Hello! Thought I'd document my TJ story when another member here asked if I had one.
I first bought the TJ back in June.
Here are some photos from the seller
Initial impressions were pretty good; I had crawled under and I couldn't identify anything majorly wrong (this here is foreshadowing
).
It looked like the TJ had sat for a while but VIN and history all checked out. Interior looked really nice, dusty but that's easily remedied.
For the test drive, it was a little bit bumpy between the suspension in dire need of a refresh and the transmission clunking during on and off throttle.
In all honestly, I was a little too eager to get a jeep and probably should have negotiated lower but I decided to take a chance and became the owner of a TJ!
I didn't get very far though before I had a blow out from the tires. Tires from 2018 but were pretty dry rotted. It's okay, I had planned to replace anyways but I got my first taste of using the spare carrier.
With the spare mounted, I made it back to my home and started to prepare it for inspection.
The TJ looks pretty good sitting in my garage!
Here's the TJ with it's younger siblings
First and foremost was oil change. The oil that came out looked relatively fresh which gave me a good feeling. I went with Quaker Synthetic 10W-30 and an oversized filter ( I know there's not much difference but it made me feel a little bit better with the bigger filter.
I then checked the air box and air filter; it all looked clean, even new so I left it be.
Afterwards, I topped off the coolant and wiper fluid which were a little low and also made sure I had proper amounts of blinker fluids.
At the time, the brakes were a little spongy but I looked in the reservoir and it seemed to be decently filled so I left it be. More on this later though.
With that, I took her off to get it inspected and after hearing the service guy rip the brakes hard in the parking lot, I was handed back the key and a clean inspection bill. Awesome!
With a TJ, I feel it's a never ending build/fix process so next on the list was refreshing the suspensions which revealed a lot more issues than I had bargained for, specifically rust.
Due to circumstances, I just wanted to restore the TJ to the bare minimal OE functionality before any upgrades so I went with cheap Monroe OE shocks. All 4 cost me only $80 as at the time I wasn't ready to go with SkyJackers.
The install was pretty straightforward, just lots of rust so plenty of PB Blaster, wire wheel, and patience. I also bought new hardware and used anti-seize to make sure the next time I changed them out would be easier.
Changing out the shocks was desperately needed as before, the TJ wouldn't stop bounce and afterwards, it made it feel like a modern car. Turns felt a lot more stable.
This also revealed some shocking details too:
Yup, my rear springs and spring mounts are all pretty much disintegrated so I've added both of those to my list of todo. I have all replacement parts on hand, just waiting for my buddy's shop to free up or a cost effective shop.
In the meanwhile, I set to refurbishing the front end sway bar bushings, sway bar bushing brackets, sway bar links, and sway bar. Long story short, took all parts off, wire wheel, soak in evaporust, hit with rust reformer spray, and then finally a rattle can of black paint. I also took the time to tap the threads to make sure that the were clean and ready for new hardware. The assembly was straightforward and a quick and short local drive near me showed massive improvements. I don't have many photos but here are some I took along the way
I'm currently now in the middle of replacing the transmission mount. Prior, the catch point always seemed to float around and I would hear clunking on and off power so I guess the transmission mount has gone. I was right though as taking off the mount I found this:
I feel like that's pretty bad but I also feel good knowing that this is almost certainly where the clunking and transmission issues are coming from. While I had the skid plate removed, my next plans are to changing out the transmission and transfer case fluids. I'm going with 10W-30 for the AX-15 and any ATF+4 for the 231 transfer case.
I first bought the TJ back in June.
Here are some photos from the seller
Initial impressions were pretty good; I had crawled under and I couldn't identify anything majorly wrong (this here is foreshadowing
).It looked like the TJ had sat for a while but VIN and history all checked out. Interior looked really nice, dusty but that's easily remedied.
For the test drive, it was a little bit bumpy between the suspension in dire need of a refresh and the transmission clunking during on and off throttle.
In all honestly, I was a little too eager to get a jeep and probably should have negotiated lower but I decided to take a chance and became the owner of a TJ!
I didn't get very far though before I had a blow out from the tires. Tires from 2018 but were pretty dry rotted. It's okay, I had planned to replace anyways but I got my first taste of using the spare carrier.
With the spare mounted, I made it back to my home and started to prepare it for inspection.
The TJ looks pretty good sitting in my garage!
Here's the TJ with it's younger siblings
First and foremost was oil change. The oil that came out looked relatively fresh which gave me a good feeling. I went with Quaker Synthetic 10W-30 and an oversized filter ( I know there's not much difference but it made me feel a little bit better with the bigger filter.
I then checked the air box and air filter; it all looked clean, even new so I left it be.
Afterwards, I topped off the coolant and wiper fluid which were a little low and also made sure I had proper amounts of blinker fluids.
At the time, the brakes were a little spongy but I looked in the reservoir and it seemed to be decently filled so I left it be. More on this later though.
With that, I took her off to get it inspected and after hearing the service guy rip the brakes hard in the parking lot, I was handed back the key and a clean inspection bill. Awesome!
With a TJ, I feel it's a never ending build/fix process so next on the list was refreshing the suspensions which revealed a lot more issues than I had bargained for, specifically rust.
Due to circumstances, I just wanted to restore the TJ to the bare minimal OE functionality before any upgrades so I went with cheap Monroe OE shocks. All 4 cost me only $80 as at the time I wasn't ready to go with SkyJackers.
The install was pretty straightforward, just lots of rust so plenty of PB Blaster, wire wheel, and patience. I also bought new hardware and used anti-seize to make sure the next time I changed them out would be easier.
Changing out the shocks was desperately needed as before, the TJ wouldn't stop bounce and afterwards, it made it feel like a modern car. Turns felt a lot more stable.
This also revealed some shocking details too:
Yup, my rear springs and spring mounts are all pretty much disintegrated so I've added both of those to my list of todo. I have all replacement parts on hand, just waiting for my buddy's shop to free up or a cost effective shop.
In the meanwhile, I set to refurbishing the front end sway bar bushings, sway bar bushing brackets, sway bar links, and sway bar. Long story short, took all parts off, wire wheel, soak in evaporust, hit with rust reformer spray, and then finally a rattle can of black paint. I also took the time to tap the threads to make sure that the were clean and ready for new hardware. The assembly was straightforward and a quick and short local drive near me showed massive improvements. I don't have many photos but here are some I took along the way
I'm currently now in the middle of replacing the transmission mount. Prior, the catch point always seemed to float around and I would hear clunking on and off power so I guess the transmission mount has gone. I was right though as taking off the mount I found this:
I feel like that's pretty bad but I also feel good knowing that this is almost certainly where the clunking and transmission issues are coming from. While I had the skid plate removed, my next plans are to changing out the transmission and transfer case fluids. I'm going with 10W-30 for the AX-15 and any ATF+4 for the 231 transfer case.
