Good deal turns out not so good.

So I find this 99 jeep grand cherokee limited while I was out doing warrenty repairs for work. (I work for john deere)
It was setting in a customers yard under a tree, looked like it had been there a little bit. I inqure about it while I am working on his mower. He said the engine was bad. His discription was it started losing power while coming home one day, then blew a rad hose. He replaced the rad hose but ever since then it had a good miss to it. He replaced the plugs and coilpack, but still had the miss. He said he then heard bubbleing in the heater core and just gave up. Set for about 6 months. I'm thinking he just blew a head gasket. It does start and run he said, just misses, battery is no good either. Jeeps fully loaded, power everything, 4.0 straight six, but only 2wd.
Long story short I buy it for a pretty decent price (1k) thinking a good chance to make a little money. Fix the engine and then clean the thing up, fix a couple small items, and turn around and sell it. Books for around $3-3500. He said everything works. We boost it off and drive it onto the trailer. Engine ran nice, no knocking, ticking, or any noise other than the miss.
Compression check reveals #1 cyl has 60 psi, the rest are good. Pull the valve cover and man this engine is clean on the inside for 179k. Pushrods, rocker arms, and valve springs all appear fine. Pull the head and the gasket is not blown, head doesnt appear to be cracked, wtf? I then turn the engine over by hand (#1 just happened to be at tdc) and I saw it. A few chunks of piston stuck to the top of the cyl wall. The cyl wall itself has no damage and no scratches, can still see crosshatching on it and all the the other cyls. I take a screwdriver and the peices flake off. I drop the pan, take loose the rod and pull the piston. Dont know what happened, but the peices on the wall had come from the piston. Bore and bearings are standard, so its never been rebuilt. Bearings looked real good. I go to a machine shop, buy a new piston, have them check the head and clean it up, went ahead and had them do a valve job. Borrowed a bottle brush hone from work and just knocked the glazing off the cyl wall, cleaned up real nice and easy. Theres not even the start of a ridge at the top of the cyls. Put everything all back together today (took all day, but I got it) and fired it up. Fires right up, held it open to seat the new rings on the new piston. and it runs like a dream. Just as smooth and quiet as you can get. I am getting really excited.
I put all my tools up and take her for a spin. Everything is good untill I get on the road. 1st and 2nd do just fine, but when it shifts into 3rd, its just not there. Just like it goes into neautral. You really dont even feel it shift out of 2nd. you just get up to around 35-40 and rpm's go up, but nothing else happens. It will finally shift into something after letting off the gas and hitting it a few times. When it does, theres a grinding/whining noise that changes when you hit the gas or let off. Kinda sounds like the rear axle is going out, but everything is quiet untill it does finally hit that gear. So I'm thinking its the trans itself is making that noise. Once it got into that gear, if I get above 50, I get death wobble, it also pulls to the right just a bit. I get home, put it in neautral and try and shake the driveshaft to see if it might be the rear axle making the noise. Feels tight. I rotate the ds back and forth what I can, and I can hear rattleing metallic noise coming from the trans, like something on the output is loose or worn out.

What a flippin let down. I was so proud of myself after I got it running and it ran so good. I was thinking I did good and lucked up onto a good deal. But now my good deal has turned into a nightmare. I had to borrow the money from my dad to buy the thing, with the promise to give it back when I sell it. I have spent a little over $400 getting it running again. Its wintertime and I dont get any overtime anymore, so I dont have as much money as I do during the spring and summer. I am now trying to decide if I want to keep going and replace the trans, or try to sell it for $1500/needs work and try and break even. The more I spend fixing it, the less profit I make when I sell it.
Just kinda bummed/pissed at the moment. :mad1:

I've been in similar deals, hoping to make an honest buck by doing mechanic work. I don't have any advice on what you should do. Sometimes you get a good return for you time and money, sometimes the the return for your time and money are not so good.

I think if it was my Jeep, I would consider selling the Cherokee "as is" for what the $$$$ I've spent. I'd let the next buyer decide if the Cherokee is worth the time and money they will need to spend to have a clean Cherokee. Sometimes it's better to loose couple $$$, and move on.

dave w

Since the money is not there to go further? Sell it and tr to recoup.

I hate when that happens...

If I was keeping it for myself I would probably just go ahead and fix it. And the thought has crossed my mind. I wouldnt mind having a nice highway vehicle, and being 2wd this one fits the bill. But I dont know if I really need 3 jeeps.
I am gonna check a few things out on it today and see what I find. I read one thingonline about metal shavings getting built up on the speed sensors in the trans. Gonna pull those and check. The fluid was a little dark, but wasnt too bad, didnt smell burnt or anything. Was only about half a quart low.
I did stumble across a trans on craigslist last night. $250. Waiting to hear back from the seller. Dont know if its 2wd or 4wd. Supposedaly pulled from a wrecked jeep with 40K.

You already bought swamp land and your going for another hunk? I'd never buy a Auto trans unless I drove it and pulled the pan or was from a well known JY that buys late model wrecked stuff like Spaldings in Spokane. They truely give exact milage and 30 day gaurentee.


Pull the pan. If it has chunks of metal or fiber? It's junk! Only thing you should see in bottom of pan is very fine black dust. Speedo sensors all collect shavings because of the magnet... but then again if thers that many, again its junk! Auto transmissions should not get metal shavings like a manual trans or diferential. It's a hydyalic pump with clutch disks.

But if the vehicle is really that clean it could be worth a new trans and work. Around here I could bring that trans to a GOOD shop and have rebuilt for $500. or so with a 3 year 36K mile warrenty.

I jacked one of the rear tires up today and put it in neautral and spun the rear tire. When I would spin it forward, there was a squeeking noise coming from the trans. If I spin it back and forth, I can hear a metallic clanking kinda like something is got some real play in it. I think its pretty much toast. I bet that clanking and squeeking has something to do with the whining/grinding noise its making. The VSS had a little crud on it, not too bad. Cleaning it helped nothing.

I called every junkyard in the area and no one has this trans. Appears to be made of unobtaninum. Closest one was well over a hour away and they wanted $700 for it. I just cant afford that. I have a feeling its gonna be way more than that to rebuild/repair mine. Gonna call a few shops tomorrow, then I will just probably have to accept defeat and try to sell it for what I have in it and hopefully break even. I hate dishonost people. I was under the impression there was no other problems other than the engine, and I had just enough extra money to fix that. I have no money left for the trans unless I could find one for a couple hundred dollars. The one on craigslist I found got sold yesterday. :mad1: