Known issues? (I think '88)

[kryptronic]

Hold out for a southern truck.  It's an 86, it overheats, and it's in Indiana.  I like the 2.5L, but there's that too.  There are way better first projects to be had much closer to Georgia.  Patience is a virtue.  I'd advise that you look for a rust free driver close to home.

[Pete M]

I would happily pay more for a closer, better truck.  A running/driving truck allows soooooo much more diagnoses and examination before deciding to purchase.  Unless the shell is all you really want.  But then I would demand all sorts of better pics of the rockers, up inside the bedsides, floorboards, etc before even thinking about renting a trailer.  rust sucks and I will never buy another rotted Jeep project.    

 

Just because it's a good deal, doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea.  

[Green Mesa XJ]

I'd get the little hydrocarbon coolant tester thingy to determine if the head gasket is shot or the head is cracked.  Get somebody that is there to do it for you preferably, if you can trust them to do it.

 

If it passes that, order a radiator/cap, hoses, water pump, tstat, air filter and oil filter off Rockauto, all to their address.  Show up with oil, coolant, brake fluid, lots of water, more water, some tools, salty and sugary snacks, 3 changes of underwear, a sleeping bag, towel (do NOT forget a towel), and a roll of duct tape to fix that intake hose again.

 

The truck will make it.  Have faith and don't listen to all the Debbie Downers in this thread.  Worst case you've got your towel, snacks, and a couple changes of underwear, you don't need more than that to hitchhike home, or across the universe for that matter.

LOL. I was just telling the kids about Douglas Adams yesterday. Even put on the movie since they didn’t remember watching the dolphins in the so long and thanks for all the fish opening number when they were younger.

 

I wouldn’t necessarily trust the hydrocarbon test, it only really reacts well to large leaks that vent back into the coolant system. I think the compression test would tell him more.

I drove my pos 2.8 engine XJ literally all over place, tens of thousands of miles in a little over a year. First real trip was over a thousand miles To go home for the holidays with no real issues and several trips back and forth from Home to school after that. Only real trouble was the first few days where the heater hose blowing out and the battery dying on a cold night in the mountains. But at that time it was a only a fourteen year old Jeep. I still wouldn’t trust a 32 year old jeep with my life on a thousand mile inaugural journey. At least get it running around town without failure first.

 

Btw I did a ton of maintenance in the first few years as well so that reliability the 2.8 Jeep had wasn’t out of the box it was earned.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[DirtyComanche]

3 hours ago, Green Mesa XJ said:

LOL. I was just telling the kids about Douglas Adams yesterday. Even put on the movie since they didn’t remember watching the dolphins in the so long and thanks for all the fish opening number when they were younger.

 

At least somebody gets it.

 

 

All kidding aside, I'd give it a shot.  Just be prepared to have a plan for when it goes badly.  But I'd do it for the adventure rather than because it's a great truck to bother buying.  Unless I was planning to build a wheeler, in which case it's a great starting point.

[HOrnbrod]

9 hours ago, DirtyComanche said:

Have faith and don't listen to all the Debbie Downers in this thread.

 

Was just thinking the same thing.       OP, even if you have a few problems, think of it as an opportunity to become intimate and personal with your new truck. 

[Pete M]

if you go there, be prepared to be able to deal with fuel and brake issues.  not everyone thinks to bring those types of tools.  

[Jeep Driver]

1 minute ago, Pete M said:

if you go there, be prepared to be able to deal with fuel and brake issues.  not everyone thinks to bring those types of tools.  

Sounds to me like there are a few cheerleaders here that are more than willing to foot his bill. 

 

Since I'm the Debbie here..............

 

Well, one of us has to be reasonably intelligent, might as well be me. 

 

 

 

[Pete M]

oh, I totally wouldn't do it, but I am willing to provide some tips to make his journey a bit better if he decides to take it on.   

[gogmorgo]

Am I a Debbie downer? I dunno. I don't think so. 

Would I do it myself? To be fair I've already done similar things. I bought my Lada when the seller couldn't get it to pass a safety inspection and drove it 200 miles home. I did however have an escort for the first 170 or so miles. I already told about my adventure with my XJ in the dead of winter in the middle of one of the worst cold snaps in the last few years, with temperatures and windchill cold enough exposed skin would freeze within five minutes, and I didn't have an escort for that one... or even a functioning heater when I first set out. I did have a pretty good idea the XJ ran pretty well, but really not much more than I'd gleaned on the drive home nearly two years prior. 

Would I do it myself? Would I drive out with someone and have them drive back with me? Would I hop on a train with only a backpack of basic tools? I've done both of those. It's seemed to work out so far.

The deciding factor for me as to whether or not I would do the trip comes down to how much time. With the luxury of a couple weeks, hell yeah. With only a couple days... Not so much. 1000 miles is a 2000 mile weekend. That's gonna be 35 hours of driving round trip. I've done the 2000 mile 3-day weekend... It sucked. I left straight from work and drove all night. Then tried to accomplish things during the day in a semi-functioning sleep deprived state... I'm pretty glad I wasn't wrenching that day. Day two of the weekend was a somewhat relaxed day, but it wouldn't have been if I was worrying about fixing everything on the vehicle I was depending on getting me back home. Day 3 I hit the road early and made it in super late. 

1000 miles is a long-@$$ day on the road in a vehicle I know and trust. When I did the run in the XJ, I did it in two days with an extra couple days at the end just in case, and I gave myself two days of wrenching to get it going,which was good cause I caught a nasty flu from my brother... -42°c is not a day you wanna be outside wrenching while recovering from flu, but sometimes ya gotta, and that knocked the wrenching time in half. I alotted one full day to make the 200 mile run to collect the trailer, this being shakedown time. I also ended up requiring my trailer plug in a totally exposed parking lot in -35 windchill, which was zero fun. The second day I alotted to a 150 mile run to collect my parts horde, and do some visiting. More shakedown time and a second return to "home base". The third day I allocated to tackling the first 300 miles of the run. I had a place to stay at the end of 300 miles prearranged. Day four of the run was the remaining 700 miles after a pretty good shakedown of the previous few days' 700 miles. during the course of this leg, I lost the alternator, bummed a warm space to install it, then ended up setting out into the night for the last 500 miles, although I also discovered a nasty vacuum leak, and that got the heater functioning, otherwise I never would've kept going during the night. Day five had me getting in early in the morning and sleeping for a bit, then unloading the trailer. Day six was returning the trailer to UHaul after a solid night's sleep, with a different vehicle that I had full confidence would make it the 70 miles there and then back. Day seven I returned to work. 

Thats eight days I set aside for the trip, and that was a vehicle I had a fairly good idea ran, with considerable shakedown time before making the whole trip. 

Whether the trip's a good idea or not? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ up to you. Have you seem the first bunch of Roadkill episodes on YouTube? That's effective what you'll be doing. It ain't gonna be cheap no matter how you do it. Trailering it home just avoids the heartache of reassembling the truck on the side of a lonely highway. 

 

One other thing to think of is tires. They don't much care for long days in the sun, not moving. 

[Eagle]

I've done it, too. Bought a 1949 Hudson off post when I was stationed in the Army and drove it home to Connecticut through a snow storm. Battery (6 volt!) wouldn't hold a charge, so any time I stopped I had to park on an incline so I could roll it and pop the clutch. Except that doesn't work so well in snow, as I found out. Then I stalled it in line for a toll booth on the New Jersey Turnpike. A sympathetic trucker took pity on a serviceman in need, got on his CB to have other truckers create an open "pocket" in front of me, and then he nudged me enough to pop the clutch and get it going.

 

I've also bought vehicles that had been sitting for too long to be trusted, and brought them home on a transporter.

 

I paid $500 for the red '88 MJ. By the time it was fixed enough to pass inspection for a new registration (back when Connecticut still required inspections for registration), i was into it for about $3,500.

 

I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but I do want the OP to go into this (if he proceeds) with his eyes open. I think $1,000 is too much for that particular MJ but, if he has the money and wants that truck, that's fine. The truck will be going to a good home, and I'm all in favor of that. But we don't know how much money he has to throw at it. IMHO he has to figure on all (or at least most) of the things we've been suggesting if he wants to use it as a daily driver, and those things aren't cheap. He''s looking at $500 to $1,000 just in routine replacement of consumables, assuming there's nothing seriously wrong. If he has that kind of money and has the knowledge to do the work, that's great. Even so, I think planning to drive it home is a mistake. Rent or borrow a truck and car hauler, and bring it home on a trailer.

 

Yeah, many of us have done such things. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't.

[kryptronic]

I guess I'm a downer too on this one too.

 

OP is 19 if I read right.  First vehicle.  Doesn't run right.  Renix.  From the north.  An 86 2.5L.  Too many red flags for me.

 

A purchase price of $500 maybe, and likely another $400 in expenses easy getting it from IA to GA.  Probably another $500-1000 getting it drivable. 

 

There has to be a better candidate in GA or close for what it will cost.  Probably $2500-3000 to get it and make it reliable.  Doing all the work himself.  With tools we hope he has and a garage somewhere.  And a bunch of luck.

 

No way I could have taken on such a project at that age for a first vehicle.  I'd pass on it even if it was free.

[KatahGii]

On 9/3/2018 at 1:57 PM, DirtyComanche said:

 

At least somebody gets it.

 

 

All kidding aside, I'd give it a shot.  Just be prepared to have a plan for when it goes badly.  But I'd do it for the adventure rather than because it's a great truck to bother buying.  Unless I was planning to build a wheeler, in which case it's a great starting point.

Oh yeah I'm in it for the adventure more than anything. I've seen the truck in person it's got a sturdy frame. I lived in Indiana for the first 19 years of my life (minus 6 months in Kentucky and had the fun of the major ice storm of '09) I know how northern vehicles get rusted and all that but it actually isn't all that bad with rust and all that. But yeah the adventure and wheeling is my plan. Also I'm extremely farmiliar with driving rust belt vehicles I wouldn't know what to do if I got a vehicle that runs with no problems. That's how they all work in Indiana ;-)

[Eagle]

1 hour ago, KatahGii said:

Oh yeah I'm in it for the adventure more than anything. I've seen the truck in person it's got a sturdy frame. I lived in Indiana for the first 19 years of my life (minus 6 months in Kentucky and had the fun of the major ice storm of '09) I know how northern vehicles get rusted and all that but it actually isn't all that bad with rust and all that. But yeah the adventure and wheeling is my plan. Also I'm extremely farmiliar with driving rust belt vehicles I wouldn't know what to do if I got a vehicle that runs with no problems. That's how they all work in Indiana ;-)

 

Then go for it. But not for $1,000. Back in 2000 (or so) I bought a 1988 4.0L 5-speed MJ that was running. I drove it home from where I found it. I paid $500. Back then, Connecticut still had safety inspections to register vehicles more than ten years old. I spent another $2,500 (so total $3,000) just to get it registered -- that didn't even begin to address the fix-up stuff that I felt it needed. The next summer I stumbled into a routine check point for seat belts. I always wear a seat belt, so no problem there -- except that one of the cops spotted something and handed me a warning for defective equipment. That cost me another $500. So I was into it for $3,500 just to make it a driver, and only after that could I start fixing it up.

 

I would love to see you get it and restore it, because if you don't take it, it will probably rot behind that barn. But go into it with your eyes open.

[WyoCherokee]

as long as theres no detrimental rust, offer em $500 cash, and get to wrenching!