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New XJ owner here. Growing up, my dad and his buddies had lifted CJ's we would wrench on and go...well, we called it bustin', but I guess wheelin' is the term.
Later my car interests turned to vintage aircooled VW's of all things, before spending the last decade driving cars that didn't excite me whatsoever.
A pretty harrowing drive home thru a nasty northeast snow storm that hit right at 5pm in early Nov got me looking for a "winter beater" this year. It didn't take long to develop an itch to relive my childhood Jeep days, and the search for an XJ was on.
Well, after 2-1/2 months, and having looked at a LOT of really bad Jeeps, I finally found my girl. She's a stock '99 Sport, Auto 4.0 Command-Trac with 195K, reasonably well looked-after, and I am just smitten. For the first time in a long time, I am motivated to REALLY take great care of a vehicle. She's no creampuff, but she is nice! Much nicer vehicle than I'd originally anticipated finding earlier this winter, and she deserves the best.
I'll probably start a thread with more details and my plans, but for now, just wanted to say hi, express how grateful I am for all the excellent info around here, and tell ya'll how EXCITED I am to be an XJ owner!
Welcome to the family and the forum.... and some serious kudos for finding one like that back East... without all the cancer that XJ's can get if not looked after.
Thanks! Been a blast driving through the decent amount of snow we've gotten past few days. I was thrilled to find something this solid in my price range. There are a couple bubbles showing on the upper side of the rockers that I really need to get after. Need to think through a plan for it though.
PO did a lot of great cosmetic work - stripped and powdercoated the wheels, refinished all the moldings, replaced the headliner and seat cushions. Wasn't the most mechanically inclined, though. So far I've just put in a new battery, air filter, did an oil change, had those KO2's mounted, and had an alignment done. I was getting an evap leak code and traced that to rotted tubing and hardline between the canister and gas tank. Replaced that with new fuel hose and she breezed through inspection.
Tackling all the other fluids this weekend. She shifts a little hard so I'll do the trans fluid a couple times and work on getting the T/V cable adjusted (the release is stuck). See how she does after that and maybe do the TPS as well. Brake lines are looking pretty rusty so got a set of stainless pre-bent lines on order. That'll be next weekend along with a full tune-up. Runs really strong as is, started right up on first crank even in the -5F this morning. Oil pressure worries me slightly, about 15psi at hot idle. Running 5W-30 since it's been so cold. Still think she has lots of life left!
Balljoints and tierods in the spring, probably. They're not too bad. Planning on hitting some light trails but nothing crazy. Down the road .... budget boost and 31's? Five speed swap?
01-26-2019, 09:25 PM
Joining the XJ family from NY
