when you get out. Buying $600 worth of disposable (i.e. you don't plan on keeping it) lift seems like a waste, but to each his own. If all you want is to drive a lifted MJ, I bet any number of members, would rent you their truck for an hour. :D

According to the pictures I've seen, the AW4 has some pretty distinctive rounded ridges along the drivers side, toward the back. Shouldn't be too hard to tell if that's what it has. Or, I could just look for something that says Aisin-Warner. :wrench:

Now that would be awesome. I'm sure those are rarer than red Rolls-Royces, but I'd like to have one.

Indeed. I believe there were a few 4.0L/AW4 drivetrain combos in some of the very early '93 ZJs. I'd probably pick one of those up if I could find one with low mileage and in decent shape. I love my ZJ, but it's such an f'ing gas hog :D What qualifies as an early ZJ? I found a '93 4.0 auto with low-ish mileage. I'm going to go see it tonight to see if it's in decent shape. I'll definitely check for an AW4.

Especially since any automatic we buy would probably end up as the wife's rig eventually, and she'd prefer not to be left on the side of the road.