Houston Junkyards

I'm looking for a bunch of random XJ, WJ, ZJ, MJ parts. Can anyone recommend a good junkyard in Houston, preferably north of I10?
Would prefer a pull-your-own-part JY, but mostly I'm just looking for a place that has Jeep parts at reasonable prices.
I spent about an hour wandering Tex-Mex salvage on monday, and decided that my time would be better spent if I knew there would be jeeps there. (FYI, they had 3 XJs, all 2wd. One was a '91 w/2.5L (engine was gone) and the others were similar age).

LKQ off of West rd and 45 down by fry's usually has a bunch of xj's in there. last time I was in there in the old section( i have an 89). They had about 8 or 10 of them

Great, that's the place I was looking at. Let the hunt begin!

Well, today was interesting. Got to the JY around 1:15PM, found a bunch of XJs but nothing new enough to have the Rear W. wiper switch I was looking for. I did find a V8 ZJ that someone had taken the front axle from, but left the coils springs and the tie rod. Grabbed the springs, then settled in to try and remove the drag link(wasn't sure if I would need it). After about 5 min. I had not suceeded in removing the drag link (ball joint was in TIGHT) so I decided to pull the steering box so I could get to it better. Got the first bolt out and discovered that I was not feeling very good-head swimming, feeling real cold, etc. grabbed a water from my cooler and went back to work.
To make a long story short, I finally got the drag link off(after pulling the steering box) and brought my stuff up to the counter. At this point it's about 4:30PM, and I'm exhausted. Drank 6 bottles of water, and still having trouble with the heat. I've had to take several breaks, and apply ice cubes to my neck, etc. At that point I'm wondering WTF is going on, I thought I handled heat better than that.
Then the girl at the counter looks at my tie rod and drag link, and proceeds to tell me that what I have is:
2 drag links
2 tie rods
2 coil springs
I was very puzzled by this, as I had:
1 tie rod
1 drag link
2 coil springs
I asked her for an explaination, and she told me that the center section of the tie rod was a drag link, and that the 2 tie rod ends were tie rods.
As such, she wanted to charge me for double what I had. (plus a $4 core charge for EACH PART). (counter girl said they do the some core charge for everything that you buy, inc. plastic paneling )
I couldn't convince her the tie rod was a single unit, so it got left there(For anyone who wants it, it's still there. expect to pay $85 for it)
So I finally just bought the springs. Got in the Jeep, turned on the radio, and the first thing I found was the DJ talking about how it was 103 @%&$ING DEGREES OUTSIDE. Well, that explained why I was having trouble with the heat. Got home 5 1/2 hours after I left, with a pair of ZJ coil springs to show for it.
Sure enough, our thermometer read 98degrees, and it's in the shade.

Oh well, live and learn. That core charge is a bummer!

Sorry this post is kinda rambling.

Sorry to hear about your experience. It seems quite similar to the one I had with the PnP in Arlington. It amuses me that the PnP's I've been to up here charge relatively the same prices as the yards that will pull the parts for me. Go figure! Guess which yards I go to now.

i agree......my new axle is being pulled as i type

You went to LKQ?

And there are a faw more places to check out. Magimerlin knows of one that if you go there with him... you seem to get a discount. I am about to hit some up myself. Time for the 8.8 upgrade.

8.8? How about these!

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=800170

Well, I went back to Tex-Mex today looking for some other stuff. I was walking around a silverado trying to figure out if I could modify the spring shackles, and bumped into(literally) a Jeep Comanche! I did a quick double take, checked it over, and got somebody to pull the shackles for me.
Walked out with a pair of MJ shackles for $20

The MJ is still mostly intact if anybody needs parts off of it
'89 MJ Pioneer 4.0L (engine gone), auto w/column shift, 2wd, Dana 35 rear

Interesting that she (LKQ) was trying to charge a core charge on parts that have no core charge. Those prices sound higher than the cost of new parts on the drag link and tie rods, and she sure had the parts count wrong on the drag links.

I was out in that 103 heat all last week too, pulling and swapping 4.0 engines, and stripping a 92 for parts, nearly killed me too.

Where is that Tex-Mex, Pasadena? Address?

I shipped the remains of the 92 XJ to one of the South Shaver JYs, between Spencer and Southmore, last Friday (I forget the name). Still had the front and rear axles on it, complete, 4x4, 8.8 and D-30, and steering column, steering gear box, front and rear stock suspension, cruise control and most of the dash/AC stuff, and blower motor were still there. We pulled most everything else. Oh and it still had rear seat belt assys and a CLASS 3 Factory tow hitch still on it!

Just ran out time to pull the rest of that stuff (engine swap ate up a lot of time). It also had a nice set of silver color, steel jeep wheels on it.

By the way I pulled the entire under the hood wiring harness (real nice condition), which is for sale, along with some other stuff we pulled.

I hate bumping old threads, but I just wanted to mention that I went back to LKQ on Saturday and had a MUCH better experience. Different person behind the counter, knew what she was doing and said that the core charge thing was not as bad as the other girl thought.
Got a V8 ZJ tie rod in good condition for $14 OTD, including a $1 core charge.

Ecomike, Tex-Mex salvage is on HW 249 S a couple miles south of Beltway 8-it's got a bright red metal fence and is clearly marked.

I knew those prices were too high even for LKQ

T3hk1w1 said:

I hate bumping old threads, but I just wanted to mention that I went back to LKQ on Saturday and had a MUCH better experience. Different person behind the counter, knew what she was doing and said that the core charge thing was not as bad as the other girl thought.
Got a V8 ZJ tie rod in good condition for $14 OTD, including a $1 core charge.

Ecomike, Tex-Mex salvage is on HW 249 S a couple miles south of Beltway 8-it's got a bright red metal fence and is clearly marked.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I work out that way sometimes, when my rig is running (LOL). Not entirely sure but I think there is a Tex-Mex in Pasadena too.