1990 cherokee questions

Hello all,
I have a friend that is looking to sell me a 1990 4x4 i-6 4.0 litre cherokee. The story behind this animal is that 5 months ago it was stolen, to take the truck the thief broke the stering colume and some how started the jeep. I am now looking at a truck with a need of a major over haul to the stearing colum, no battery, but the good things are that it has a newly re built engine with less than 1000 miles on it. Also it has BFG all-terrains with less than 5000 miles on them.

So ask the proffesionals here at , how hard will it be to get the stering colum back in order, also he only wants 400 bucks, and there are only 150,000 miles on the truck. It has been sitting for 5 months, the interior is shot, and the outside looks like crap, but other than that it looks ok.

Picks will come upon the truck being bought. Any information is appreciated, so thank you in advance.

Kris

IMO it all depends on what your going to do with it...

If i was me, id be looking for something that looks nice. The paint and stuff on the outside is not a big deal cause it can get painted, but the interior has to be in decent shape, or at least fixable where i dont have to replace too many things.

If your just looking for a trail rig, this would be pretty sweet. Its a decent price with a rebuilt engine and good tires. Just fix the column. The best thing to do here is just go a junkyard and get another one and swap it in.

The steering column should not be too hard to repair, if you have access to junkyard parts. It's a Saginaw (GM) column, and much of it is pretty generic. A couple of special tools are needed to take it apart properly, but these are not hard to find. The ignition and headlight switches are down the column, actuated by rods, so the part that is usually messed up by thieves is the mechanical locking part, and often the rods are bent up. Getting it all to work smoothly again can be fussy, more so if it's a tilt column, but it should not be extremely difficult or expensive, unless you have an odd color you feel you must match.

400 bucks would not be that bad a price for a parts vehicle with a nice fresh engine and good rubber. How much work you want or need to put into the paint and interior will depend on how fussy you are about appearance, and what kind of service you intend it for.

Cherokees with Saginaw steering columns are pretty easy to steal (well, duh, I guess I don't really need to tell you that, do I?). If you do get it, and this is a problem where you live, I'd make sure not to store anything valuable in it, and make sure you have some kind of hidden kill switch or other disabler. My daughter had an attempt made on her 87 in boston. They broke a window and mangled the steering column (which is how I know they're not impossible to fix!), but they did not get the vehicle. She had the fuel pump relay in her pocket. :yelclap:

May be easier to just R/R the column - as mentioned, it's a GM column and they're about as common as fleas. If you want a new one, just check with a speed shop - they're often used in hotrod/street rod builds as well.

Batteries are easy - and if you're looking to build a trail rig, then appearance doesn't much matter. If you have to replace the seats, you can probably use any seats from a 1984-1996XJ (can anyone confirm? I don't think seat mounts changed until the body style did, if then...) and interior is overrated anyhow (although I use mine more as a work truck than anything else.)

Shonky paint in that era is not uncommon - on most domestic vehicles. In the mid-1980's, they had to stop using lacquer (EPA thing...) and went to a two-part urethane finish. Took them about ten years to iron it out in production - paint recalls on domestic vehicles 1985-1993 or so are common. That's why I'm planning to repaint my 88 (while the colour coat and clear coat both suck for durability, they do make a good primer coat. That saves work.)

I don't know how much spare time you have or budget you got to work with but look at it this way, the tires and rims are worth the four hundred, if you have too many problems down the road you could always sell these as well as the engine and transmission etc.:spin1: Nothing ventured nothing gained!:cheers:

My 87 Laredo was stolen and the bastard theives broke my column too. They arnt very expensive, but the universal joint at the end of the column is kinda a b^&h to work with. Just make sure that you GET A SET OF KEYS WITH THE COLUMN. Its waaaaaay expensive to have it re keyed. Also, I would want to hear the Jeep run, being its a theft recovery, God knows what happened to the poor thing. Other than that, it sounds like a good deal to me. Go For It.

Hey guys, thanks for the quick responses, I will probablly buy the truck this weekend and take some picks, I have time and an ok budget, so it should be running in no time. As far as apperence...

Interior.... gunna strip it, then cage it.

Exterior.... gunna strip it, then flat black spray paint. Doors are coming off. Fenders are coming off.

It is going to be a trail rig / beach rig, still needs to be street legal though.

If anyone is in south Texas, come on over and help, I have beer and tools.

Kris

If ya lived closer I help but 4 hours is a long drive... I wouldn't use flat black paint- it tends to stain easy.

Paint? Rustoleum! and a 6 inch roller, works great from what I've seen.

GM column parts are still readily available at the parts houses, what's not there is all over the salvage yards. It is almost as much work to tear one down and fix it as to R&R, but be careful, the Jeep column does have some model specific differences. Key cylinders for the column number about a dozen.