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Wrecked TJ rubicon

DocTremp

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
I have the chance to get a rolled 2004 TJ Rubicon with the manual transmission. I have no idea how much is fair to offer the person. From the photos it looks like the drive train should be sound. If anyone has any insight feel free to chime in.
Thanks in Advance!


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I mean offer 2500$ I dunno. How wrecked is it? Ill take the tcase and I know a guy who will take the front axle. If you pass on it let me know give me the contact info.
 
I mean offer 2500$ I dunno. How wrecked is it? Ill take the tcase and I know a guy who will take the front axle. If you pass on it let me know give me the contact info.


Yeah, that’s about what I was thinking. I’ll see what happens, the person is not sure they want to sell it yet, but I’ll know more in a week or so.


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So I ended up getting it for $5k. It starts fine and the damage seems to be cosmetic only. I’m torn between parting it out and making it road worthy.


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Road worthy!
 
Clean title or salvage title?

If it is a clean title, you could peel off the Rubicon stickers, swap in an NP-231, swap in an XJ HP Dana 30, maybe a new roll cage, maybe a soft top, and probably be in a pretty good spot.

OR, sell the axle and NP-241OR and keep a nice little driver.
 
Clean title or salvage title?

If it is a clean title, you could peel off the Rubicon stickers, swap in an NP-231, swap in an XJ HP Dana 30, maybe a new roll cage, maybe a soft top, and probably be in a pretty good spot.

OR, sell the axle and NP-241OR and keep a nice little driver.


I’m not sure about the title yet, but That’s not a bad idea to swap the front diff and tcase. I have both in my XJ and I have heavier axles for the XJ already. End result would be D30 and 44 in TJ then 6 spd/np241OR and F250 D44/sterling 10.25 in XJ. Sell the rubi front D44 to offset cost. Win, win and win.


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c1bdf860133155750a5d138937f61a26.jpg

Well here it is. I’m dumb and thought this year of Rubi had the 6 spd.
Anyway it has some nice things that I was unaware of, such as a RE 3.5 inch lift with adjustable LCAs, and some small Rigid lights that I might be able to put on my XJ.
The windshield, fenders and roll bar are pretty cooked and the tub is too straight either. I might be able to get a new tub for around $1200 but I’m not sure I want to do all that work. The seller bought it new and it only has ~85k miles. I’m considering swapping the motor, transmission and transfer case into my XJ and parting the rest out. My wife wants me to fix it up as she says it’s a way cooler Jeep than my XJ 😳😳😳


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There is a guy parting out 2 TJs I saw on facebook the other day in Folsom. Could probably put this thing back together with some of his body parts and have a nice wheeler that you dont care about smashing on rocks.

Or maybe buy whats left of his and swap the drivetrain over.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2691175264500308/
 
There is a guy parting out 2 TJs I saw on facebook the other day in Folsom. Could probably put this thing back together with some of his body parts and have a nice wheeler that you dont care about smashing on rocks.

Or maybe buy whats left of his and swap the drivetrain over.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2691175264500308/


Thanks Goose! I’ll check it out and see if I can make something happen.


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Contacted the seller parting out the TJs, black tub is already sold. No worries, another one will pop up when the time is right I’m sure.

Started disassembling the parts that are not too mangled and don’t require cutting. Right door is straight but the glass is gone.

Took a closer look underneath and the front axle is shifted to the drivers side and the same side LCA mount is thrash at the axle. I think the track bar is bent because I was not able to turn the steering wheel to lock to the left and looking closer, it looks like the drag link might be coming into contact with it. I’m hoping the front axle isn’t bent but I’m not currently able to assess how straight it is. I’ll post some photo that I hope will show what I’m talking about.

80f131aa1fd028616d8a95cb6cc6ed95.jpg



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Labor intensive and less than entirely scientific is to pull the axle shafts from both sides and look down the tubes to see if it is visibly bent in any direction. And, if it is bent, you have the axle shafts pulled for sale!
 
Yeah I hope it’s not bent too! I’m thinking I’m just going to part it out. It’s too much work to swap the tub.

Plan is to put motor/trans/tcase into my XJ. Not sure how hard it will be to swap though. The mounts should be the same I feel like. We’ll see.


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