This year I purchased a 97 Wrangler TJ Sport with 194K miles for cheap. The reason it was cheap it had several issues.
Initially the dash cluster did not work, the exhaust manifold had a terrible leak (=loud), the rear pinion seal was leaking, the dreaded death wobble,10 year old worn Cooper tires, incorrect shocks and other stuff. Oh, did I mention the build date of the TJ is June 1996? I have found it shares a few leftovers with YJs. A friend of mine helped facilitate the purchase and he had his mechanic fix the dash cluster, pinion seal, replace the cap and spark plugs and install a new alternator. Once I got my hands on it I knew the exhaust manifold needed to be replaced ASAP. So I tackled that first. My newly found jeep buddy and neighbor @EricT77 was instructing me on how to utilize google how to find solutions through these forums. I have to say he has been a tremendous help with his direction along with the wealth of knowledge I can glean from here. I used my doctorate in Google to research How-to and got to work. Unfortunately my car buying friend also hooked me up someone from CL who was selling a new exhaust manifold that to the untrained eye was not the right fit. After struggling with getting the intake manifold to go back in correctly I realized the exhaust was not going to work. Fifty dollars down the drain. I ordered the correct one from a link I found on this forum, I think @Jerry Bransford posted it. The intake went in smooth as butter and the whole thing went back together and started up sounding 100% better. I was very excited I accomplished this although it took far longer than I would have liked.
Where it started
Where it was going, tagging, labeling and taking pictures as I went
The scratches are where the intake was making contact so it would not seat properly on the alignment pegs.
Uber shiny manifold no bueno, manifold with bellows the perfect fit.
So that is my adventure in exhaust work to date.
Initially the dash cluster did not work, the exhaust manifold had a terrible leak (=loud), the rear pinion seal was leaking, the dreaded death wobble,10 year old worn Cooper tires, incorrect shocks and other stuff. Oh, did I mention the build date of the TJ is June 1996? I have found it shares a few leftovers with YJs. A friend of mine helped facilitate the purchase and he had his mechanic fix the dash cluster, pinion seal, replace the cap and spark plugs and install a new alternator. Once I got my hands on it I knew the exhaust manifold needed to be replaced ASAP. So I tackled that first. My newly found jeep buddy and neighbor @EricT77 was instructing me on how to utilize google how to find solutions through these forums. I have to say he has been a tremendous help with his direction along with the wealth of knowledge I can glean from here. I used my doctorate in Google to research How-to and got to work. Unfortunately my car buying friend also hooked me up someone from CL who was selling a new exhaust manifold that to the untrained eye was not the right fit. After struggling with getting the intake manifold to go back in correctly I realized the exhaust was not going to work. Fifty dollars down the drain. I ordered the correct one from a link I found on this forum, I think @Jerry Bransford posted it. The intake went in smooth as butter and the whole thing went back together and started up sounding 100% better. I was very excited I accomplished this although it took far longer than I would have liked.
Where it started
Where it was going, tagging, labeling and taking pictures as I went
The scratches are where the intake was making contact so it would not seat properly on the alignment pegs.
Uber shiny manifold no bueno, manifold with bellows the perfect fit.
So that is my adventure in exhaust work to date.
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