AS some here know, I am looking for my Cherokee. My daily driver 04 Nissan Frontier is great for off roading, but I dont wanna mod it so Im gettign a Cherokee for that, and so my wife can drive my truck on snowy days, and I'll drive the Cherokee.
With that said, I came across an 88 Cherokee, 4wd, auto 188k miles on the body. It had a 4.0 from a 96 cherokee put in it. There is 80k miles on the motor. The body seems staright. Doesn't appear to have been wrecked. It has a small bubble of rust on teh drivers door and same on front passenger door. Paint is not perfect, but I don't care about that. It also has brand new nice a/t tires on it.
THe guy agreed to sell it to me for $1300.
I went to look at it yesterday but did not drive it. Since I have yet to sell my Fiat 128, I didn't want to waste the sellers time. I will drive it before buying, but the seller assures me that I will not find any problems.
I did notice one weird thing. The car belonged to the sellers recently deceased father in law. Apparently he thought the 4wd was not engaging. So the seller placed an odd looking handle thing on the passenger side of the console, next to the shifter. When asked, the seller stated there is an aftermarket product you can install that ensures the 4wd engages. He stated these were pretty expensive, so he fabricated one on his own. Does anyoen know what he is referring to?
So, without finding any problems on a test drive, is this considered a good price?

 

Cherokees are great for an offroad vehicle. Easy to work on, fun to drive and the motors are great. I however do not know about the aftermarket 4WD engage thing. hopefully someone on here will know.

 

Those years of Cherokees came with a vacuum disconnect on the axle, they are prone to failure, so that is an aftermarket upgrade to make sure that the front axle engages.

 

thanks for the response guys!
Northline, is this a potentially serious/expensive issue to fix? Is there a way to retro fit the newer/better way to disconnect? or is it something you'd just have to deal with on an 88?

 

The "aftermarket device" is called a posi lock http://www.4x4posi-lok.com/
He could of just as easily permanently locked the collar over, like I did.

88 is a good year, especially if it has the towing package (d44 rear, if it does)
If it has ABS, be prepared for a PITA when it finally goes out.
If it has the D35, be prepared for an upgrade (doesnt cost that much for a 8.25, maybe 200 bucks)
Check for rust on the floors/rockers, rear frame rails, leaf spring mounts. Check Ujoints, take it for a drive, get up to highway speeds, see if it shakes.

Aw4 is a good transmission and the 4.0 will do good for you if you keep the oil changed with good (high ZDDP) oil and keep it below 5000rpm.

Keep in mind its a "renix", the ECU is built by Renault/Bendix (known for their aeronautic/race engine management)
There are no CELs since its PRE-obd and everything can be tested with a multimeter and some time.
The renix takes a few seconds to start, it has more parameters that need to be met before it will fire, unlike the newer models.

I love my renix.

 

Good Stuff!!!! Thanks!