purchasing a cj5

drex did pass the time by typing:

Round tires are always a good sign.

...

...

I'd be checking the frame for rust as that's the most difficult thing to fix.

cracks in the frame...especialy around steering gear box...

To look for....

A V8 and a 'stock' original suspension.

That will be the best CJ5 going. A 258 6 is the best engine for crawling torque (she won't stall at 500 rpm on a serious hill climb, just dig if you get too steep) and gas mileage and still is respectable for power on the highway. A 4 is great off road with the highway still able to hold legal speed, but it is a 4 banger after all.

I actually have been surprised by 4's, they have kept up on the highway getting there and on the trail so well that I didn't realize they were

4's until told and I take out a lot of Jeeps on semi organized trips.

Look for stock.

If it has been modified in any way, the owner has very likely driven it to the limits of it's modifications. This causes extreme wear on stock parts. That is reality. If it has 35's on it, it is a toy that will cost big to keep on the road.

'You play, you pay' is real saying in an off road vehicle, double that for an old one.

There are narrow track and wide track ones, I don't know the cut off, but think it is 78 or so. In a CJ5, 'I' would want the older narrow track one. I run on deep Canadian Bush trails and my 86 CJ7 wide track Dana 44 is wide in places, an old narrow track Jeep can follow an ATV easy. I have to work at it for physical size with wide tire YJ's or TJ's having to actually climb the trees to fit through some places.

My opinion for you,

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

drex wrote:

[...]

Right. Frame rot in the last foot and a half, body and floor rot just about everywhere. Make sure that the body and the frame still have mounts that bolt together instead of jumbles of rust that line up. If you can pick up the body back by the wheel wells, that's a bad sign. Look for badly hacked up and patched wiring harness. Look for signs that it has been tossed, like a twisted roll bar or dents in the forward foot of the hood -- CJ-5s liked to get sideways when driven aggressively on slick pavement and roll over. (Think: Kid, parking lot, first snow, lead foot, hidden curb... bonk.)

As others have noted, a CJ-5 that has been built up has probably also been beaten up. Look for snow plow mounting points -- plowing snow is hard work on a truck and ages it fast. Look to see if all the original safety equipment is in place: A fellow was here last week wanting to know how to add 4-way flashers to his CJ with an aftermarket steering column. He won't pass his local inspection without them. Find out what emissions equipment is required for your locale, and how much of it still exists on the Jeep you are looking at. Remember that the engine you find under the hood probably isn't the one that the factory put in and that in some places you've got to comply with emissions regs for the vehicle or the engine, which ever is more restrictive.

Some gauges might not work: The oil pressure sender is a known failure point, as is the voltage regulator built into the gas gauge/temp gauge set. The ground (between the tub and the tank) for the gas gauge eventually gives out. Gas tanks eventually rust where they meet the skid plate.

Look to see if the front drive shaft is in place -- people have been known to pull them off, probably to hide problems. All of the U-joints will eventually give up, they're replacement items, but sloppy splines on the drive shafts are more expensive problems. The parking brake probably hasn't been used in years and the cables are rusted tight. Turn the hub locks to 4WD and try to turn the U-joints in the steering knuckles with your finger -- if the hub lock is working you shouldn't be able to. Turn the locks back to 2WD and you should be able to spin the U-joints. The older Warn hubs have plastic parts that give up.

Know that you can mail order just about everything you need to build, repair or rebuild a Jeep. Depending, of course, on how deep your pockets are. If you're looking at something that needs a lot of work just to be roadable you could drop $5K on it before you see pavement.

Ask here if you've got questions about anything you're looking at, before you drop any money on it. There's plenty of folks here that want to help and there really aren't many stupid questions, apart from "Is a big crack down the side of the transmission and a pile of gear teeth on the floor under it a bad sign? or "Are pistons supposed to be visible from outside the engine while it is running?"

Let us know what you find.