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Bought a Grand Cherokee


cruiser54
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After a couple months I've been pretty happy with my ZJ so far. There's enough of the XJ in it still with a bit more comfort, space, and towing capacity if properly equipped... My owners manual says there's a "special steering gearbox" for towing, apparently with deals that withstand higher temps, among other things. Don't know if I could've gone for anything other than the base model though... creature comforts seem to take away from the Jeepish utilitarianism of the thing, although I can appreciate them on the odd occasion. 

Looks good, and I hope it treats you well!

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Drove same year, trim, drivetrain combo through college. Put 60k on mine. Other then general maintenance, i only had to put a trans output speed sensor in it.

Tranny started slipping around 250k and i sold it. Id get another, not bad jeeps.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

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Had a 95, with the 5.2l and that full time transfer case.  Worst piece of Chryslerness I have ever owned.  The day I loaded it up and sold it to a couple guys who wanted to part it out, was the happiest day I had with that thing.

 

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20 hours ago, Pete M said:

sure looks clean!  oh wait, you live in a rust free state.  :D   

 

what are the plans for it?  

My wife wants it. I was gonna just put the water pump on it and a battery and flip it. The BFGs have 5000 miles on them. 

I paid $200 for it......Trans has been done. Transfer case works fine. If it fails, I have a spare or I could swap in a 242. 

 

And, gogmorgo is right. It's enough of an XJ but lots more comfortable. 

My wife now drives an 88 XJ with a 3" lift. We're in our mid 60s.......

 

The 88 Laredo will be for sale in the near future. 

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$200 bucks I would have bought it too! There seems to be more and more zjs and wjs being revived these days as all jeeps seem to be comming more of a commodity/trend as for affordability and part availability cheap. Built up wjs are surfacing around me frequently now and I think I would just be spoiled after driving 1. Its tempting, but I'm going to stick with my rusted out Fred Flinstone floor pan mj, with no air, cracked windshield, broken slider glass, 1 non working window regulator, no radio. Why, because I'm stubborn, cheap, like it for its pureness, and why fix it if ain't completely broke. When 1 of my fleet dies next though, a cheap zj or wj maybe on the menu as I grow older and lazier.

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13 hours ago, gogmorgo said:

My owners manual says there's a "special steering gearbox" for towing, apparently with deals that withstand higher temps, among other things.

 

That's the 12.7:1 "quick" ratio steering gear present only in the 92-1/2 - 98 ZJ models. The ZJs were the only Jeep models to get this ratio box throughout these years.

image.png.a9fadde1be18a9d82856b333ed83019d.png

 

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You'll have to forgive autocorrect's typo there. "Deals" shoulda been "seals".

image.jpg.6a02712cfd1f18dbc3f1ee017e343b45.jpg

I knew there's a fast-ratio box, but it was my understanding they all had it. The owner's manual makes no note of the steering ratio, just the "high temperature seals". This kinda stuck out to me cause I wouldn't have expected the steering system to be affected all that much by trailer weight. 

An interesting thing to note, apparently the AX15 is only good for 2000lbs towing in a ZJ... but there's no mention of needing a better axle than the D35 for 6500lbs, just make sure you've got 3.73's and synthetic oil in it.

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First I've heard of the "special" pump and gear seals too. Just eyeballed the 94-96 parts manual and sure enough in the breakdown of the pump and steering gear components, the seal packages for the ZJ pump and gear all had different part numbers that the those of the other 94-96 Jeeps. So for sure there is something "special" for the seals.   :grinyes:

 

Also, ZJs through the 93-98 era had different steering gear boxes for those w. the trailer tow option than those w/o.

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Cruiser54, good luck with your 98 Grand Cherokee.  I bought a 95 new and drove it for 357,000 miles. Engine still rolling along but when the tranny went bang for the third time, I did not go forward with it.  Still have it but just parked.  Engine, ac, other all fine. Who knows maybe in 10 years they might become a vehicle of interest. Was so many on the road though.  I still think the side view of that Grand Cherokee back then was a home run for Jeep. I called Jeep about it hoping they might want to buy it to tear apart the engine for evaluation. (GM has done that) but all they did was send me a license plate frame that has "Jeep" at the top and "300,000 mile club across the bottom.:cool:

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On 8/5/2018 at 10:52 AM, gogmorgo said:

You'll have to forgive autocorrect's typo there. "Deals" shoulda been "seals".

image.jpg.6a02712cfd1f18dbc3f1ee017e343b45.jpg

I knew there's a fast-ratio box, but it was my understanding they all had it. The owner's manual makes no note of the steering ratio, just the "high temperature seals". This kinda stuck out to me cause I wouldn't have expected the steering system to be affected all that much by trailer weight. 

An interesting thing to note, apparently the AX15 is only good for 2000lbs towing in a ZJ... but there's no mention of needing a better axle than the D35 for 6500lbs, just make sure you've got 3.73's and synthetic oil in it.

Having towed about 4k with mine stock with the towing set-up.... 6500 would have been white knuckle scary to pull anywhere with hills.

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Yeah I'd definitely want trailer brakes set up before pulling that much. But I've pulled 4500 unbraked with my non-metric-tonne or tow-package MJ and it was okay, couple decent hills too... I live 15 miles from the east-west continental divide, and 70 miles north of Arctic/Atlantic. There are hills here. 

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