trio

I have fond memories of riding in a Jeep CJ5 from when I was a young boy. So a friend offered me her Jeep at far less than buying one elsewhere. She disclosed that it has some issues. She wasn't kidding! Regardless, I know that it could be fixed up into a reliable vehicle. So I bought it for my wife.

The first day of having it, it turned into a fog machine on the highway. The trans died! The previous owner felt so bad that this didn't happen to her before selling it. Oh well, a low mileage junkyard tranny fixed that issue cheaply.

Next, the battery died, so I bought a way overpriced one.

Then starting issues which I recently reported on fixing.

I did a headlight upgrade that I reported on here. Wow, what a difference! The stock junk is no more.

Also the drivers door window fell down. New regulator, good as new. Brakes were shot, did a complete rebuild. Better, but I noticed that the pads had worn out the steering knuckle to the point that they were hanging up. Filed the daylights out of the divots to extended the life a little longer. Next spring/summer perhaps?

Last winters salt ate the rear steel brake line away. Dangerously thin! Cost me $150 to replace at a garage. PA switched to a spray brine method that puts a lot of salt on the roads! If your area uses this salt method, check your steel lines often!

This jeep was hit very, very hard in the first year of it's life. It should have been totalled. Insurance paid to rebuild it. Since then, the dash gages go dead on occasion. The front passenger window can only be rolled down by the driver if the driver's door is closed, and using the left rear down switch. Yep, both left rear and right front goes down at the same time. Yep, if driver's door is open, the window won't move. The correct switch works fine in the up direction. Go figure!?

This all leads up to my recent experience getting caught in a snow storm. I have stock tires and suspension on this jeep, yet the 4x4 hi works so well that I was passing everyone like they were sitting still. I even hit an embankment avoiding one guy who lost control. Now I need a replacement wheel, as I bent mine. The closest I've ever come to rolling a vehicle!

I stopped at a motel to stay the night. The next day, I was parked in. So I decided to brave the snow that was just at the bumper level. The jeep did remarkably well traveling over eighty feet before the packed snow lifted the tires from the ground! The door pushed on the snow as I opened it. Got stuck good, took an hour to dig my way out.

So for being stock, I'm very impressed with the snow capabilities of this jeep! Getting stuck so bad was my stupidity, not the jeeps fault.

Looking forward to fixing it up even better for my wife to use.