well on the drive home i noticed that the seat leaned wayy left. must have been from where the previous owner was a big guy and had a "gangsa lean" when he drove haha. but other then that he kept it in great shape

oh ya, and leaf srpings were frowning.

 

First jeep was a 93, and seemed ok, but it had a radiophone installed at one point with the antenna mount in the roof, but they cut the thing out when they got rid of it. I can't find the line up to the antenna mount to use it, but I can't pull it either. There was a little green wire drilled through a plastic bezel on the dash that I jsut found was connected to nothing, cut on both ends, and what I assume was a speaker for a speaker phone wedged up in the lower dash on the passenger side. In the process, I found a BN railways pin, so I'm assuming that's what it was used for.

Second jeep (a 91) was leaps and bounds worse. It ran just fine when I got it, but a week later it started stalling out, surging, and acting plain nasty. After having it die all over the valley, replacing EVERY sensor or control in it except the idle control which I pulled from the other jeep, it still didn't work. Turns out the Idle control motor was bad on the other jeep, which was why it sounded like it was goign to fall apart, pushing me to get a new one. A new ICM and it ran fine... Except....
THe kid that owned it before the guy I got it from had put in a stereo with a sub and everything. Of course there wasn't a sub in it, but the wires and controls were all there for one like my friend's sub, so I traded for his and went to put it in... no + power line! Oh, and the kid had replaced the front speakers, but tore the surround in one, so it buzzes from time to time, and he didn't know how to solder, or do things right, so he just cut the factory wire ends off, stripped the wire, and twisted it though the holes in the speaker contacts, which would cause them to cut out from time to time. Oh, and the E-Brake button was glued on, so it popped off the first time I released it. The guy had just put a low mile '98 engine in it, though, which has paid off, and now I can do the intake swap for more power.

The last one I bought (not counting the ZJ) shouldn't count as far as "suprises" goes as it was bought for parts, but is intact enough to make a crawler out of now that I don't need an engine swap. I wanted to mention, though, that the jeep... er.. heap, had all the interior panels and trim to black out the inside of a jeep, which I'm assuming they planned to do before rolling it and cutting the top off. As my daily driver is grey, they will work well if I want to change things up! It also had an extra complete (minus mirror) drivers door with glass and primered ready for install, a split gas can, an extra mirror for the passenger side (though I need a drivers side, and it didnt' ahve one). Oh, and did I mention the half dozen empties?

My wife's grand cherokee just reveiled an interesting tidbit, however. Though it didn't have many suprises when we got it, other than being cheaper than bluebook even for today, it turns out it has all the features of a limited but it's marked larado... go figure! not compaining!

 

I found a 22 inch machete under the back seats =]

 

a couple of months ago i found an entire colony of ants under he passenger seat carpet little raid fixed that

 

The '97- Twisted rear drive shaft. All U joints and wheel bearings worn out beyond worn. Driver's side rear doesn't open at all, passenger side rear door only opens from inside. Hatch release is rigged to a steel wire with a bungie cord hook so it'll open. Hood release is gooned up bad, $20.00 set of hood pins fixed that. Rear springs were sagging so bad it rubbed sitting still. Rear shocks broke off in the body- Fixed now. Worthless 30x9.50-15 recaps that came apart 2 days later. Broken exhaust manifold with welds on top of welds to attempt to fix it. Have a new one, just to busy to fix it. Surprisingly for 302,000 miles, very little rust. Almost forgot.... gooned up wiring for the stereo. had to buy a new factory replacement and fix that mess.

The '88- Bald 31x10.50s. Bad TRE's, trackbar, ball joints. No carpet. Wiring is a nightmare. Broken rear shocks, No passenger side door window. Probably a lot more as I get further into fixing it.

 

magnum condom still in the wrapper thank god...looks like some throw up behind the spare tire ,a few penns ,and a 5 dollar bill

 

My 00 classic found that it had been in a wreck after noticing the drivers side back door didn't close correctly. Upon further inspection noticed the crumpled unibody that had been crudely pulled straight.

My 89 wrangler died three times on the way home due to the PO having no idea how to tune a holley 4 barrel. Also found passenger seat belt mount had rotted off the tub. But, the kicker was three days later when the "brand new" rear main seal dumped what seemed like all her oil on my recently paved driveway. After dropping the tranny, pulling the flyweel off, and alot of swearing I found that the damn crank shaft was hacked beyond repair!!!! Also half the bell housing bolts had countersincs.

 

I just found yet ANOTHER surprise that actually really me off. I noticed my side trim was startin to peel from the doors.. So I figured since I like it, I would just pull it, clean the old glue from both surfaces, do a little sanding and epoxy it back on.

Well, the DAPO had better ideas. Pulled the trim to find 3 big holes rusted through and plenty more rust around it. RUST EVERYWHERE!! And he had tried to 'fix' it by putting double sided duct tape over the rust and holes, and then use poster tacky crap to hold the trim. The reason it never fell off before was because I bought it last fall. I swear I hate the PO of my XJ.

 

I found about 8 shotgun shells scattered throughout underneath the seats could be kind of dangerous and the roofrack is screwed into the sides of the stock roof rack which causes the roof to flex and look all wavy. not good.

 

the last owner had a beach towel head liner,speaker wire and a toggle to start it, a toggle in the middle of the dash for and electric fan(not needed),and a tranny cooler made from plastic pipe(pvc) connectors and fuel line. finally got it all straightened out

 

Holy crap some of you have found some really bizarre stuff!

As for me.. a left leaning drivers seat, a rust hole in the drivers side floor, a flat spare, there is an aftermarket Amsoil oil filter installed and the tube leading to it was leaking pretty bad. And like many of you have found cobbled together head unit wiring...I still have no idea what they did to it and several wires that lead to nothing. Oh and the inner rubber shift boot decimated so all that wonderful hot air and dripping oil burning on the exhaust came right up into the cab.

Oh and enough grease oil and grime under it to keep someone busy for weeks cleaning it up.....not me...I'm afraid to touch that crap for fear of making the Jeep quit running.

However for 700$ I can't complain too much. The interior was very clean and looked to be pretty well taken care of.

Most of the above has been fixed now however I still have not gotten the time or energy to try to figure out the radio wiring lol.

 

1996 Cherokee Sport - fishing lures, 1.50 + in change, moldy fast food, pens and an LG phone.

 

Hahahaha i've got a fishing lure in the exact same spot!

 

Lol just got my 90 XJ last week, mold all over all the leather, which was np, a giant rotten slimjim under the rear seats, not a single speaker, radio gone, and the dreaded BENDIX 9 ABS which 1 will be swapping to a 97+ booster system before I install my RC 4.5 Longarm lift, Ill prolly do some sort of write up on the swap.

 

where to start
1. closed cooling system was supposed to be open system
2.welded u bolts
3.welded tc drop
4.speaker wire was a disaster
5.floor ROTTED TO HELL
thats what pops off the top of my head this early im sure i willl think of more things