Friend of mine offered me a 96 ZJ for $700 earlier. High miles, trans slipping. Runs good. I have never seen it in person (belongs to his dad), but the pic he sent me, the body looks near mint. It is a dark green.

I'm considering buying it for my wife to DD, motor blew up in the beater Escort 2 weeks ago and we scrapped it. It was one of those cars that wasn't worth fixing, had so little in it that scrapping it was the better alternative.

I have a spare AW4 and have been looking into the possibility of swapping it in place of the 42re. Looks like it has been done with success. He says the trans has been slipping ever since they bought it 3-4 years ago and hasn't gotten any worse.

I would be putting a set of nice aluminum wheels with the 235/75-15's that we had bought brand new for the XJ before the 33's went on on it and maybe an exhaust and freer flowing intake. What kind of mileage could I expect to see out of this? The XJ was averaging about 16.5-18 before the lift and 33's, would we be looking at better or worse?

 

If its the inline 6 it should get about the same mileage your xj was getting.As far as the trans swap i have no idea on that.

 

sorry i meant to say that, it is a 4.0

 

The AW4 won't work in the 96 ZJ without some major reworking of the electrical system and brackets. Not very cost effective at all. The transmission may not even be slipping, if could just sound like it because of the cooling fan churning up the air.

 

I feel like for 700 its not that bad if it runs and gets you from point A to point B.

 

still debating on it. The XJ is being DD'in now and with the 33's and factory 3.55's, we are getting MAYBE 11mpg. I have a set of stock steelies with 225/70's on them that I could throw on it to bring the MPG's back up, but it would look goofy with the 3.5" lift, cut fenders, and 27" tires

 

Go look at it and drive it see if the trans really is slipping or is it something else.Worse case it needs a trans if you take it out and put it back a rebuild is around 500 to 800 bucks if you shop around.On your xj your kinda stuck with regearing it or going down in tire size.