My wife wanted to know why I need two of them...Because you’ll throw a fit if I get three
I Just Scored The Deal Of The Century - My Second "TJ" - A 2006 LJ
- Thread starter zachpeakee
- Start date
My wife wanted to know why I need two of them...Because you’ll throw a fit if I get three
Congrats! There are a few of us who wanted a low mileage LJ. Took me two years to find mine, also flame red, although mine is also a Rubi. Word of caution: some folks did not know about unlocking the steering when towing. If towed with the steering locked the front end takes a real beating. I just found out and replaced ball joints, u-joints, track bar, rod, and damper. Runs like new, now.
I would have told her Im coming to get it without looking and give her cash
OP
It's always worth keeping in mind, a lot of the older generation are "fresh" to facebook.
Still base things on NADA/KBB, and quite simply don't understand the basis of how vehicles are valued in todays age.
Older gentleman just said "I've had it since it was new, and i've put every mile on it. My knees are bad, and I can't get into it to drive it anymore. It's just time for it to go."
He placed his own value on it, and I reaped the benefits of that.
OP
I'll miss the Sahara. It was my first stepping stone into the TJ/Jeep world.
I learned a lot along the way with it.
There's a few things I'm excited to re-do, now that I've got some real world experience with some of the mods!
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Absolutely no fits thrown. I called her and said "I need you to run to the bank, grab $5,500, and meet me at home".
She never even asked questions. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
All she said about it, when we first pulled back up to buy it... "ewh, it's red?!"
I would have skipped right over that ad thinking it was a scam.
OP
I took this one out on the road/interstate/backroads last night.
Put it through the paces, everything from 10mph to 85mph.
Drove like a dream the entire time. Not a single issue, aside from a rattly something underneath the driver kick panel.
Throwing them both in the garage today, and tearing into them to start swapping some parts over!
OP
Sell the VW and have the wife drive the Sahara
No can do. I'll sell both of the TJ's before I throw the VW out.
That new Tiguan is nothing to play with!
Thing is a dream on the road. AWD - Turbo - Fully Loaded.
The TJ's are fun, but I can't COMPLETELY give up my day-to-day comforts for them. lol
OP
I did at first!
Then I decided to click it and read.
You could immediately tell that it wasn't a scam, more-so someone who simply didn't understand their LJ priced as a TJ.
Even when talking to the guy, I mentioned that his was the LJ, and they were tough to find and worth a bit more than the "normal" TJ's.
His response was along the lines of
"I don't know about the acronyms. I drove it off the lot and have had it since. I'm going to miss it, but i've gotten my value from it already"
It was actually quite bittersweet to see, but the man was excited to see how stoked I was to buy it.
The older folks bro. Just finding little grains of happiness, without the financial "benefits".
OP
Okay. So the real questions. If some of you guys could chime in on it, and point me a direction.
(also, I want to thank you guys for offering some insight throughout this thread already)
I'm still too new to TJ's to understand exactly the right way to go about this, and there was a lot left out of the discussions.
My 2000 Sahara has Dana 30 front/Dana 44 Rear with FRESH 4.88's and ARB Lockers. (Literally FRESH. less than 300 miles on the gears/lockers)
It's got disc brake fronts, with drum brake rears.
This LJ has Dana 30 front/Dana 44 Rear. 3.73 gearing with Factory "Trac-Lock" differentials. BUT it has Disc brakes on both axles.
I would like to swap my axles over to the LJ, but I would also like to keep the 4-way disc brakes.
What would be the easiest way to handle this?
The axle swap is simple enough. Control arms loose, brake lines loose, driveshafts off, easy peasy.
But it's the brake situation that has me stumped, as I've understood that it's not as simple as "swapping" the LJ discs onto the Sahara axles.
I'm planning to LEAVE my suspension/control arms/etc on the Sahara. I feel it'd help sell better, and I have a different route i'd like to go on the LJ as far as suspension is concerned.
(also, I want to thank you guys for offering some insight throughout this thread already)
I'm still too new to TJ's to understand exactly the right way to go about this, and there was a lot left out of the discussions.
My 2000 Sahara has Dana 30 front/Dana 44 Rear with FRESH 4.88's and ARB Lockers. (Literally FRESH. less than 300 miles on the gears/lockers)
It's got disc brake fronts, with drum brake rears.
This LJ has Dana 30 front/Dana 44 Rear. 3.73 gearing with Factory "Trac-Lock" differentials. BUT it has Disc brakes on both axles.
I would like to swap my axles over to the LJ, but I would also like to keep the 4-way disc brakes.
What would be the easiest way to handle this?
The axle swap is simple enough. Control arms loose, brake lines loose, driveshafts off, easy peasy.
But it's the brake situation that has me stumped, as I've understood that it's not as simple as "swapping" the LJ discs onto the Sahara axles.
I'm planning to LEAVE my suspension/control arms/etc on the Sahara. I feel it'd help sell better, and I have a different route i'd like to go on the LJ as far as suspension is concerned.
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Absolutely no fits thrown. I called her and said "I need you to run to the bank, grab $5,500, and meet me at home".
She never even asked questions. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
All she said about it, when we first pulled back up to buy it... "ewh, it's red?!"
Remember you’re dealing with a creature that can tell you the shoes she was wearing on your second date but cannot tell you how long the oil
light has been flashing.
“At $5,500 honey, let’s be glad it has a tub”
Now, I’m going to take this opportunity to explain that women don’t always say exactly what they mean.
Like where do you want to go eat and she says it doesn’t matter does not mean it doesn’t matter ....It means you have to figure it out by asking until she indicates one that sounds good.
Now,
“Eww its red” means it needs some appearance help, specifically 35” tires, gears and GenRight fenders.
Women don’t know how to say all that so that’s where you have to help them.
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I bought a truck once from a friend of mine who I told him he wasn't asking enough for it.
His response was "If you don't buy it for this price, someone else will"
So I bought it, put 80k on it and sold it for more than I had paid him for it.
Not that bad...
You start with the Sahara, pull the drums, axle shafts, and the brake backing plates off, remove the axle breather/bolt where it mounts little brake splitter block to the driver side tube, remove all the little tabs that mount the hard lines to the axle housing. You're taking the housing with a cover and gears in it and leaving EVERYTHING else. You don't need to disconnect the e-brake cables or anything, and I don't recall whether you need to open the brake lines at the wheel cylinders to remove them, but if so you'll just put them right back on when you get the other axle in place.
Go to the LJ, and do the same...remove the calipers, rotors, pull the axle shafts, brake backing plate, separate the brake lines, etc. This one you for sure don't need to open up the brake lines.
and of course you'll disconnect the driveshaft and shocks and the 5 suspension links at whichever end you want based on which Jeep they'll end up on.
Now drag each housing (carefully as not to fold your hard brake lines) over to the Jeep that it's going back into and reverse the disassembly process. The LJ will keep it's axle shafts, and the Sahara will keep its shafts. The only catch to this is if you have some nice chromoly shafts you want to keep, you'll need to switch the retainer plates because that's what's drum/disc specific. If you need to switch them, you'll be buying and installing new bearings and seals for both axles, but it's a small price compared to having to buy another set of shafts.
Not trying to be a dick at all so hopefully it doesn't come across that way. But what you asked about (swapping axles and everything else) is probably worth an entirely separate thread itself.
Also, throwing it out there, have you thought about selling the Sahara as is and doing all of the work that you want on your new LJ? Selling the Sahara would give you a pile of cash to throw at the LJ. Also, since you have gone through the learning process with the Sahara, you can do even better on the LJ.