Questions about first TJ purchase

C

Curt-Curt

Member
Joined
May 7, 2019
Messages
51
Location
Connecticut
looking to buy my first jeep. is there any year better than others? looking for a automatic. is the 3 speed better than the 4 speed? found one 2000 sport utility yellow with 154,000 miles on it for $5,800 with soft top. looks like clean frame. is that too many miles? is this a good deal?
Thanks
Curt
 
3 speed auto is prefered over the 4 speed for many people, what is your intended purpose? Daily driver or overlander, or rock crawler, lifted or not? High mileage is not bad if it is well maintained, I just sold a 98 with 220K on it with a hard top for $6K, no rust. I just bought a 05 LJ for $5200 that was a wreck with 127K miles on it last summer, I was happy to find it. You need to decide where you want to go with a jeep...and those among the tribe on here will help guide you. Tim
 
Price is fine for the year/mileage. You are in a rust prone area, I would post up a bunch of frame pics, especially looking inside the frame through the factory holes. You would get a ton of input from everyone here, take what the Pacific Northwest guys think with a grain of salt...lol:ROFLMAO:
 
looking for a 2nd vehicle to have fun on weekends no rock crawler. And be my daughters jeep in a couple of years.
will see if i can get pictures up
 
these are the only undercarriage pictures I have of Jeep

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Looks good, does it have a Dana 44 rear axel? It was an option with the Sport model, and is the prefered rear axel for a TJ. The frame looks suspiciously clean from your pics, get under and make sure they aren't hiding rust issues. Look up the VIN and see how it was set up at the factory. Have fun, your daughter will be disappointed when you don't hand it over in a couple of years like you said you would!
 
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I'm seeing a new gas tank skid, which probably means the old one rusted out, which probably means this Jeep saw a lot of salt action. Definitely check that frame thoroughly.
 
To be perfectly Safe, you should find someone that you can borrow an inspection camera from (you can find one at harbor freight for $77 ) to inspect the inside of the frame to truly see the condition. I bought a 99' Tj that seemed fine on the outsides of the frame. I tried to take the transfer case skid off and the nutserts broke so the bolts just spun. Once I finally got the skid, off, this is what I found. The pics of the outside only go so far and this was much more than just a 77 dollar repair (Had to buy safe-T-caps and welded them on to just get her back on the road) My advice is to get the camera and do a thorough inspection. You can then use the camera to check the coverage of the inside frame coatings (which you will definitely want to do) once a year . I agree with Bromel, if the gas tank skid had to be replaced then the frame probably saw a lot of salt. If they didn't wash out the gas tank skid, they probably never washed out the frame.
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