But then I immediately wanted to share these back roads treasures with my girlfriend, Wendi. Whenever we're out driving around, I'll see a great side road and just groan that I can just turn off like I would on my KLR. We've taken her Ford Fusion and my Pontiac Vibe to some of the best spots I've scouted in the Flint Hills, the California Trail and even some back roads in Arkansas. But the Vibe is about as off road worthy as the ZRX. I quickly ran into ground clearance issues, scraped up my oil and trans fluid pans and realized I needed a better solution. I considered renting a vehicle, but we like taking "Sunday drives" on the spur of the moment. For a whole host of reasons, I finally just decided to buy an off road toy. I wasn't looking for a rock crawler, muddin' truck, or trail rig. I just wanted something for back roads touring, something with decent ground clearance, bias ply tires and four-wheel drive wouldn't hurt. I had my eye on a Suzuki Sidekick or Geo Tracker for a while, but there aren't lots of those around and their 1.6L engines aren't quite suited for highway speeds. When I called my mechanic inquiring about a lift kit for the Vibe, when he finished laughing, he suggested an old Cherokee. "Not a Grand," he made clear. "Get an old regular Cherokee with the inline six."
The hunt was on and I was like a dog with a bone. I spent way too much time obsessively scouring Craigslist and other dealer sites for old Cherokees. I got pretty sick of the hunt actually. But I developed a good idea about price and value and what was available. Wendi and I drove 3 hours to Lincoln, NE one weekend to test drive a low mileage '95 that overheated the first ten minutes of the test drive. I probably test drove about 8 or 10 Cherokees; I lost count. Some were downright awful, woefully neglected turds. Looking for a good used "survivor" of a vehicle that Jeep stopped producing in 2001 ('99 was the last "good" year) was quite discouraging. You can find nice examples with 100k miles on the clock, but folks want $5k for them. I had $3k in cash in hand. I didn't really want to spend quite that much, but I was prepared to if the right one came along.
Then I came across this red '93 two-door Cherokee about an hour west near Topeka, Kansas. Asking price was $1,000. Odometer reading wasn't listed in the ad, which usually means the number is so high it'll scare you off. I inquired about miles. 125k was the response. The only catch was the owner freely admitted the Jeep had the dreaded Death Wobble. It ticked off all the right boxes: two-door, low miles, hand cranked windows, 4.0L inline six with 4WD, decent condition, two-inch lift already installed, floorboards not rusted out, actual gauges instead of dummy lights for temp and oil pressure, and all at a reasonable asking price. I figured at that price I could take it to my mechanic and have them sort out the death wobble as they had assured me they were up to the task. I test drove it and liked it a lot. It got me excited and fired up and it passed my careful inspection, so I pulled the trigger. I got it for $900. With Wendi's help, we drove it home on a Wednesday evening taking back roads from Topeka. I kept it around 45mph (never over 50mph) and it never death wobbled on me. On the drive home, I discovered it even has working cruise control!!!
I dropped it off straight at my mechanic as soon as I got back into town. That was Wednesday (9-14-16). They called on Friday with the bad news. They had a list as long as their arm of all the things wrong with the Jeep and they recommended me not putting another penny into it. I told them I left the title open for that reason. It's a repair shop I trust implicitly as they have served me well for over ten years. I was very disappointed, but I immediately resolved to sell the Cherokee on Craigslist and I assured everyone I would even turn a profit on it since I bought it for such a good price. A couple of days passed. I washed the Jeep that weekend so I could take pics for the Craigslist ad I would post. But I drove it to the car wash, I thought. It runs STRONG. I studied the list from the mechanic closer and closer. I decided to keep it! Then I tinkered with it a little on a Monday night after work and I said FUCK IT! I'm selling it. This thing is too old and I don't need another project, I thought. I listed it on Craigslist with a weepy water pump and all the other issues. It sat for a few days with lukewarm interest. But it didn't sit right with me...that Jeep sitting in my garage pissing all over the floor. I decided to keep the jeep (again)...or at least to replace the water pump so I wouldn't feel so defeated. A water pump from O'Reilly costs $25 and I probably should go ahead and do that before I sell it anyways...for the next guy who wants to test drive it. And I figured if I found another Jeep to buy, I'd have a whole new list of things to fix on that 20-year old vehicle. And I STILL wanted a back roads touring scoot. That desire hadn't changed.
So Saturday (9-24) I went to O'Reilly and bought a whole box of new parts for a hundred bucks. All parts were in-stock even. Can’t beat that. I spent 3 or 4 hours on Friday night after Scrabble tearing everything apart. That's the part of the job I had most dreaded - removing bolts on a 27 year old Jeep. I won't bore anyone with the details, but I had to remove the air box and the whole power steering assembly to gain access to the water pump. But, the good news is that I had unobstructed access to the broken motor mount when I removed those ancillary bits. I had no intention of tackling the motor mount this weekend, but I couldn't help notice it and remembered it was on the list from my mechanic. That added only a couple of hours and it was pretty high on my priority list anyways. I would guess I worked on the jeep 8 hours total on Friday and Saturday. I replaced the motor mount, water pump, thermostat, lower radiator hose, and all corresponding fluids and gaskets. I test drove it Saturday night and all seems right with the world! I was happy as a pig in shit! Off the charts happy!
There are a lot of unknowns. The previous owner could have let it get hot and blown the head gasket and / or fried the rings. Only time will tell. But for now she runs and drives real nice. Lots of power and she stays cool. I've got a lot more to do on Lil' Red. It desperately needs new tires and I've got an unexplained "pop" in the steering that I need to diagnose. But John was over yesterday just to take a look and he crawled underneath to inspect the steering and suspension. He said there's nothing under there that looks like it's in dangerous condition. I may wind up discovering a deal breaker still yet, but in the meantime I'm learning and having fun. And I'm ten kinds of excited about getting out and bouncing around in the Flint Hills with Wendi in my new Jeep. And getting a running and driving off road toy for 900 bucks....how fun is that! That really is a big part of it. The notion of buying a vehicle for under a thousand bucks and being able to drive around and have fun in it. That’s awesome! Working on things, shining on things and making them better than the way I found them, bringing things back to life....all that is right up my alley.
Update: So I did all that work this past weekend. Replacing the leaking radiator cap seems to be the final link in getting the cooling system completed sorted out (for now at least). I've put another 30 miles or so on it (still under 47mph) and it's staying cool and running strong. On Monday I went over to my buddy's house and we figured out that the "pop" sound coming from the steering is coming from where the new track bar attaches to the axle. The previous owner replaced the track bar trying to fix the death wobble; that's the one thing they tried. I removed that bolt to see if it was wallered out, but it isn't. But then I torqued the bolt back down to spec (40ft lbs). I had read that sometimes suspension components that aren't torqued down to spec can contribute to the death wobble. That awful "pop" noise in the steering that used to make me cringe every time I turned the Cherokee is now GONE. That sound had bothered me from the very first test drive. The pop may come back, but at least I know where it's coming from. I also fixed the heater, defroster, interior dome lights and radio by simply replacing two blown fuses. I've been in this fabulously familiar spot a few times in my life where I'm coming in behind someone fixing a whole slew of things that someone else overlooked or neglected – a cornucopia of low-hanging fruit. It is an absolute blast. This Cherokee is getting better by the day. I insured it yesterday and I hope to get it tagged in the next couple of days. I'm on the hunt for tires now. Once I get new tires (or good used ones), I'm going to go out and really put some miles on it. Updates to follow.
