oddball wrote:
Inc; that Rubicon your friend bought sounds like a good deal. You didn't mention milage? from what I've seen for sale in my area, there are no Rubicon's that cheap. Not in above average / excellent condition anyway. On a side note, I am only looking at automatic trans. During my internet searches, I've discovered manual trans wrangler's (especially rubicons) go for much less than auto trans equipped models.
As for axles and diff's - if I were to blow one, I'd replace it with a aftermarket Dana 44 (most likely).
EDIT: Inc I find it ironic you would pass just on stock axles? There are many TJ's out there wheeling with stock axles. But what I find especially ironic is that you and everyone else who owns a KJ has wheeled or now wheels on some cheap lame*** axles. Anyway, axle upgrades could be a future mod if I were to purchase this Jeep.
I bought my KJ as a family jeep and plans changed. The KJ's rear axle is a much better option over a D35. The POS D30a is now gone on my KJ as you may have noticed.
My point is, the amount of money the owner is asking is way more than I'd be willing to pay for one with stock axles, even with ARBs. Upgrading axles can be a big chunk of money so if your willing to spend for the upgraded axles after you bust the "Turdy5", then buy the jeep. Tons of guys do wheel TJs with stock axles, and tons of guys break axles and gears with big tires and those stock axles.
Just because it is a sport, does not mean it has a D44 rear end either. Neither of my TJ sports had 44 rears. If it is an unlimited, then yes all of them had 44 rear ends, but not all basic sports had the 44.
If you want to upgrade the axles, then that would be great, but for $19K, I wouldn't want to have to upgrade the whole axle, I wouldn't mind upgrading to alloy or chromoly shafts or adding lockers, but not the entire axle for that amount of $. I wouldn't have gone with a D30 on my jeep if the previous owner hadn't put 3K into and built it up as much as any 30 can be. He sold it to me for dirt cheap so it was a steal and a half that I couldn't pass up. I wouldn't put much money into a stock D30 and there is no way in the world I'd put money into a 35.
My buddy found that Rubicon with around 35K on it but it is a manual. He did get a great deal, but they are out there, especially at times like these.
My other friend recently sold his TJ that he put a turbo in, had D44 front and rear, ARB's, running 37s, and it was in immaculate shape, and he only got $13K for it.
There are a few local jeeps I saw about a year ago that my brother was looking at before he bought his jeep. We found a number of stock TJs for around 7-9K, with mileage under 40K. For another 10 grand you could build one heck of a TJ.
just my 2 cents.