Thinking about buying a YJ

Hello everyone,
I am new to the Jeeps.net forum, and the jeep community. My wife wants a YJ wrangler, and I had a couple questions as we start shopping.

• We are looking high mileage to keep the budget reasonable. What kind of mileage is too high?
• She is looking for an automatic. Any known issues with YJ autos?
• When I go to look at these vehicles in person, any specific things I should look for that might not be brought up by the seller?

Thanks in advance, and if there are any other pointers for a Jeep newbie, I appreciate them.

 

Bob,
Great question. This will be a getting around town 2nd vehicle. My wife has a work truck, and uses my car to run errands, now she wants a jeep to take that duty.

We are currently looking at a 93 i6 automatic with 210,000 miles. They are asking 4k which I think is high. It is clean, but high miles, old, and my lack of experience with jeeps has me concerned. Also, lack of detail on the craiglist ad on mechanical performance and maintenance, just "runs great".

Thanks!

 

Take your pick. High mileage and save $1500 and rebuild everything, or do like my buddy. He found a stock 91 YJ with 90,000 miles. They were asking $7900. He got them down to $6400. I paid $1200 for this 94 YJ and it has 72000 miles. I have to rebuild the axles, paint it and new interior. I'll probable have $6000 in it when I'm finished.

Whatever you do I suggest for resale value sake get the 4.0L or 4.2L motor. I've heard that the 94-95 YJs are the ones to get. I tend to go for CJs myself.

 

$4k sounds like a very fair price if the body and frame are in good shape.

 

Thanks for the tips! I'm happy to reinvest in the jeep, although not looking too far in the future in terms of resale. My wife just wants to get the party started by buying it initially, and if we can put off axle rebuilds or any serious down time for a couple months to a year I am happy.

 

If you can get them under $4k, and the body and frame are in good shape I'd do it. I had to rebuild the axles because the PO took the covers off and left them out in the weather for a year. The axles will last forever if you don't wheel them hard and/or go bigger than 32/33in tires. The week link in the YJ Front axle is the vacuum activated actuator. I here that people replace the axle shafts with TJ axle shafts and block off the Actuator site with a plate, I've never tried that though. Good luck. Post some pics once you get your Jeep. I love to see other peoples jeeps.

 

Peter,
Thanks for all the input, sounds like we will probably go for it. As soon as we bring it home we will be sharing!