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Flew to California to buy my first cj8

Flipper88

Member
City
Graham
State
WA
Howdy all. I posted my adventure on a couple of the scrambler groups on Facebook but several people suggested I should share my adventure here. I will copy and paste my text from there so bare with me if this first post is a little long.

Day one:

Flew down and met a great dude selling a great scrambler. (I'll let him say who he is if he wants) he went as far as to pick us up from the airport and drive us 45 minutes back to his place. Quick easy deal and off we went!

Quick details about the jeep. It's a 1984 scrambler renegade. Very good quality, in my opinion, driver quality restoration. Fuel injected 6cyl, T5, Dana 300 twin stick, fresh paint, new Interior, yj springs. Just a great driving jeep. It does have 4.88 gears so at 65mph it's about 2500 rpm. Still doable but either a larger tire or taller gears are in it's future. But when he said it will do 70 mph with two fingers on the steering wheel, he didn't lie. Almost drives too nice.

Stopped and bought some supplies:
Tools
Oil
Coolant
Zip ties
Wheel lock
Ect

Tried to buy a spare wheel and tire from two shops but none had a wheel in stock!? Hopefully tomorrow. Only 130 Miles in today, with 704 more to go. We are going to take it easy and take 3 more days to get home, just enjoying the jeep, and any thing that catches our eye on the way.

Issue:

Only one issue so far. Locked the drivers side door and I think I bent a rod inside as it's stuck in the lock position and it binding. I guess getting in the passenger side the rest of the 704 miles is in our future! All part of the adventure right!?

All in all I am very happy with this purchase. Can't wait to get it home and make it our own. I will post this on both of the scrambler pages and update each day if people are interested. I didn't get too many photos today, I will get alot more in the coming days.

Day two:

Day two in the books and a great day it was! An easy 310 miles up the coast through the red woods of California. Jeep is running flawlessly.

Door situation:

Still no luck with the driver's side door latch even with the window up. And In my excitement to fix it I may or may not have broken the interior piece ? oh well, definitely adds more character getting in from the passenger side lol I suppose I have my first project when we return home!

Tire situation:

Apparently a wheel that is 5x5.5 is impossible to find in California!! Went to three different tire shops and none had any. So since we are only two days away from home we are just gonna keep on keeping on without one. Fingers crossed lol speaking of tires. On the way up hwy 101 I found a guy on Craigslist selling a factory spare tire carrier so I grabbed that! Super great guy, even had an 81 scrambler and took some notes on what he wanted to do with his. He even brought tools for me to install it in the parking lot! He forgot the corner bump stop so he's gonna mail it to me.

Fuel situation:

Very happy with the fuel mileage. This is the first CJ that we have had that had a working fuel gauge ? filled up this morning and traveled 223 miles before we stopped to fill it. The gauge read a quarter left. We put in 14.3 gallons giving us 15.5 mpg. Not too bad for running between 55mph-65mph with 4.88 gears!!

Tonight we are in Crescent City California. All booked into the hotel so we are gonna take the 8 and go check out the beaches and sites around here. Tomorrow should be about 400 miles of coast line! Should be fun!

Day three:

350 miles up the coast from Crescent City California to Seaside Oregon! Makes for just shy of 800 miles so far. Jeep is running great and not missing a beat! At the hotel now unpacking then it's off to explore. These past few days I have been super paranoid. Every change in sound or smell I attempted to diagnose if it's the Jeep lol I have also been constantly watching the gauges. But with a each mile that passes I'm getting more and more comfortable, and trusting of this jeep.

Fuel:

I have yet to do a milage test, we are going to fill up after we eat some proper fish and chips. But the last tank we have traveled 215 miles and the tank is showing a quarter left with is comparable to last time so I'm guessing it's going to be around 15mpg again.

Issues:

Door is still locked, I think im gonna set a new trend getting in the passenger side! I was aware the t-case seal was leaking when I bought the jeep, I have a lift so an easy fix. But noticed today there are a few more drips on the ground then when we first started, not enough to be concerning on this trip but concerning enough that I won't wait to fix it. Also in the Oregon rain we did noticed that the windshield gasket does leak a bit. Not the cowl gasket but the actual seal around the glass. In the bottom left corner on the passenger side it doesn't look like it was stretched properly. Other than those few things the jeep is running great and is a kick in the pants to cruise on these winding hill side roads!

Sites:

I find it more fun to drive then to stop and take pictures lol but below are a couple from our journey today. The giant metal ship is a 100 year old Steele yacht that was used in ww2. Also there was a guy flat towing an old Willy's pickup behind his motorhome, pretty neat!

Tire:

We gave up on finding a tire because apparently 5x5.5 is not popular anymore haha but I did post on a local fb page in my area and someone has the exact wheel for sale for $20!! So at least the spare will match. Not a huge fan of the wheels on it but it will be a while before we can afford to change them.

800 miles in and this thing just keeps eating the pavement! We are not winning any races but we are having a heck of a time! I think everyone should go on an adventure like this at least once in their lifetime! Tomorrow will only be about 200 miles but I'll add a final chapter to this when we get it put into the shop. Thanks for letting me share our travels with y'all

Day four:

And we are home! Just shy of 1000 miles it's taking a well deserved rest in the garage. In true Washington fashion the moment we crossed the state line we were met with a familiar sight, muggy rain! Surprisingly the defrost worked AMAZINGLY and kept the fog down. first jeep I've had where a Jeep rag isn't necessary lol

With less than 200 miles today and most of it traveling inland there was not really any reason to stop for photo ops. But attached are a few shots from the drive! I also couldn't help but swing by my parents house to show it off and decided to wash the 1000 miles of bug guts off of it haha and again in true Washington fashion I washed it in the rain ?

There are a few things that we want to do, and a few things we need to do. Below is a list of those items.

To do list:
- Fix transfer case leak
- Replace u joints on rear drive line (no current issues but they look to be original)
- Fix windshield seal
- Buy spare tire
- Fix door latch

Wish list:
- Add A/C (there is a compressor on the engine already)
- Find and purchase a hard top
- Remove lockers and change gears to a higher ratio (most likely 3.73 gears
- Add dash pad

Overall I am very happy with the purchase and how it handled on the journey home! There is always a risk of driving an unfamiliar vehicle a thousand miles without knowing of any of it's issues. But all in all it exceeded expectation!

Of course as we were close to home we had a rock hit what we thought was the windshield very loudly but we couldn't find a chip. As I was washing it I found a paint chip from the rock on the driver's side windshield frame and to say I was bummed would be an understatement! But paint is fixable and if this is the worst thing that happened on the journey I will consider myself lucky!

Thank you all for letting me share this experience and jeep with you. Looking forward to making it our own and very much looking forward to future adventures!! Now I have another license plate to add to the wall!! Now to enjoy time with the puppy dogs and kick our feet up for a while!
 

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Flipper88

Member
City
Graham
State
WA
A few additional pictures from the trip.
 

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MomoJeep

Basic User
Silver Member
City
Seattle
State
WA
Beautiful Jeep! By the way, do you know what kind of wheels those are? They look like what I want!

And 65mph/4.88's/2500rpm but what tire size? Assuming that's in overdrive wit the T5?
 

certifiablejeep

Definitley Certifiable
Lifetime Member
City
Bedford
State
NH
Those wheels used to be called AR Outlaw II's... not sure if they are still called that now, but that gives you something to look for.

cb
 

don87401

Original Owner
BENEFACTOR
Gold Member
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Farmington
State
NM
Saw your trip on FB, nice rig.
 

CJ7Pilot

18436572
BENEFACTOR
Gold Member
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Yuba City
State
CA
Yep, that's a good one! I was hoping to drive up and and compare the new paint to my old paint... I guess I'll have to drive a lot farther, if I want to do that now! :thumbsup:
 

bigwalton

Alaskan Postal nutjob
FORUM MANAGER
SOA Member
City
Dexter
State
MI
It sounds cool (to some people) to do a fly and drive to buy a Scrambler, but you can't fully appreciate the anticipation, excitement, worry, paranoia and satisfaction until you do it. :smokin:

Congratulations, looks like a great Scrambler!

The RPM on the highway doesn't sound like that big of a problem to me at all, if you try to lower the RPM on the highway much, you're going to take the 258 out of it's power band and it's going to start to feel doggish IMO. I'd do lots of driving around town before you change it. Assuming you're like most of us, there's a lot more lower speed driving than highway and it will make an even bigger difference for that.

One quick question, did you verify the speedometer to be certain the speedo gear in the tcase is correct and you were getting the true reading?

Congratulations again, love everything about this!
 

spankrjs

Scrambler Junkie
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Biloxi
State
MS
I aim for 2500 RPM at 70-75 mph with a 258/4.0. I have 33's, 4.10's, T5 and AX15, right around 2500 RPM at 75mph. Right where it needs to be :twocents: :shrug:

Nice Jeep, congrats on your successful trip :thumbsup::cheers:
 

Flipper88

Member
City
Graham
State
WA
Beautiful Jeep! By the way, do you know what kind of wheels those are? They look like what I want!

And 65mph/4.88's/2500rpm but what tire size? Assuming that's in overdrive wit the T5?

They are 32"s. It is in 5th gear at 65mph and between 2500-2600 rpm.
 

Flipper88

Member
City
Graham
State
WA
It sounds cool (to some people) to do a fly and drive to buy a Scrambler, but you can't fully appreciate the anticipation, excitement, worry, paranoia and satisfaction until you do it. :smokin:

Congratulations, looks like a great Scrambler!

The RPM on the highway doesn't sound like that big of a problem to me at all, if you try to lower the RPM on the highway much, you're going to take the 258 out of it's power band and it's going to start to feel doggish IMO. I'd do lots of driving around town before you change it. Assuming you're like most of us, there's a lot more lower speed driving than highway and it will make an even bigger difference for that.

One quick question, did you verify the speedometer to be certain the speedo gear in the tcase is correct and you were getting the true reading?

Congratulations again, love everything about this!

Agreed! And thanks! The rpm on the hwy is not what is going to be concerning but the rpm on the interstate is. We want to take it on cross country road trips and interstate speed can reach 80 in a lot of places. We will find the happy medium, I'm not in a rush but 4.88 for long distance trip is certainly to low.

The speedometer is pretty darn accurate. It is only off by a mile or two at 65mph. During fill up the gps odometer I was running said 226 miles and the odometer on the Jeep said we had gone 224.
 

Flipper88

Member
City
Graham
State
WA
Washed the 1000 miles of bug guts and dirt off. I also fixed the driver's side door latch. I had to take the seats out and door panel off to get to the mechanism.
 

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MomoJeep

Basic User
Silver Member
City
Seattle
State
WA
When I use this calculator, I get that your RPM's should be 2864, using .86 as your T5 overdrive ratio. I wonder where the discrepancy is?

http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/gearing

Speedo gear not matched properly? But you said you checked that? Hmm

I also get a discrepancy using this calculator, but it's been used a million times by others so I doubt it's wrong. The people at Novak usually know what they're doing.

the 258 has torque and can do well at lower RPM's.
 

AdamH

Scrambler Junkie
BENEFACTOR
Gold Member
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Mt Holly
State
NC
Great story!
 

walkerhoundvm

Just trying to stay upright
Lifetime Member
City
Cave Creek
State
AZ
When I use this calculator, I get that your RPM's should be 2864, using .86 as your T5 overdrive ratio. I wonder where the discrepancy is?

http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/gearing

Speedo gear not matched properly? But you said you checked that? Hmm
http://www.grimmjeeper.com/gears.html

I like this one the best. It gives you just about every combination of transmission and transfer case imaginable. And you can compare two setups next to one another.

Edit--I was too lazy earlier, but it suggests you might be geared 4.56, not 4.88.
 
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Flipper88

Member
City
Graham
State
WA
I didn't know their were such websites to determine that information! Learn something new every day! The original owner assured me he installed 4.88 gears. The tach is aftermarket, perhaps it's not reading correctly? To be honest that's what he said it ran at and when I glanced it seemed on par with what he said. Tomorrow I need to run some errands, I'll take the 8, use my gps speedometer and see exactly what it is reading and report back. Thanks for the information guys!
 
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