[grnjp88]

Had to replace a wrecked car, so I figured why not live the dream and finally get a Jeep?

I was originally focused mainly on getting an older XJ. A Wrangler would be great fun, but I needed 4 doors and something with decent towing ability. I found a nice '96 XJ locally and was all prepared to buy it. However, the night before I was to pick up the Jeep, fate (or just a really well timed craigslist search) stepped in..

I found this beauty on Craigslist locally and it was in my price range, so I figured why not just go check it out.

As seen on Craigslist:

'93 Jeep Wrangler Sahara pkg, 6 cyl, 102,000 miles, 5 speed new paint and top.

Needless to say, I fell in love. I completely forgot all about my Cherokee plans and jumped right in with the YJ.

And I couldn't be happier. :2thumbsup:

The new paint is flawless and the new top makes it smell like a new car. I have a hard time believing it's 16 years old. Plus, green just happens to be my favorite color..

I only picked it up 3 days ago and I'm already sunburned from top-down driving all day every day.

She's still bone stock down to the radio. Hopefully that will change soon.

So, this is where I will be posting all that gets done to the Jeep for anyone who's interested. I've still got a little money left over from the insurance check so I've got a few plans for this bad boy.. :devil:

 

[grnjp88]

My first Jeep repair:

The PO put some really nice sounding Kenwood speakers up front and in the sound bar. So, the day I brought the Jeep home, I put my MP3 cassette adapter into the tape deck so I could jam to some of my own tunes...

And the player ate my adapter. Even worse, with the adapter stuck in the radio, I couldn't switch from tape mode to radio. So I had no sound. This would not do.

I pulled the radio and had to pretty much disassemble the entire unit down to the cassette just to get it free:

Put everything back together, except for the tape player unit. I left it out so I can further disassemble it and maybe make sure this never happens again. So now I juat have the radio to listen to, which is fine for now. I'm still just thrilled to be piloting such a bad *** Jeep.

 

[grnjp88]

I've had the Jeep 3 days now, and finally got it off-road. Nothing extreme. No big deal at all really, but it was the first time I got to legitimately use 4WD. Drove down to Nags Head, NC in the Outer Banks today and rode up and down the beach. It was nice being able to just pull right up to the water and not have to worry about having to pay for parking in a lot somewhere and then having to haul all your gear. I could get used to this.

By the way, I've put more miles on this Jeep in the past 3 days than was put on it in the last 4 years. :laugh: That really isn't saying a lot though. From 2005-The day I got it, it had only been driven about 400 miles.

 

[VTJeePTJ]

Great Jeep. Really makes me miss my old '92 sahara. I've always had a soft spot for the YJ saharas for some reason. Heres my old one:

 

[YJPirate]

Nice jeep!! Have fun with it.

 

[grnjp88]

Great Jeep. Really makes me miss my old '92 sahara. I've always had a soft spot for the YJ saharas for some reason. Heres my old one:

Looks good. I can only hope mine ends up looking that awesome.

 

[grnjp88]

Well, my catalytic converter bit the dust tonight, rendering the Jeep useless... Details here: http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/showthread.php?p=7685384&posted=1#post7685384

Tomorrow I will buy a new cat and clamps and install. If not tomorrow, then Monday. I'll post up pics of the progress.

 

[wildride89]

thats crazy that you bought that jeep off of craigslist...i was looking at it when it was on there. i didn't buy it because i didn't like the green. i bought the yellow 6 cyl that they had on there about the same time. congrats on the new jeep maybe ill see ya around chesapeake.

 

[grnjp88]

So, the catalytic converter is giving me more trouble than expected.. :thumbdown:

I got all the rusty bolts free that held on the skid plate, then cut off the VERY rusty clamps, but couldn't manage to get the leverage I needed to force the cat free from the rest of the exhaust system. I had to admit defeat, as I only have simple hand and power tools. I'm having a local shop replace the converter tomorrow. Luckily, I already have all the parts, so the work shouldn't cost too much.. :rtft:

thats crazy that you bought that jeep off of craigslist...i was looking at it when it was on there. i didn't buy it because i didn't like the green. i bought the yellow 6 cyl that they had on there about the same time. congrats on the new jeep maybe ill see ya around chesapeake.

Oh really? Wow. Yeah, I knew it probably wouldn't be up for sale for very long, so I snatched it up while I still could.

 

[grnjp88]

New converter is on now. Just picked up the Jeep today. It starts much easier than it previously did.

The mechanic told me the engine had an intermittant misfire that may have caused the cat to blow out in the first place. I'm not sure about all that since the Jeep seems to run great, but I ordered a new tune up kit from Quadratec anyway since it probably does need it.

I also ordered a new spreader bar for the soft top and a few clips that hold on the interior door panels. Those came in today. Pics of installation to come.

 

[Mazdarx]

It looks nice, but that is supposed to be fresh paint? Looks like a lot of rock chips in the front

 

[grnjp88]

It looks nice, but that is supposed to be fresh paint? Looks like a lot of rock chips in the front

:laugh: It's dead bugs splattered all over the front end.. I had just gone on a drive through some really rural areas, where they have monster sized insects. If you look closely, there is a dragonfly still stuck to my leftside headlight.

 

[Mazdarx]

Ok then nevermind as thats a nice looking YJ.

 

[grnjp88]

It's been raining the past couple of days here, so the work on the Jeep has slowed to a halt..

During a break in the rain today, I was able to install my new spreader bar for the soft top. It looks a lot better now, and makes less noise while driving since the top is no longer flapping around back there.

Before:

After:

 

[grnjp88]

Also, I've decided I need to buy or make a "top prop" for the soft top area above the front seats. All the rain we've had the past couple of days has collected in a giant lake that has formed in my top.

 

[That1guy]

Nice jeep.

 

[grnjp88]

Nice jeep.

Thanks. My budget is pretty non-existant currently, so this build up will take a little while.. But, right now I'm loving it the way it is. Trying to take care of some cheap mods first. I'm flirting with the idea of bed lining the interior since I find I like to leave the top down a lot. Also, I'll be cleaning up the undercarriage with a wire wheel and undercoating.

I'm getting a lot of ideas from all the build threads on this site.. :devil:

 

[grnjp88]

Also, my tune-up kit came in the mail:

I installed it yesterday, but the Jeep still doesn't idle completly smoothly. The tach needle bounces up and down just enough to make it noticeable. Checked timing and there are no problems there. I'm currently running a "professional grade" fuel system cleaner in this tank of gas, so maybe that will help a little..

 

[green89yj]

Good looking jeep. Welcome to the family.

 

[grnjp88]

Cleaned up the Idle Air Control module today:

The Jeep idles much smoother now. I'm glad the solution was such a simple (and cheap) fix. My FLAPS wanted to charge me $90 for a new TPS!

Also, I decided to run a self diagostic test on the computer and I got flashed 3 codes: 12, 33, and 15. Which is strange because my check engine light doesn't come on while I'm driving... Is that normal?