"it over heated, then i had it towed"

thats the response i got when i asked why she was selling her xj. apparently she was driving down the freeway and the jeep overheated to the point where it shut off & had to be towed back. i've never had a vehicle over heat to this point, so what should i look for as far as damage? i could use the transmission and i was thinking i could part out the rest. any insight would be appreciated, i'm going to look at it in an hour. thanks

I drove mine for 2 years after that happened to me due to a blowen radiator.

Rev

welcome to the xj club. Mine has been doing that on a regular basis as I try to track down cooling problems.

she said it won't start now....

That could be a problem.

Unless its really cheap....I would not bother.

Rev

asking $700obo. i'm willing to go to $500. i could use the transmission for another one i have, and i was hoping to get a little $$ back selling off parts.

i have another 4cyl/ 5 speed xj that needs a trans....

if it has a 5sp, grab it.

Rev

its 2wd, and in my garage. front and rear bumpers bent, tailgate has a half dollar sized chip, body and interior are sweeeeet!

I'd check the compression.

mine did that and it started right up. and i had to drive it one more mile with it out of coolant. fixed rad and there was no damage.

My '88 did that when I blew the coolant bottle on the freeway. Once it cooled down, it started right up. Babied it the 2 miles I had left to get home. Replaced the bottle, burped it and it ran fine.

ok, here is the long story:

it was partally disassenbled, thats why she told me on the phone that it wouldn't start. the water pump is off, and all the ball bearings are missing. i'd say that might have something to do with the overheating. :roll: i hooked i jump box up to it and it started right up, and idled quite nicely. i immediatly shut it back down, just wanted to see if it would fire before buying a new pump. the oil is clean, the antifreeze is bright green and the girl gave me a hefty stack of maitenence records. this xj was taken care of.

the body on this thing is perfect, only one small mark on the hood, and with a coat of cleaner wax i bet the white paint would shine nicely. it has 4 new tires, but one is flat, she said it went flat while it sat in her drive way (about 2 months). i think i might have a nice daily driver here.....


so my question. how can i tell if there is any major damage to this jeep? her story for over heating "i was driving and the gauge went to high, i pulled over and shut it down for about 30 minutes, i started it back up and started driving again, it went to high again and i pulled off and had it towed home" i don't know if she drove it to the point that it shut itself down or not, i didn't really ask a direct enough question about it. i'll try to get it together and take some pics tomorrow in the day light and post up here..... tanks for following along and your input.

So - where are the water pump bearings? Hopefully not in the block someplace...

water pump coulda took a dump.

Yucca-Man said:

So - where are the water pump bearings? Hopefully not in the block someplace...

Click to expand...

this is a huge concern of mine, that i have no idea how to check.... i don't even have access to a hose to attempt to flush the block (i live in an apartment)

i'm going to put a ner pump in and comp test it tomorrow. hopefully things go well, if not you'll see me hawking parts in the four sale section...

if you do get access to a hose prestone or how ever you spell it has a flush kit for under $10 that cleaned out a bunch of junk on mine. its worth a shot.

if i do find one it will be after the new pump is in, i'll fill it with water and pay some place to do a flush and fill, if not the little balls would hopefilly just get trapped in the radiator... or i'll be buying another pump, i'm sure i'm not the first person to havbe this happen to.

The 4.0L uses the same pump unless it's Vee belt. I would use a flexible magnetic parts grabber (sold at parts stores for cheap, but make sure it's epoxied on before sticking it into the block!) and see if anything can be fished out. Remove the closest freeze plug and try pouring water into the waterpump hole.

todays update:

i put on the new water pump ($30) and belt ($25), then fired it up, and went for a ride around my complex. it ran rough, stalled if i wasn't on the throttle and heated up quickley, but it only has a high temp light ( need to fix this if i can get it to run good) the radiator and hoses were hot to the touch, but it cooled quickly. after it cooled and i picked up a new battery and lunch. i took out the thermostat to find a rush of green antifreeze, i had only put water in the radiator and the stuff in the radiator was still crystal clear. i took the thermostat out completely and resealed it up w/ rtv ( big mistake), i also installed my new battery ($35), the old one was stone dead and i had to use my jump box to start it. started it again, it still ran rough so i pulled a few plugs, they were fuel fowled bosh platnums and they were gapped at about 1/4 mile. i cleaned them up a little and closed the gap a little, refired; still rough. took off the dizzy cap to find the metal on the rotor was broken in half and laying on the bottom. so i ran to the parts store, got the cap and rotor, ($18, i thought that was pricey) completely forgot about the thermostat gasket. came home, put the cap and rotor on, fired it, ran rough, reved it, it smoothed out, came back to idle and ran rough again. I don't feel like running out again today, so tomorrow i'll go get the gasket, spark plugs and a gapper (don't have one in my tool kit, must have lost it in the move). maybe tomorrow evening i can get this thing running.

question: i'm sure this can be answered by a search, do i have to remove the a/c compressot to get to the forward most spark plug?

thanks for following along!!!!

carnuck said:

The 4.0L uses the same pump unless it's Vee belt. I would use a flexible magnetic parts grabber (sold at parts stores for cheap, but make sure it's epoxied on before sticking it into the block!) and see if anything can be fished out. Remove the closest freeze plug and try pouring water into the waterpump hole.

Click to expand...

did you watch me this morning? pretty much what i did! i got a lot of shavings out with the magnet......