Wrenching on my junk

I envisioned you having something like this....

Shiiiit.

I look at both of those pictures, and I see fucking endless repair/restoration projects. I'm doing well to keep a 15 year old jeep alive, and the one I've got doesn't require my knowing how to tune a fucking carburator.

Never worked on one. I believe you'd be looking at a 258 I6 or a 304/360 V8.

All carburated, of course, so that's a big for a clumsy hack like me.

I believe that delightful Borg/Warner "Quadra Trac" full time transfer case was an option by then. Another big

At least they had disk brakes in the front by then.

*edit*
Sorry for sounding negative. You should do whatever floats your boat. It's just for my money, I'd rather spend more time driving the thing than tracking down discontinued parts and restoring something that was as old as I am. Plus, I am not fucking with carburation. My MPI system just fucking works. It doesn't care what the altitude or temperature is, doesn't give me grief on steep hillclimbs, and I don't have to "tune" the fucking thing ever. A "rebuild," if it ever became necessary (140,000 so far, without touching it), would involve a simple throttle body, fuel rail, and six injectors. If I bought an old AMC jeep, the first item on the grocery list would need to be an expensive ass FI conversion kit.

If you want a wagon-shaped jeep to go bashing in the boonies with, I'd look for an XJ cherokee starting at about the 1990 model year. Still simple and reliable as hell, parts are everywhere, and any idiot can work on the moving parts.

How bad were your rotors? Turning/Machining them is far cheaper than replacing them unless it's absolutely necessary.

Well aware of the common practice of re-surfacing rotors and drums.

I always toss and replace the rotors, no matter what their condition. While the real reason is that I don't want to find a ride to a machine shop while my vehicle is on jackstands, it could also be argued that full-thickness rotors will dissipate heat better and be less succeptible to warping. That imagined warm fuzzy is enough for me to rationalize the expense.

And I always picture him driving it into re-entry with "radar rider", playing.

Why not replace your rotors once? Then get the old ones machined and stick them in a box for the next time you do brakes? Lather, rinse, repeat.

Because I just fucking wanted shiny new rotors. How 'bout that?

I still spend less than people who pay mechanics to do this shit, so

I too hate people who are nice to me.

I can't believe I missed this. If you're looking for reliability, ease of maintenance, inexpensive parts and a decent amount of space for a deer, you need the K-5 Blazer. GM has a shitload of aftermarket parts for everything you can think of, and Blazers are simple to work on, if you like to wrench. The Jeep is badass, but can be problematic the older they become. Spare parts become few and far between, and if it has all original AMC/General parts, you'll probably have to convert things to more common parts eventually(i.e. swapping the 304/360cid engine for a GM 350cid, something like that). Besides, K-5 Blazers are the shit.

I periodically see M1009s come up for auction on evilBay and I have...notions...of buying one.



Some of them are pretty damned cheap (though the cheaper they are, the more restoration they need) and even the ones that have clearly been well-refurbished can go for reasonable prices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Utility_Cargo_Vehicle

Probably all beat to shit by the time they go up for auction.

Most, if not all, of the M1009's were diesel. I don't like diesel.

They all were.

That's the downside because that Chevy 350 diesel was a piece of shit.

It is a shame. Diesel is like the ultimate apocalypse survival fuel, especially older diesels. Driving down the road, run out of diesel? Just go to your nearest power transformer and extract 15 gallons of fuel.* I have a buddy who runs a power coop in Northern Mississippi, and he informs me that the companies who rebuild those transformers used to run almost exclusively on the fluid in the transformers. Now, they apparently mix that old stuff with diesel so it will run in newer vehicles.

Freaking. Awesome.


*Note: make sure that the apocalypse is far enough along in your area that the power is off before doing this, or you'll die.