New owner (hopefully for a while....)
11-23-2016, 08:06 AM
#1
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Join Date: Nov 2016
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Model: Cherokee
New owner (hopefully for a while....)
Well, I just bought a 1998 Cherokee Sport. I bought it as sort of a winter beater car.
First sign of trouble was when I offered the guy 600 less than asking (offered $1,200, he was asking $1,800), and he agreed right away!
The good:
Starts right up
Seems to shift good
State Inspection good 'til July 2017
The bad:
Brakes are spongy (hopefully just needs to be bled)
Smells bad
Carpet is soaked
Rear driver door frozen shut
Bad Heater blower relay
Bad Neutral safety switch.
The unknowns:
Previous owner claims he replaced heater core, steering box, front u-joints. He bypassed the NSS and has a push button where the old cig lighter is to start the jeep (hard wired to the battery). Jeep has 247k miles, but owner says he swapped engine and tranny from other jeep and it has around 90-100k.
I looked under the jeep and it seemed ok...nothing obvious rust-wise, but then again I'm not as knowledgeable about what to look for.
Bottom Line:
I'm taking it to a friend's garage who is a mechanic in a week or 2 and he's going to put it on the lift and tell me if I got royally screwed or not. I figure if there's nothing too bad with it, I'm ok putting some money into it to fix it up a bit.
Wish me luck! I'll be fixing as much stuff on my own as I can with my limited knowledge (already ordered a new heater motor relay).
Also, it looks to me like it might be lifted, but I'm not sure.
This is the only pic I have so far (I know it's not a good one).
First sign of trouble was when I offered the guy 600 less than asking (offered $1,200, he was asking $1,800), and he agreed right away!
The good:
Starts right up
Seems to shift good
State Inspection good 'til July 2017
The bad:
Brakes are spongy (hopefully just needs to be bled)
Smells bad
Carpet is soaked
Rear driver door frozen shut
Bad Heater blower relay
Bad Neutral safety switch.
The unknowns:
Previous owner claims he replaced heater core, steering box, front u-joints. He bypassed the NSS and has a push button where the old cig lighter is to start the jeep (hard wired to the battery). Jeep has 247k miles, but owner says he swapped engine and tranny from other jeep and it has around 90-100k.
I looked under the jeep and it seemed ok...nothing obvious rust-wise, but then again I'm not as knowledgeable about what to look for.
Bottom Line:
I'm taking it to a friend's garage who is a mechanic in a week or 2 and he's going to put it on the lift and tell me if I got royally screwed or not. I figure if there's nothing too bad with it, I'm ok putting some money into it to fix it up a bit.
Wish me luck! I'll be fixing as much stuff on my own as I can with my limited knowledge (already ordered a new heater motor relay).
Also, it looks to me like it might be lifted, but I'm not sure.
This is the only pic I have so far (I know it's not a good one).
11-24-2016, 03:38 PM
#3
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Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: CA
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Year: 1994
Model: Cherokee (XJ)
Welcome.
Id fix the neutral safety switch issue. It is not a good idea to bypass the NSS. you could begin to have tranny problems like shifting in and out of gears along with possibly losing overdrive at times.
Id fix the neutral safety switch issue. It is not a good idea to bypass the NSS. you could begin to have tranny problems like shifting in and out of gears along with possibly losing overdrive at times.