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My Eliminator MJ's


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I've owned quite a few MJ's and kept looking for that "holy grail" '91-'92 Eliminator edition 4x4 short bed MJ....... finally found it!

 

'91 4.0/5 speed 4x4 short bed Eliminator....... you'd never guess it has over 250K miles on it....... :eek:

 

A buddy got it from the original owner a month ago after he'd bugged the guy about selling it for a while..... he finally gave in. My buddy's uncle died right after he got the MJ and left him a nice Tacoma so he called me offering me the MJ knowing I'd been looking for one.

 

The orig. owner took remarkably good care of it, very well maintained. Doesn't leak a drop of oil anywhere and lots of service/maintenance records. Runs and drives incredible! Engine shows some fatigue but that's to be expected with 250K miles.

 

The paint was a mess. The faded appearance turned out to be just a ton of wax buildup and haze.

 

I polished it up, tossed on a set of 16" Icon wheels/tires and a custom steering wheel, shifter knob and tool box and have been daily driving it now for 3 weeks. Love it!

 

Plans are to install a 2" lift, 265/75/16 AT's and some hood vents and that's about it. Possibly an old-school grill guard/winch mount assembly if I can find one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I also have this '88 4.0/5 speed 2wd Eliminator that will be finding a new owner here soon. This one would have been fun to finish, but since finding my "holy grail" truck........ it's gotta go.

 

It's got an MJ D44 with 4:56 gears and 30" rear tires. It launches pretty impressively and would make a neat little 1/8th mile truck as is. My intention was to gut it, toss in a Chevy small block on blue bottle, an auto trans and go racing....... wish I could keep it and make that happen.

 

It's going back to stock, I'm keeping the D44 for the '91 Eliminator, swapping out the 4:56's for 3:55's.

 

The '98 front clip and doors was a fun little side project - always wanted to do that, but can't bring myself to do it to the '91. This truck is beat enough that it didn't bother me.

 

Time for someone else to have fun with it. :thumbsup:

 

 

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Troy,

No wonder you peddled off the "drag truck" you lucky F***.

Let me know if the dude does not show on Saturday.....

Still glad I wound up with the silver 88' SWB we bouht in July from you.

you ought to see the agate leather buckets in her.

 

Buffalob.

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Troy,

No wonder you peddled off the "drag truck" you lucky F***.

Let me know if the dude does not show on Saturday.....

Still glad I wound up with the silver 88' SWB we bouht in July from you.

you ought to see the agate leather buckets in her.

 

Buffalob.

 

 

Thanks Bob. Glad you're still diggin' your MJ!

 

Yeah, the '88 Eliminator sold Saturday to one of the NAXJA guys.

 

Looked like this after I returned it to stock "driver" shape:

 

 

 

The rear springs sure looked to be stock, but it sure sits high in the rear after removing the 2" lowering block....... those are 30" tires so the front looks low still...... but I did swap in stock front XJ coils. The new owner will be doing a pre-runner look and was excited to get these wheels as part of the deal. A 2" spacer up front and he should be good to go.

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  • 1 month later...

I've had a few..... some I've fixed and sold, others were just too far gone and became organ donors....

 

'88 2wd 4.0/5 speed. 230K miles, runs like a champ. Bought from the original owner who showed me a 3" stack of dealership maintenance receipts.

 

 

'91 4.0 auto 4x4 short bed. This one I shoulda kept. Nice and straight, rust free and rare. Factory buckets/console/skid plates. 200K miles. Just sold it to someone in Arizona.

 

 

'88 Truggy. This one I kinda played caretaker for about 2 years for the guy that built it. I bought it, had fun with it, and the previous owner/builder asked to buy it back.

 

 

'91 2.5L 5 speed 2wd short bed. Fun little truck. Found an XJ with same paint code front clip and fixed the wrinkled front on it. This one changed hands 5 times among a few Colorado Chapter members. Current member has plans for a 5.7L swap and some 1/4 mile track time....

 

 

'88 4.0 5 speed 4x4 short bed. This one was nice, a little banged up but solid. Has been owned by 4 Colorado Chapter members. The current owner is now building it to run on 35's.....

 

 

'89 2.5L 5 speed 2wd. Clean and rust free, a little banged up but a solid little truck. Needed freeze plugs replaced, new timing chain and some front end work.

 

 

'87 4.0 auto 4x4 long bed parts donor..... did the public a HUGE favor by taking this cobbled mess off the road. Back half of the cab went to a Naxja member chopping his XJ

 

 

'86 4cyl/5 speed long bed parts donor. Bed became a trailer for a Naxja member.

 

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'87 4.0 5 speed 4x4 long bed parts donor. T-boned hard. Pretty rotten and rusty, salvaged what I could.

 

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'87 2.5L 5 speed 4x4 short bed parts donor. (Looks a whole lot better than it really was..... ) Blown engine. Sat for 10+ years under a large tree. Branch fell and smashed the windshield allowing years of water into the dash and floorboards. Rusted out, floors and lots of bondo in the body. Mice tore up most of the wiring. Large branch smashed the roof pretty good too. Salvaged what I could. Bed went to a guy with a really trick '98 updated MJ project.

 

 

'86 2.5L 5 speed long bed 4x4 parts donor. Rusty floors and blown engine/bad trans. Colorado Chapter member built a trailer with the back half.

 

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'87 2.5L auto short bed 2wd. Really rusty cab, bad engine. Colorado Chapter member built a trailer with the back half.

 

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Trailers:

 

 

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'91 2.5L 5 speed 2wd short bed. Fun little truck. Found an XJ with same paint code front clip and fixed the wrinkled front on it. This one changed hands 5 times among a few Colorado Chapter members. Current member has plans for a 5.7L swap and some 1/4 mile track time....

 

 

I owned this one for a time. Ended up selling it to Yella before I moved out to the Coast.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Got a few things done recently. :thumbsup:

 

OEM "Comanche" bed liner:

 

 

I'm really happy with the way the bedliner covers the dings/dents that were along the top edge of the bed.

 

 

And discovered that the bed liner provides NO access to the bed tie down anchors..... Fixed.

 

 

The front anchors were gonna be impossible to get to with the tool box mounted, so I attached some chain to removeable links.

 

 

The OEM pillar lights were busted and non-repairable, so I found a write up on ComancheClub for these replacements. A whopping $6 fix. :thumbsup:

 

 

Found an S-10 rear view mirror with map lights that I'd forgotten I had and figured what the heck......

 

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  • 4 months later...

Brought another one home. Sort of a barn-find........

 

Guy advertised a Jeep truck for salvage, ad said it had an "Eliminator" sticker on the bed sides........ had to go check it out. Glad I did!

 

'90 Eliminator non-A/C truck, 4.0 and AX15 with 154K miles on it. Engine was torn down to the short block. Unfortunately, the owner inherited the truck when his brother died and he couldn't tell me why the engine was torn down.

 

Completely un-touched original truck, never wrecked and rust free except for a silver-dollar sized spot on one corner of the fuel filler door opening.

 

Factory skids, D44 w/ limited slip, and the usual Eliminator options.

 

Interior is super nice. Seats are near perfect as is the carpet with OEM "Jeep" floor mats. Headliner fabric was torn out but otherwise the interior is all there and in great shape. The jack looks like it's never been used and still fastened in it's proper location. OEM AM/FM stereo and OEM shifter knob. The glove box contained all the original manuals - I'm hoping among the other papers I'll find the original window sticker.........

 

All the exterior rubber is pretty dry-rotted but the body is near mint. Originally black, it's got severe sun-burned paint. A small dent to the driver's door, another to the passenger side cab panel behind the door is all. The bed is as nice as I've ever seen on an unrestored truck. The fender wells don't have any dents, the tail gate looks to have never had anything heavy loaded on it and it's totally straight. The front bed panel isn't banged up or dented and the top edge is arrow straight. It's like it was a commuter truck that never hauled anything. None of the skid plates have a scratch on them.

 

Still has all 5 of the Eliminator wheels as well.

 

Plan is to fix or replace the engine, replace all fluids, flush out the gas tank, replace the rotten muffler, replace the dry rotted tires, and get it back to running/driving condition. I'll probably sell it at that point......... unless I get the wild hair to have it painted.

 

This truck has the potential to be nicer than my '91 Eliminator........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not looking forward to digging this out........... :ack:

 

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  • 3 months later...
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