Non-sube Project: `86 Jeep Wagoneer.

[Mechanical_misfit]

After searching for about a week I was able to find what looks like a solid, safe, and practical daily driver for my friend Rachelle. I was looking around for a Subaru wagon, but nothing was coming up in her price range that didn't need a ton of work. Here is what we found.

 

 

It's an `86 Jeep Wagoneer limited. 122k miles and still running fairly well. It came with all of the previous owners maintenance records. It does have a little bit of rust in the rockers and on the bottoms of the doors, but the rest of the paint is in great shape, and after waxing it today It cleaned up nicely. The red leather interior is mint, and complete with wood trim and power seats.

 

So far it looks pretty good, and drives even better. It is a bit on the slow side. It has the lovely GM 2.8L V6 with a carb. I've only worked on ones with the 4.0L, and its easy to see why they did away with the V6. So far it seems to run fine, but maybe a little bit on the rich side when warmed up. I have yet to give it a proper tune up, but that will be happening this week. Any advice out there for these carbs? I will also be replacing the shocks all around.

 

We ended up getting it for $850, talked the owner down from $1100. It's hard to find a decent driving 4x4 around here for under around $1500. He seemed like a very honest guy and wanted to make sure we knew what we were getting in to. Rachelle loves it, and I really like it too. It sure does look cool, but hopefully it won't take too much to get it in fighting shape.

[ferox]

You might tell your friend to pull the AMC front license plate since it's a Chrysler. I'll take it for my '82 Wagoneer . If the V6 doesn't work go with the I6 swap, very worthy as you probably know.

[AdventureSubaru]

Don't know much about these but congrats on the find.

 

I replaced a lot of rusted sheet metal on my buddy's Cherokee a few months ago. Easy job since everything is so angular on these cars. They suck on gas, but the 4.0 is a very bulletproof engine. (255k on my buddy's) Hope that 2.8 is similar.

[Mechanical_misfit]

You might tell your friend to pull the AMC front license plate since it's a Chrysler. I'll take it for my '82 Wagoneer . If the V6 doesn't work go with the I6 swap, very worthy as you probably know.

 

Hah, I think we'll leave the AMC plate on there. It looks cool, and from what I've been reading Jeep was still under AMC ownership in `86, so we technically have an AMC here.

 

Here's to hoping the V6 will work out. I've done some reading on the 4.0L swap, and as far as I can tell its a big job to swap between the two. The fire wall in the V6 jeeps is different and from what I have been reading it looks like it takes a lot to make the 4.0L fit. I did read that more than a few of the 2.8s were swapped for the GM 3.4L in the S10 trucks, which is a fairly easy swap.

 

 

Either way, I hope I don't have to get quite that far in to this thing. Its main goal will be a safe and reliable daily driver, with little to no intentions of going off road. It might not sound fun, but if we were to go off roading, we would take The Desert Fox anyways.

 

Hopefully she was able to get it plated today so it can be driven around a bit more, and we can start finding all of its little issues that will need sorted out.

[Mechanical_misfit]

Well, today is going to be the first major day of wrenching on this thing. I think she managed to flood it out somehow, so looks like I'll be spending some time fighting with that.

 

Time for new:

Air filter

plugs

wires

cap and rotor

various vacuum lines

and some sea foam!

[Mechanical_misfit]

Well I got it tuned up and running well. Knock on wood.

 

The plugs, cap. and rotor were in about as bad shape as you could imagine. I don't know how the thing was running. I replaced the air filter, as the old one was just about plugged. I also rigged the choke open for now. It was sticking closed. I'll have to address this when I get more time.

 

Anyway, after a fill up, and some seafoam, we hit the road for a pumpkin patch not too far north of Muskegon. It drove great on the highway and I even caught her speeding with the thing on a county road. The neon that this wagoneer replaced was such a pile of crap, its awesome we were able to get a good running rig for a fair price.

 

This pics show the condition of the interior, which still blows my mind. This thing has a super comfy ride too.

 

 

 

Next up is new shocks and some rust repair. I wish I was making this kind of progress on the Desert Fox. Soon though, I just have to finish my `86 K car first

[Mechanical_misfit]

I replaced a bunch of vacuum lines today, and I'm about to head to the parts store to get a few more bits.

 

 

 

The choke works now! It gave her a hard time starting this morning so I had to make that a priority.

 

This carb is definitely going to require a rebuild. I'm considering finding one at the junk yard, rebuilding it, then doing a swap. This way it won't be down for too long. I really would like to eliminate some of these vacuum lines and this emissions stuff. MI doesn't smog test cars at all, so I could do it if I get motivated enough. I've also always believed that if it didn't have to be there, it wouldn't have been designed that way. I'm mainly concerned about opening a bigger can of worms by trying to eliminate some of this stuff.

 

Would anybody care to share some info on simplifying this engine bay?

[Mechanical_misfit]

Well, the carb on this thing is still kinda finicky. I havn't been able to really tune on it much, but am getting a rebuild kit ordered. It drives great once its warmed up, but its a dog if its cold. I did cruise it around a bit today, and even used it to drag another crappy `80s econobrick home. That's right, an `87 Dodge K car!