My patience and persistence finally paid off! I've been obsessively scouring the Internet for many months (I'm sure many can relate) and the right one finally came a long. It's a 2005 Rubicon with the 4.0L and 42RLE Automatic Transmission and the best part - only 32k miles! It came with the Dark Khaki hard top, but I've already taken that off and it's been just awesome driving it around...everything I hoped it would be! My 2 daughters actually think I'm pretty cool now also and loving driving around in it and want to drive it (no way, not yet!) 
It shifts and drives really smooth and so far I'm really happy with the 42RLE, even with the overdrive. that I know some have issues with.
I have to give a lot of credit and thanks to this forum for the wealth of information and advice it provided in helping me know what to look for, I couldn't have done it without it\you!
With only 32k miles it's very clean inside and out and underneath. There is a little bit of surface rust underneath on some components, but nothing serious at all, I knew to look for rust, then more rust and finally more rust from reading this forum! It did surprise me a little bit though since it's lived it's life in CA and CO (1 owner family). They did say it was parked outside in CA so maybe that's the reason, I don't know? It also looks like some rubber bushings in the front suspension could be replaced, maybe dried out from parked outside in CA, but not affecting anything at this point.
I'm not the off-road type so it's going to stay mostly stock, for now, plus I need to save up some $ before I do anything else! I did have to get new tires because the ones on it were 14 yrs old!? When I test drove it there was a noticeable shake\shimmy around 50 mph and then it would go away once you went faster or slowed down so I was initially concerned about death wobble and almost walked away. Thankfully I didn't! I was actually pulling up this forum during the test drive to diagnose it and realized it wasn't really the death wobble and was most likely the tires causing the issue. I couldn't even get them balanced because they were so old and nobody would touch them so I got a set of BFGOODRICH ALL TERRAIN T/A KO2, which I've always wanted anyways, and problem solved! Needless to say I was relieved. My wife asked if I really needed to also replace the spare and I was like, of course, they need to match! Thankfully she's been very supportive and loves the Jeep as well.
On the list to do and keep an eye on:
-replace stock speakers and subwoofer (1 front and subwoofer blown) Does anyone now if you can just replace the speakers in soundbar, with same size, and put stock grills back on over them?
-build the hard top storage cart and\or buy the Lange hardtop hoist for the garage
-re-paint rear bumper due to common slight rust
-re-paint, if possible, or maybe replace fender flares
-keep an eye on the OPDA. Looks to be original, but seems to be fine now as far as I can tell...not hearing any strange noises
-watch out for any PCM issues
-keep an eye on very slight rear main seal leak (pretty sure that's what it is anyway)
Thankfully this forum is full of information on all of the above things.
Sorry for the long post, as you can imagine I'm pretty excited! Thanks again!
It shifts and drives really smooth and so far I'm really happy with the 42RLE, even with the overdrive. that I know some have issues with.I have to give a lot of credit and thanks to this forum for the wealth of information and advice it provided in helping me know what to look for, I couldn't have done it without it\you!
With only 32k miles it's very clean inside and out and underneath. There is a little bit of surface rust underneath on some components, but nothing serious at all, I knew to look for rust, then more rust and finally more rust from reading this forum! It did surprise me a little bit though since it's lived it's life in CA and CO (1 owner family). They did say it was parked outside in CA so maybe that's the reason, I don't know? It also looks like some rubber bushings in the front suspension could be replaced, maybe dried out from parked outside in CA, but not affecting anything at this point.
I'm not the off-road type so it's going to stay mostly stock, for now, plus I need to save up some $ before I do anything else! I did have to get new tires because the ones on it were 14 yrs old!? When I test drove it there was a noticeable shake\shimmy around 50 mph and then it would go away once you went faster or slowed down so I was initially concerned about death wobble and almost walked away. Thankfully I didn't! I was actually pulling up this forum during the test drive to diagnose it and realized it wasn't really the death wobble and was most likely the tires causing the issue. I couldn't even get them balanced because they were so old and nobody would touch them so I got a set of BFGOODRICH ALL TERRAIN T/A KO2, which I've always wanted anyways, and problem solved! Needless to say I was relieved. My wife asked if I really needed to also replace the spare and I was like, of course, they need to match!
Thankfully she's been very supportive and loves the Jeep as well.On the list to do and keep an eye on:
-replace stock speakers and subwoofer (1 front and subwoofer blown) Does anyone now if you can just replace the speakers in soundbar, with same size, and put stock grills back on over them?
-build the hard top storage cart and\or buy the Lange hardtop hoist for the garage
-re-paint rear bumper due to common slight rust
-re-paint, if possible, or maybe replace fender flares
-keep an eye on the OPDA. Looks to be original, but seems to be fine now as far as I can tell...not hearing any strange noises
-watch out for any PCM issues
-keep an eye on very slight rear main seal leak (pretty sure that's what it is anyway)
Thankfully this forum is full of information on all of the above things.
Sorry for the long post, as you can imagine I'm pretty excited! Thanks again!
