noobie jeep owner with questions
 

my sister was buying a 84 pr 85 jeep xj, white, 2 door, 2.5l 4 banger, 5 speed, 4x4. engine has 130k miles. clutch was rebuilt. it was rewired. theres some other less important stuff. this is not confirmed but the vehicle is clean under the hood.

she recently moved from idaho to tenessee leaving the jeep behind. ive taken over the rest of the payments. which are 200 bucks remaining.

the jeep has no lights. no turn signals,no headlights, no brake lights, no dash lights. any suggestions on this? im 19 and have a basic understanding of cars. have done engine swaps. minor wiring. although im not really worried about this.

at the moment more than any thing i would just like to know more about this thing. ive looked a little online and you have to lift it to fit 31's? i know the lifts are cheep.

is this engine failure prone? if so what parts should i watch out for, or replace. is this a week tranny? is it strong/week, how well does it work under the stress of 4x4ing nothing serious just the occasional trail.

i know the front and rear are solid axles. front is a d30 rear a d35. from what ive gatherd it has 3.75? or better. i think i found out earlyer it was most likely 4.10's but i was just skimming threads.

are there any upgrade for this engine? or is it like the ford ranger 4.0 that doesnt really have much. im not to happy with the 105 hp. i love that its a low rpm max torque motor tho. if there are really no upgrade for this engine is there a simple engine swap to be done? ive done several swaps before so i have a pretty good understanding.

if possibly id like to run 33's in the future. regear it to a high 4.??. what size lift would this take? im assuming atleast a 4 inch. im assuming since this is a uni-body vehicle there are no body lifts. but i could be wrong. im open to junk yard parts but dont have a selection of tools past any thing that will bolts on =(

i know ive posted alot of questions, plz do your best to answer them or point me in the right direction.

Well, and it's been a few years since I had a 2.5, but they are not bad. The tranny, I think is the peugot, which is crap. the wiring issue is the first thing I would investigate and resolve. Lift's are easy to install, but limited by budget. 3 inches you can keep stock parts (track bar, LCA's, driveshaft, etc), anything higher and you'll be changing them. There are no body lifts for it as it is a unibody. The front axle is good, the rear is OK for stock and up to 33's, anything higher and I would upgrade the axle shafts. A 4.0/auto trans swap would serve you well with that 4.10 ratio. As far as i know, there are really no motor upgrades that make a huge difference. The obvious things like a better flowing intake and bigger exhaust will help, but not alot. An engine swap would be easy, but expect to take everything out of the donor including the wiring, which would actually solve whatever is going on with the stock wiring now. The real question is how much do you wanna spend doing it all? Where are you at? I have a 96 with all the parts you would need for the swap and a 3 inch lift for 1500 running on 33's. You can fit 33's under a 3 inch, but you have to trim alot.

I had a Tj with the 2.5l and was unimpressed with the power, but the torque was adequate in 4 wheel LO lol.... I ended up putting banks torque tube headers, 4.0 throttle body, 1" throttle body spacer, cold air intake, strait piped the exhaust, and a stage one speed performance chip. after it was all said and done, I was very pleased with the power and torque I had attained. it was lifted 4" with 34" 9.50 swampers and of course re-geared. but again it was a Tj..... are you running a manual trans? and is it carbed or fuel injected?

its carb'd with a 5 speed manual.

another thing i forgot to add was that since the lights dont work. we put it on a trailor and towed it. it was a wet day so i put it in 4 low to put it on the trailor. and the front wheels didnt spin. so i put it in 4 high. and yet again the front wheels did not spin.

taking over the ownership of this thing kinda scares me.. this thing is so clean under the hood and under carriage it looks like its a corvette on the show room floor... almost like it was flipped on its side and power washed. the guy does work at our dodge dealership tho.

the dude my sister was buying it from keeps changing his story. we have also been told the hydraulic clutch is leaking on the "main fuse box" as he put it, thus being the reason the lights dont work. the last time i drove it, the lights would randomly flash on and off, im assuming because of road bumps. so i put some more grounds in it hoping to fix the problem. it was a ground front the front headlight not attached. but i turned on my lights and only got the passenger head light and the driver side blinker to work. since then i have not messed with it. all the lights went haywire a month after her first payment.

theres wires and fuses all around this things engine bay. idk why they couldnt have just had one spot for fuses. instead of a small fuse box here. then 2 feet of wire some more fuses. then in another 2 feet some more.

it was a month ago last time i was under the hood. but i never saw any leaks. idk if this thing has a hydraulic clutch with it being an 85.

healight switch replacement

check that.

cpnwrench:1eye:

i think someone told my to check that but i kinda blew it off, thanks ill check it.