Picked up a Cherokee

Changed the oil yesterday. 70125 miles.

Changed my calendar today to check something and did a double take 

Flatfender Ben wrote: Changed my calendar today to check something and did a double take  I forgot it was in there!! SWEET JEEP

Thanks Ben. I actually forgot it was in there too Mine is still packed away somewhere

Finally bought myself a brand new windshield wiper motor. The one I replaced did work but was noisy, would not shut of if I let it run to long and when I would shut it off it would not "park" at the lowest point.

Such a big difference with the new one. Now watch it not rain ever again

This is my drivers side vent window. These two pieces should be secured together by those two rivits. As you can clearly see they are not one anymore.  I dislike rust.

Nothing really new.  

Last week I took this Jeep to the College I work for auto shop and balanced the tires. 2 rims did not take much to balance. The other 2 was a different story, they both took a lot of weights to balance.

Now it does not shake or shimmy nearly as bad as it was, which is nice

ggordon49 wrote: Hello berettajeep, Any advice or wisdom on the Cherokee SJ that might come in handy when purchasing? Typical spots for rust, frame rot, mechanical failures that kid of stuff... I believe these were the AMC years? Are these Cherokee's as tough as the 80's Wagoneer's? I would eventually like to find one for a daily driver back and forth to work about 20 miles round trip. On the weekends or long trips we could use my Wife's new Kia This would be my only vehicle so i was hoping to get your insight on reliability and function... Thank you, GG This one recently poped up in IL - What do you think on the price? http://classics.autotrader.com/classic-cars/1976/jeep/cherokee/101012197

That '76 looks nice, not $8000 dollars nice in my opinion.

Places to look for rust:
Above both rear wheels and behind them.
The cowl vents in front of the front doors like to collect leaves.
Under the passenger side front parking light, that panel is notorious for getting tools stuck behind it, Ive seen wrenches and screwdrivers rusting through

I like the 401 and the 401 likes gas stations. I would prefer manual ( Not available from the factory with a 401 in Jeeps but I'm sure some are out there)
My auto is a Turbo 400. Later ones came with the Chrysler 727 (? I'm not sure.)

Borg-Warner transfer case is full time 4x4 unless a part time kit was added. Personally I'd rather have something else but it works. Parts are not easy to obtain. I think they just started making made in U.S.A. T/C chains again. (I've heard the other options are junk, not first hand knowledge on that though)

Transfer case is also off set to the passenger side, as is the rear axle. Keep that in mind if you find a FSJ with no engine or trans. A lot of people do LS swap into these, since there are billions of those motors.


I see that '76 still has the amp gauge. People have had there Cherokee/ Wagoneers go up in flames from it. There is a write up on putting a volt gauge there instead. One of the first upgrades I did.


Tailgate window motor wiring goes bad. There was a guy selling a harness to replace the factory one and uses relays, but he has since passed on.

He also made one for the headlights, again using relays. My headlight switch used to get super hot before I put in the new harness. now it doesn't


Some websites

http://www.fsjnetwork.com/ Great site.
http://www.ifsja.org/ The mothership, as they call it. Not very active like it used to be but tons of info.

http://www.bjsoffroad.com/ Dealt with numerous times and will continue too. Also get a discount if a member of fsjnetwork.

https://www.teamgrandwagoneer.com/ I have never dealt with them. I've heard good and bad.


There is more but this is off the top of my head while at work