Possible FSJ Purchase

[Hawaiian Style]

Hi,

Looking at buying a 1983 J-10. Guy that ownes it had the 258 pulled and a 304 installed- engine install looks good. AMC 20 rear end and D44 front end. 208 xfer case and T176 tranny. Truck runs well and is mostly there. Looks like a ton of work has been done on it but as with many of these types of projects, cash has run out so he's bailing out.

Anyone have any wisdom they can pass along? I've been reading up on FSJ's for a while but this will be my first experience with them. Does the equipement here sound good, I don't want to end up like the guy who buys a wrangler with the pukegoat transmission!

Thanks

 

[REDXJ4FUN]

Well lets see if i can help you out a little. First off what are you going to use it for?. I had a 83 and loved it. The worst thing is rust. My 83 had almost no rust at all. It had a 360 that had beeen swaped in place of a 258. Aslomg as they did the swap right it should be fine. I had problems with the clutch linkage breaking, maily it was a little adjuster stud that snaped. i replaced it with an older settup and worked great. te t-176 isn't bad but under alot of power it will break(300HP and a hard driver)
other than that they are great trucks.

 

[Hawaiian Style]

I've seen this rust issue is pretty common in the J series trucks... I don't know why, do you? This one's pretty clean, of course there is rust in all the usual placed and some surface rust that needs to be attended to. Nothing some paint and some sanding won't cure.

Don't have any idea what I'll be doing with it yet. I've got 3 Jeeps already. I suffer from a bad case of MJS- multiple Jeep syndrome.

I'd like a truck to take the dogs out in once in a while, of course it will do some of the chores my XJ does now but it will probably spend quite a bit of time in the driveway until I can fix it up into a sand or mud truck. That's after I finish all the other cars- a LONG ways away.

 

[Yucca-Man]

You've been looking at www.ifsja.org, right?

 

[LRRH]

yup. sounds nice. the t176 is a decent trans but I think a 304 is a nice match for it. if it's not to rusty then i say go for it!