Need Opinions on XJ I Might Buy
 

Hey guys. I am looking for another rig and i have my eye on this one:

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/cto/3374780890.html

Ad says:
1997 White Jeep Cherokee Sport
CD/DVD Stereo, New Tint
Dana 44 Axles Frnt/Rear
516 Gears & Detroit Lockers
8" Taraflex Long Arm Suspension Lift
New BFG Tires 15x10 Bead-Lock Rock Crawler
137,000 Miles, ASE Certified Mech Owner
$5000 Serious Calls Only

With the equipment it has, it is worth it?

I will be daily driving it, and offroading on the weekends. With the lockers, is that reasonable?

I'm going to go look at it today, i just wanted some other opinions before i get excited and throw cash down....

Im guessing it has full widths? Prolly a bit big for a DD...then again a guy named ADAM on here has a D44/D60 combo on 35s that he DD'd for a while. The price sounds a tad high, but if its built right i would definitely consider it.

Pictures?

Ya a stock, plain 97 XJ in my area Blue Books for around $2000-2500. Now, this is obviously not a stock, plain Jeep. I plan on finding everything i can that's wrong with it and then attempt to haggle to a more reasonable price.

I have driven my YJ on 35s and an 8.8" daily and i don't mind it. Granted it's not locked, so that's what i'm concerned with.

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Just looking, I'd offer four grand if it ran well and few problems

i would be a lot more comfortable with $4k.
$5k would have to be an absolutely exceptional Jeep. He says there isn't anything wrong with it (ya, ok), to include no ticks, rattles, leaks, knocks, death wobble, or rust. I hope none of things are there, but there has to be something. I'm going to check it out right after work. I'm not sure if i should bring cash with me or not...i have a bad habit of ignoring all the things that are wrong because i can fix them. Then i end up with a laundry list of things to fix while i paid top dollar for the Jeep.......

Looks like a decent deal to me even at 5k. Obviously shoot for 4, but you couldn't begin to build one like that for 5k. Depends on the market in you're area of course.

And if its on 35's with 5:16s it will spin pretty fast at 75mph

yea, all that stuff for 5 grand? you never know untill you look under the hood..

i hardly ever go over 60 in any of my Jeeps. But this is a 5-speed, which came with 4:10s, did it not? going up to 5:16 is a lot, but the 35s should counter-gear it enough to at least be reasonable on the road, right?

I'd never want to DD that but at 4k it's not bad for a weekend rig.

It's only got 4.10's if its a 4cyl. If its the 6 it would have 3.07's from the factory.

I wish the 4.0L with the ax15 came with 4.10s...

seems ok, but hands on will tell you the truth...
From what I know that (not much) I'd only offer $3700.

Actually if it is a 5 speed it that will make it "worse." As in it will be turning more rpm at a given speed than if it were an auto. But if I were wheeling a manual, I would have put the gears in the basement as he did.

Ever priced gears and lockers not to mention the install?

1997 have some electrical issues, search the forum

I looked around, but the only thing i can find about 97s having electrical issues is concerning grand cherokees. Is there anything particular that would make the 97 obsolete because of these problems you mentioned? It would make sense, given it was the first model of the re-design....but it's the 4.0, what could they have messed up? Or are you talking about accessory electrical issues...?

Nah man, go with the 97 it'll be fiiiine. There are reports of people having issues with electrics because of the switch to OBDII. Don't let that stop you from buying it.

Just be excited about your new rig, the fact that someone else ate most of the cost on parts and labor, AND you found a 97+ with a 5 speed. They are only getting harder to find

aftermarket items do not increase the price of a vehicle, While those parts might be worth a ton of $ a Cherokee is only worth so much...
I'd rather have one like this and build it my way: http://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/3372688032.html

I agree, you can basically never sell a vehicle for what you have put into it. I did like you're saying, went out and bought a clean bone stock Xj and built it from the ground up. There is a lot of pride in that, but also a lot of $$$$$$$. If you went and paid 2000 for that Xj you would have 4k in it before you got done with lift wheels and tires, that is if you were going as big as the op is looking at.

If I could do it again, I would have bought an already built rig that someone dumped 2-3x the money in it that it could be sold for, even if it had a few bugs that needed worked out. Just from the sheer financial standpoint. But then again, when I started, I thought I would always be happy with 3.5" on 31's with open diffs and stick gears! LOL!!!!!

so i went to look at it......POS. This guy was pretty shady. Before i went there i texted him and asked if it had the "4.0, AW4, and NP231" before i knew it was a 5 speed. He said "Yes 4.0, AW4 5-speed, and don't know about the NP231". When i told him the AW4 is an auto, he said "oh, my black jeep had an auto, this is a 5 speed". Ok....what the?

Ok well, i took $4k with me because i knew it wouldn't be work $5k. As soon as we pulled up, he came out with a Swisher Sweet and a Budweiser. The front diff looked a little small and he said "oh, that front axle is a Dana 30...my black Jeep had the Dana 44 up front". First of all, nobody cares what his black jeep had. Also, It had some type of long arm lift, but it had 3" spacers on the front. He also specifically said "it has a slip yoke eliminator". i wanted to say, "IT BETTER!"

All in all, this was a '97 XJ with some type of big lift with spacers, a D30 up front, and 35's. He claimed to have 'built' the thing, but couldn't really answer any of the questions i had. He had a yellow sticky note with some things on it and looked at it a few times to try and answer my questions.

Im SO glad i didn't buy it. He told me he had several people looking to scrape up the money to get it. I told him i had the money he was asking, but wouldn't pay him that much anyway. I told him i brought $4k and he acted like it was a ****ty offer. Now that it's over, im glad i didn't even give him that much.

Thanks for the input, guys.

Wow. I do not understand how/why people flat out lie like that. I guess that's why you never commit to buying something till you can put your hands on it!

And he's also lying about the gears then because the deepest you can put in a d30 is 4.88. So who knows, probably stock gears and open diffs!