[Craiger77]

Hey Guys! I've been hanging out here for a few weeks and you guys have pushed me towards the light and I decided to buy a jeep. I'm calling this one "Project: ARE YOU CRAZY?" Because that’s what my wife said to me when I told her I was going to sell my, thus her, prized convertible Mustang GT and buy an "OLD" jeep.



It had 45K miles on it. I sold it to a guy in Virginia. He seemed pretty happy to buy it and better yet paid cash on the spot. I got about $10k for my efforts. I may have gotten more if I was patient, but considering the economy, I think that was reasonable.

The deal was, since the mustang was paid off and we have a house rule of only one car payment at any one time. (We just bought a truck for her) I had to find a jeep that was covered by the sale of the mustang.
I went to work and located several potential jeeps. I looked here, but found trouble finding rigs near to me. I primarily focused on looking at Craigslist. I called and emailed about so many jeeps that I started losing track of them.

Well Yesterday, I brought home my first jeep. It's a black 2000 TJ that is pretty much stock as far as I can tell. It has all the options I want with 105k miles. It appears to have been taken care of by the previous owner(s). It also has aftermarket rims and new interior carpet. Doesn't look like it has been abused or off-roaded poorly.

The cool thing is when I was looking at it in the car lot, I saw what looked like a D44 under the rear! And upon closer inspection it has 3.73 gears - stock. I thought that was pretty cool. I talked the guy down $500 to $7400 and brought her home.















You guys tell me, Is it a Dana 44? I compared it to pics from here and it looks to be the same shape and all. I tried to find the build sticker on the car but it didn’t offer much info. At least the one I found didn’t.

The jeep needs some work. Mostly cosmetic stuff I hope. I see where it has leaked before at the rear pinion seal and valve cover. Neither appears to be leaking now as I see no new drips. Hopefully it was repaired and not empty!

My first order of business is to get it on the road. Since I bought it out of state it’s on me to get it inspected and tagged. The VA inspection won’t fly here so I need to find a local shop that won’t screw me. (Welcome to Maryland) I know a guy that did my mustang I hope he’ll hook me up again.

My first purchases are going to be new seats and raptor lined interior along with any repairs it may need for inspections. (hopefully none)

This will be a slow build. Let me know what you think.

[jeepbro's]

good find, and yes you are right it is a dana 44 rear good job finding that too! that will take away a lot of headaches when you decide to go bigger and take it off road more.

[Craiger77]

awesome! thanks.

[justanotherhemi]

Originally Posted by Craiger77

Hey Guys! I've been hanging out here for a few weeks and you guys have pushed me towards the light and I decided to buy a jeep. I'm calling this one "Project: ARE YOU CRAZY?" Because that’s what my wife said to me when I told her I was going to sell my, thus her, prized convertible Mustang GT and buy an "OLD" jeep.



It had 45K miles on it. I sold it to a guy in Virginia. He seemed pretty happy to buy it and better yet paid cash on the spot. I got about $10k for my efforts. I may have gotten more if I was patient, but considering the economy, I think that was reasonably.

The deal was, since the mustang was paid off and we have a house rule of only one car payment at any one time. (We just bought a truck for her) I had to find a jeep that was covered by the sale of the mustang.
I went to work and located several potential jeeps. I looked here, but found trouble finding rigs near to me. I primarily focused on looking at Craigslist. I called and emailed about so many jeeps that I started losing track of them.

Well Yesterday, I brought home my first jeep. It's a black 2000 TJ that is pretty much stock as far as I can tell. It has all the options I want with 105k miles. It appears to have been taken care of by the previous owner(s). It also has aftermarket rims and new interior carpet. Doesn't look like it has been abused or off-roaded poorly.

The cool thing is when I was looking at it in the car lot, I saw what looked like a D44 under the rear! And upon closer inspection it has 3.73 gears - stock. I thought that was pretty cool. I talked the guy down $500 to $7400 and brought her home.















You guys tell me, Is it a Dana 44? I compared it to pics from here and it looks to be the same shape and all. I tried to find the build the sticker on the car but it didn’t offer much info. At the least the one I found didn’t.

The jeep needs some work. Mostly cosmetic stuff I hope. I see where it has leaked before at the rear pinion seal and valve cover. Neither appears to be leaking now as I see no new drips. Hopefully it was repaired and not empty!

My first order of business is to get it on the road. Since I bought it out of state it’s on me to get it inspected and tagged. The VA inspection won’t fly here so I need to find a local shop that won’t screw me. (Welcome to Maryland) I know a guy that did my mustang I hope he’ll hook me up again.

My first purchases are going to be new seats and raptor lined interior along with any repairs it may need for inspections. (hopefully none)

This will be a slow build. Let me know what you think.

Click free.

Great looking TJ

[Craiger77]

Thanks! and Thanks!

[2006_Sport]

Yup its a dana 44 with 3.73 gears. Congrats, welcome to the d44 club

Good luck finding a shop in MD that isnt a ***** with inspection. Try a Jeep dealer or something. They are usually "jeep friendly"

And i highly recommend raptor lining your jeep. Read pages 6 and 7 of my build thread. I think that's where i did my raptor.

[Craiger77]

Nice rig Zach. I definitely need to read through your build thread. I'm sold on the raptor liner. I've seen too many great results and yours is another good example.

I agree with the Maryland jeep prices. The dealerships are ridculous. I had a hard time finding a decent jeep for a decent price.

[2006_Sport]

Thanks man!

It's funny, i almost got that same lookin mustang...color, rims,everything instead of my jeep. I'll just drive my dads if i ever feel i need to go fast.

That is a sick mustang though

[1997_Sport]

Welcome to the jeep world, and happy to see another MD jeeper. With inspection, just take it were ever you get other cars worked on. I went to one of the strictest places around here, and had three things wrong with it. And they were obvious things that needed to be fixed.

But you got a cleaan looking jeep there, get some Black Krylon fusion paint and paont your flares, it will make it look a lot better with just paint.

[jerryjeeper]

Craiger 77 , Welcome to the JeepForum and the wonderful world of Jeeps. I got hooked on these things a long time ago and they are definitely addictive. Now that I'm retired, there is more time but less money to spend on projects so most of the stuff gets done with the tools and not the pocketbook. Kind of like it that way. You will find great information on here about mods and get lots of ideas. Enjoy your Jeep and I'll watch for updates on your project.

[MisterO]

welcome welcome! Very nice jeep, everytime i see another member with a new TJ it makes me more and more sad.. i miss my TJ and want another right now!!!
But that looks to be real clean, good luck and keep us posted with all info and updates!

[Craiger77]

Thanks for the advise and compliments guys. 97TJDriver - thanks for your post. Your sig has some valuable info. def going to read.