April 20th was the straw the broke my family and my back, we couldn't make our xj payments for the last 2 months and begged the bank to wait until we got our taxes in 2 weeks. Now its gone, the good news being that my wife is going to let me spend 1600 on a new jeep+lift and tires from the tax money! I would like your reason why on what late 80s early 90s xj to purchase, with emphasis on trail/rock no mud. I don't want technical numbers and spec I want the members of this forum to tell me why from their own personal experiences .

Thanks!
Adam

 

go with the early 90's like 91-94, no air bags, great trail rig and can get em dirt cheap and to top it off you get the HO motor. Oh and the better more efficient open cooling system.

 

A 95 XJ in my opinion is about the best. 297x ujoints, strong block, low emisions stuff so you won't throw codes if you start messing with stuff. Stay away from ABS jeeps. An 87 is a good year if it has the D44 rear. If I could do it over I would find a 95 - 98. 95 & 96 won't have the strong rear end but they won't have a lot of emissions and stuff. 97 & 98 will have a HP D30 and also the strong 8.25 29spl rear end as long as you don't get ABS.

My XJ is a 94 with ABS. ABS sucks! , 94 and older jeeps with out ABS have a weaker break booster so that needs to be upgraded, along with weaker ujoints.

Really the best jeep you can get is a cheap one so you can spend the money making it into the right jeep. ie: better booster, better rear end, stronger u-joints.

 

I have a 91 with ABS with the rear disc upgrade and it stops on a dime and gives you change
if I'm not mistaken you get the bigger u joint in the front axle if it has ABS

 

ABS is great as long as it works right. The problem is when it stops working it's a pain to fix and costs a load. I have a 91 non-ABS and I got some axle shafts off a 91 with ABS and that was a nice upgrade. I plan to upgrade to rear disc brakes as well. Some day I will upgrade to a dual diaphragm brake booster but eh mine brakes pretty good now.

 

i got a 91 cherokee that i paid 400 bucks for w nothing really wrong with it... jus find a good deal like that and then use the rest of the money to get a lift/tires/lockers n watever u feel u need

 

Another thing is you can get Treadwright.com retreads which will save you a load of cash, piece together a cheap lift with used parts. and what not. Find a good deal on a good running XJ and then get treadwright tires, JY lift and you will be surprised as what you can get for little investment. Also don't be scared of older XJ's like 91-94 because of the smaller u-joint axle shafts, you can get cheap upgrades at the JY, and even more so if you have a pick-n-pull that has some newer XJ's.

 

This is true you get the bigger u-joints, that's the one advantage of ABS however if it's trail use you want, you want to be able to lock up the brakes every now and then. (There's a reason everyone tries there hardest to get rid of it if they have it on there jeep.) Also the dealer ship has stoped making parts for them. I just got done swaping in a D44 rear that I put 8.8 brakes on and just unhooked the ABS from the rear. To me with all the work I've done with my brakes on my XJ, ie: (new master cylinder, booster, rear axle swap), it's not worth it just for some 297x ujoints. Like I stated just by you a cheap good running jeep then pick up the parts to make it the right jeep. Like putting in the 297x u joints from an ABS model.

On a side note how do you have your ABS hooked up in the rear with Discs? Is the ZJ rear disc ABS compatible with a regular XJ? My main point in staying away from ABS is swaping out the D35 for a stronger axle becomes a brake hassle. Just not worth it to me when you can just pull the shafts from one and have all you need from it. Also if you have a 94 ABS model there a really big hybrid for parts. Some stuff on my XJ is 93 year model stuff since it was technically made when the 94's for started being realsed at the end of 93. Also the 94 ABS models were the first to use some features that 95's have such as a double brake booster which regular ones did not have.

Always remember what your getting yourself into when you by a JEEP.

Just
Empty
Every
Pocket

 

Well having worked in both auto finance and repo your best option is to get your Jeep back when the $$ comes in. Having a repo not cleared up on your credit will screw you for years down the road. Spend the $$ you were going to use for lift/tires and pay the damn Jeep off!
Cheers!
~K

 

x2 with Destro!!!

 

x3

 

X4!

 

X5, credit is worth more than anything nowadays.

 

ABS should not stop you from locking up your brakes if you are going slow
and I have never had a situation of road that locking the brakes was needed
most times you don't want to lock cus you can loose control just like on the street

 

X2/\ I love ABS! Still being able to steer is very nice! Locked wheels...no control!