Howler_GT

(Please move if in improper location)

We all have had run-ins with those nice little "gifts" from DAPO's (Dumb*** Previous Owners.
You know, when you go to do a repair and end up saying, "WTF were they thinking?" -OR- " Look what this (EXPLETIVE, noun/adjective) did!"

I thought I would pass along one of mine and what I had to do to "fix" the situation.

We purchased our 91 Laredo roughly a year ago. DAPO , then just a PO, said he took good care of it, just that it's age was starting to make repairs more frequent and the broken door hinge was the last straw.
In the last year, as with most used vehicles, we have found a few "gifts"
EXAMPLE: Wrong bolts installed (SAE VS. Metric), Zip-ties in place of hardware. Wiring not tied where it's supposed to be...etc..etc.

TODAY: I decided to make a stop-gap repair of a slight over-heating problem by switching to a 180* thermostat. THAT 15min job turned into 5-6 HOURS.

DAPO replaced the thermostat and never removed ALL the old gasket. He doubled up on new gaskets. I did not think anything of this and just cleaned everything up and went about installing the new 180* unit.
All back together and torqued down. Went to fill up the rad and coolant everywhere. Double-checked the bolts...tight.
Took off and went to get new gasket at AZ...they have none...went to National and got TWO (just in case.)
Came back and re-installed with new gasket. Could not torque the lower bolt. Stripped. On further inspection the two bolts were different. The upper one was SAE and the lower one was metric. Got taps out and determined the right bolt. 5/16" Retapped the lower hole and went back to AZ for bolts.
Tried to re-install but the lower bolt wont tighten...still leaks.
Took the housing oiff AGAIN and did an extremely close inspection of it.
ITs warped. Apparently. he warped it do to improper installation procedures...

Its late and I cannot make another parts run.. I need to get her DD running tonight so she can use it tomorrow.
Housing: Sandpaper on a flat board. Back and forth for what seemed like forever. Didn't cure it but it lessened it alot.
Bolt threads: Since I cannot get in there w/drill to drill out for retapping to 3/8" I had to do it the hard way...right in w/tap. Lost of oil and cleaning. Took about 15 min to get enough threads to put a bolt in. Put in a 3/8 bolt for lower and retained the 5/16 for the upper. Of course I had to drill the housing to accept the new bolt.
Put it all back together. NO LEAKS
Made a smokes-run and came back. The overheating prob is gone and everything is nice and dry.

Anyone else have a "gift" story they would like to share?

XJ Stryker

I found 20 bucks when I pulled out my center console that had a hole in it.

Also found a brand new drive belt under the seat, A screw driver under the battery box. And when I pulled the hitch off I found an old birds nest with a Dead bird in it in the frame rail.

I liked most of my gifts

JakeWI

Well I guess mine arent as bad haha. With my '96, it came with a system, i took that out and sold it because I don't run stuff like that in my Jeeps. Upon taking out the system, taking out all of the wiring, i found they left all the old wiring to a previous system maybe? With further inspection I find a burn hole in the fuze box cover, they wired my cd player with my headlights somehow. so everytime I turn on or off the head lights the cd restarts and it will randomly kick out. My brother is going to help take a look at that stuff because hes better with all the wiring things.

c-loss

yeah i think we have all had one of those my heep right now is. get take it home started looking in/ under the dash for sterio wiring they had propably 50of wire not just one kind either they had just rolled up and shoved under the dash traced the wire went to the fuse panel on one end and the other was just hanging there. they also cut about half the wires in the dash so i have learned alot about wiring in the past six months

UNLIMITLESS

So far so good all Ive found is one ghetto air intake mechanicaly. Nice try but why would you get rid of the box that keep the exhaust heat out of the air stream. Other than that I inherited a set of jumper cables, 6 in 1 screwdriver, a set of walkie talkies and about $2.81 in change.

Howler_GT

The DAPO of our 94 Sport was a cheapo.
Only found $0.34 and $0.11 of that was MINE.

MontanaXJer

The only DAPO gift I had on my 89 was glaringly obvious.....
Whitewall tires! Who in their right mind puts whitewalls on a Jeep?!?
The worst part was that the tires (235/75 15s) were literally brand new and had directional tread! I decided I couldn't live with the whiteys on the outside, so I took them to the shop and had them reversed. Luckily, they have since been replaced with 30x9.50s WITH NO WHITE WALLS!


Other than that, the only other thing I could find wrong (and still haven't fixed) is a broken passenger seat flip latch. I keep looking for a decent replacement at the J/Y, but haven't found anything yet.

finneys98xj

Broken sun roof!

finneys98xj

I would put some whitwalls on my jeep! What is wrong white walls?

MontanaXJer

They are ghey.

BlueXJ

I found a real nice flashlight in one of the XJs and a nice bottle jack in another and a sum total for all three XJs os $1.08 cash money. Found a complete set of SK metric wrenches in a Mercedes that I bought about ten years back.

96 XJ Sport

I know this thread died a month ago, but I thought it was funny. My XJ had a few gifts from the PO...found two silver dollars in the console and has a CD changer that hadn't been used in 10 years, but still works fine!

Last but not least, it came with a radiator and block full of rusty water with a splash of coolant maybe. Lasted 100 miles before the rad sprung a leak, so my first job on this XJ was a new 3-row rad, WP, 180* t-stat and hoses.

crazydays

For those that haven't seen the snorkel setup that is on mine.

See pictures in posts #34, 35 & 37 of the following link.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/showth...?t=3056&page=3

That is one of the many items that I inherited. Might post some more pics of other stuff when I get a chance.

HyPr0gLo

I received the lovely gift of stuck bolts. My rig is only an 01 but DAPO must not have touched ANYTHING on the underside since she was rolled off the factory floor. Now add into the mix 7 years of new england weather; salt, snow, sand, and dirt.

...Needless to say Ive went through countless cans of PB and bought a torch solely dedicated to all the stuck nuts and bolts.

Last job i did was the ZJ steering linkage which shouldn't have taken more than an hour. but thanks to DAPO it was more like 4.

tupton

You could have used high temp RTV as a gasket on the thermo housing