Hello forum, my name is Brad and I live in Lakeland Fl, I bought my first jeep ever a few days ago, and now I would like some pointers on where and how to get started repairing and rebuilding it.

It's a 1992 Jeep Cherokee Laredo 4.0 Inline 6 cylinder with 173k miles on the motor (4 door, 4wd). I bought it for $1600 from a 17 year old kid that lost the will to fix her up.

I suppose my first set of questions would include:
How do I know what kind of transmission I have? Transfer case? Axles? What are the main parts of it I really SHOULD know about?

As far as mechanical issues, it runs, drives, and the 4wd engages, but the entire underside of the vehicle is covered in oil. Before I do anything else with this jeep, I need this motor leak sealed. I've already replaced the oil filter adapter O-ring because that was a quick and painless repair. Other than that specific leak issue, what are the other areas of this motor I really need to take a look of?

I appreciate any input guys.

 

Hey Brad, welcome. I'd take a minute to look around and find out exactly what you have. Since you include no pics we can't guess what you have. They're pretty basic, if it's auto then it's an AW4 (pretty decent tranny), if it's got 2hi 4hi 4lo then it's the 231 transfer case, it will be a Dana 30 in front and either a Dana 35 or Chrysler 8.25 out back. Oil can be coming from the valve cover or rear main seal, both somewhat common leak areas and both pretty easy to fix.

 

yup and if it's a manual trans, it would be an AX-15 and if the transfer case have full time mode in addition to 4h and 4L, then it would be a NP242.

 

Welcome along brad, search around on here and all the answers are here.
Enjoy the site.

 

Thanks for the insight. I was told it has some kind of tow package and that it has the chrysler 8.25 rear axle, but how can I verify that? How does one tell what axles it has? Also, I didn't include pics because I'm not exactly sure how to add them.

 

I don't want to sound rude to you but all this has been asked countless times on this forum. You need to be browsing the forum and using the search function. It's kind of crazy to ask people to sit here and post things that have been asked so many times. Here's a good axle identification thread that took me five seconds to find using advanced search and searching titles for "Axle Identification":

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f67/ax...cation-160871/

To add pictures, you need to host them with a site like Photobucket and then link them using the Insert Image icon. Congrats on your new Jeep, and this is forum is an incredible resource.

 

Usually when people start with "I don't want to sound rude", they tend to do just that. I'm new on this forum man. Forgive me for asking a question. That all holy search option isn't helping me with all of my questions so I typed it out.

 

You're welcome.

 

don't worry about others. If you searched and couldn't find anything. You are more than welcome to ask away.

I'm one of the moderators here, if u have any problem, please feel free to contact one of us.

 

To OP: congrats on the new jeep. I'd start off by getting super familiar with the maintenance on your rig. Start making a list of things you'd like to address. Obviously oil leaks fixed and fluids changed, then a nice ignition overhaul, a coolant flush when it warms up outside, then start finding the squeaky bushings (we know you've got a couple.)

As far as what direction to go???? That's on you man. Best advice I've heard is take your rig off-road, get it stuck, pull it out. Then build a plan for modifying that fits your terrain and style.

Show us some pictures

 

First picture taken of it being "mine." $1600 bucks and a 90 mile trip to get it.

 

Amazing what some wax can do to old paint.

 

Nice. Love that color

 

Thanks man. I'm not sure if it's the original color or not, the door jambs are black so that makes me curious if it was painted.

 

Well stone me, never knew you were a mod!!