New in my Garage

[BruceK]

After selling my '92 Honda Beat (for a profit!), I looked for another fun vehicle and I settled on finally getting a Jeep - a vehicle I have always liked but never got close to purchasing until now. I'd Love to have a Land Rover Defender but unfortunately ones in my price range from the UK all seem to be rust nightmares. So a Jeep is the home-grown alternative.

I spent some time studying up on the different Jeep models available over the last 40 or so years and I settled on the TJ range (1997-2006) being the best choice for me. I was looking all across the state of Texas on craigslist and Facebook marketplace trying to find one in good condition without a lot of modifications and obviously with zero rust. My only real requirements were my new TJ had to have a manual transmission (I've never owned an automatic) and the bigger 4.0 liter straight six engine.

After about a month of looking at 'for sale' ads every day something very interesting popped up, and it was in my own town. The Facebook marketplace ad said "... I got this Jeep from my parents and I don't know if I wanna hold onto it". So my first thought was some rich spoiled high school or college kid got the Jeep as a free gift and just didn't care about it. Then I saw the mileage listed: just 11,000 miles. For a '97 TJ? Must be a mistake, right? But what if it was true? The photos in the ad showed a very clean looking Jeep that seemed to be 100% stock. Wow.

I called the number that evening and I pushed to be the first person to see it the next morning since I was only about 8 miles away from the seller. The next morning I arrived a little early and was greeted by a nice guy who looked to be in his early 60s. Was he the dad of the owner? Nope. It was his Jeep. So there was no spoiled rich kid. I asked about the parents reference in the ad and he explained that 25 years ago his parents, who own a ranch about 50 miles away, purchased the Jeep from a local dealer and just used it to putter around the ranch. Now these parents are in their late 80s or so and they don't drive anymore - so this guy got the Jeep from them. But he already had a newer JL model Jeep and he really didn't have a need for this TJ.

As it turns out, the 11,000 miles was genuine – backed up by paperwork (and the excellent condition of the vehicle). I crawled underneath and the frame was perfect and I could even still see some chalk marks from the assembly line quality assurance process. It drove great but the seller pointed out the tires - with lots of tread left - were 20 years old and cracked. The original factory spice top was gone - a victim of 25 years exposure to the Texas sun. We made a deal and I drove at home – slowly because of the ancient tires - and I began to see what I needed to do to it.

So, just 11,000 miles over 25 years of life is less than an average of 500 miles per year. And there was documentation saying the last time it was serviced was in 2016 the vehicle has covered less than 600 miles in the last 6 years. Certainly it's not ideal for a vehicle to sit used for long periods and I felt there was a lot of deferred maintenance that I needed to address to make it roadworthy. Here's what I've done to it so far:

- New tires
- New Top
- New serpentine belt
- New spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, rotor and coil
- New PCV valves and grommets
- installed rebuilt front brake calipers (one locked up on my way home from the tire shop and would not release)
- New soft line brake hoses with full brake fluid flush
- Oil and filter change and new air filter
- coolant flush
- Bosch H4 headlights

Next up: new transmission fluid, new differential fluid front and rear, and I'll be greasing all the zerks

Everything works on the Jeep as it should. Killer a/c. At this point my plans are to keep it pretty stock because it's kind of a time capsule and there aren't a lot of unmodified TJ's around.   This is also the first American car I've ever owned.  It's crazy how easy it is to get parts from all sorts of sources.  And because it's pretty simply engineered, it's easy and fun to work on too.

[Willie_B]

That looks great. Nice find. There are a ton of suppliers out there for these Jeeps plus lots of take off parts where folks have modded them.

[gr8kornholio]

That's a "holy grail" jeep.  Lol. Any gas monkey fans will get that.  Oddly the collins guy makes his fortune in jeep parts.  Nice score Bruce and so now you are filled with trivia killer amounts of Jeep info?

[cstudep]

Wow that is in great shape. Its not too unheard of to find an old wranger with next to no miles compared to its age, but that is a whole different level of low mileage!

[BruceK]

...Nice score Bruce and so now you are filled with trivia killer amounts of Jeep info?

Sadly I must begin my Jeep knowledge journey as a lowly rank amateur and slowly build from there.  ;D

[94touring]

11k miles!  Impressive!

[ve9aa]

That story would NEVER happen here in NB , Canada. :-\

Salt , salt everywhere, sometimes up to 8months a year.

You have no idea how lucky you are. (or maybe you do.....>> Appreciate it ! ! ! 77.gif

[Brit_in_TX]

The looks amazing! Could have been driven straight out of the showroom!

Side question - what tires did you fit?  I am looking for tires for my truck and the options are mind boggling.

[BruceK]

Tires?  I looked all around for a reasonably-priced appropriate "rugged" looking tires that would not be too loud at speed on the highway.  I didn't find anything I liked at local tire shops so I started looking to do an online purchase.   Finally I chose Toyo Open Country ATIII tires. They had good reviews and I ordered them from https://www.bbwheelsonline.com/  who had the best price.

For mounting them I discovered that Discount Tire is an "approved installer" by TireRack (who sell tires exclusively online and have a huge network of installers).  So I fibbed a little and told my local Discount Tire that I had purchased some tires from TireRack that I needed to be installed.  DT Charges about $25 each to mount, balance and dispose of the old tire, each.

[94touring]

Fwiw to anyone, I've been buying tires from simpletires.com.  They don't appear to have mini tires in 10 however. Edit: they have yokos now but ouch pricey.

[MPlayle]

I have Goodyear Wrangler SR-A tires on my 2016 Jeep Wrangler (4-door).  They are what was on the Jeep when I bought it and I stayed with the same when I needed to replace them.  Discount Tire carries them on a regular basis.  They have good reviews, reasonably rugged appearing, and are more highway oriented.  No tire whine while running down the highway.

Also, the P225/75R17 size is the perfect setup for my speedometer to be within 1mph of the GPS speed readout.

[cstudep]

I would throw out a vote for Falken Wildpeak A/T3W tires. I have had the Toyo's as well and they are a great tire too but the Wildpeak's were considerably cheaper (no idea what they run these days so that may not be the case anymore) and are every bit as good as the Toyo's.

[drmini]

Nice find!  Too bad it wasn't a MK1 Cooper S that his parents gave him.

[BruceK]

I'm going through all the fluids and changing them on my Jeep. Yesterday I did the manual transmission (Redline MT-90) and the transfer case (plain old ATF).

Today I'm going to tackle the front and rear differentials. I can't believe I have to remove the entire differential cover, scrape off the old RTV gasket material, clean everything up, and reassemble, then fill it just to do a fluid change.   

That's as stupid as having to drop an engine oil pan just to do an oil change. 

[cstudep]

Yep, good old Dana axles. Apparently it was way too complicated to add a drain plug to compliment the fill plug.

You can buy a Lube Locker gasket which is reusable if you want to spend the money and not have to deal with RTV next time you want to do a change. I have had them on jeeps and had them on and off several times without sealing issues so they do work. Just a bit expensive unless you get into it enough to offset the cost and trouble of using RTV a couple times.

https://www.4wheelparts.com/p/lube-locker-dana-44-differential-cover-gasket-llr-d044/_/R-GKPV-LLR-D044

[BruceK]

Thanks for the Lubelocker recommendation- I am installing them front and back along with Redline 70w-90 synthetic gear lube, so it should be quite a while till I need to do this again. 

Apparently, starting with the 2003 Jeep Rubicon model, some (all?) Dana 44 differentials came with the modern convenience of an actual drain plug.  Unfortunately my Jeep predates that improvement.

[cstudep]

Yeah all the older ones never had them, even the big Dana 80's on things like 1 ton trucks didn't have a drain plug, and that is something you are likely to want to change the fluid out on a little more often since it's likely to be doing a lot of towing.

You can get aftermarket covers with drain plugs but they aren't exactly cheap, by far the cheapest route if you want to avoid the RTV is the lube locker gasket.

[G67mcs]

   Your patience really paid off on this low mile Jeep find!

[BruceK]

   Your patience really paid off on this low mile Jeep find!

Thanks!  I told my wife I'm am really enjoying it so much more than the Honda Beat it replaced. Apples and oranges I know, but still very much true.

[BruceK]

The passenger airbag cover on my Jeep was losing its color showing the black plastic underneath. Apparently after 25 years the paint and the flexible plastic on the cover reacted with each other leaving a sticky mess.  The rest of the interior looks perfect so this was really bothering me.  Only the airbag cover is painted and the rest of the plastic is solid color throughout, So the problem is concentrated in just one spot.

Unfortunately there was no simple off-the-shelf spray can fix.  I found out that the interior color used on my Jeep is unique for 1997 and 1998 model years only so apparently there is not sufficient demand to create a premixed spray can solution. So I visited a local body shop paint supplier and asked them to mix up some custom paint suitable for use on flexible plastic. Unfortunately the paint dealer could not put this paint into a spray can for me - it just came in a pint can. So I was considering getting a cheap spraygun from Harbor Freight and hooking it up to my air compressor.  But I wasn't looking forward to the learning curve of spraying paint. Fortunately I found a solution of a simple spray can alternative in the PreVal spray system. Basically it uses a glass jar for the paint and a propellant can.  And at just $11 for two of these sprayers I figured it was worth a shot.

I removed the sticky old paint off the airbag cover with 91% rubbing alcohol.  Then I removed most of the interior dash trim and masked  up the airbag cover and painted it in place.  The PreVal sprayer worked great and I applied about seven or eight thin coats over the course of about 90 minutes to make sure to have thick enough paint to thoroughly cover the black plastic.

The color match the old guy did at the paint shop was perfect and I am very pleased with the results.

[94touring]

Nice job Bruce  4.gif

[gr8kornholio]

Look fabulous.  4.gif

[jeff10049]

Nice Jeep, Those preval sprayers are great.
Also fluid evacuators can be used to get the fluid out of the diffs without removing the covers they are a little slow with gear oil but they work. At least it's not a mini countryman couldn't even get the evacuator hose in the rear diff on the wife's 2013 had to drill a hole and tap it for a plug to change the fluid. https://www.amazon.com/Mityvac-7201-Fluid-Evacuator-Plus/dp/B0002SR7TC/ref=asc_df_B0002SR7TC/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312104220456&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9816287591093601813&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9033169&hvtargid=pla-569065623780&psc=1

[MiniDave]

Jeff, how is your project coming along?