On the way home:
Yes I got pulled over. For no tags. But I had proper paperwork and the Trooper was cool.
We took a minute to look the Jeep over. He liked how straight and clean it was for its age.
There is a pretty good clunk in the rear when you apply power. And it wiggles around. Looking at it I found it needs control arms.
At 271,000 miles its not surprising that it needs a bit of attention.
And that power is provided by a 4.0 with a leaking valve cover gasket through a 5 spd transmission. 4x4 works.
So I just gave RockAuto the first of several orders. After looking it over I ordered:
upper and lower radiator hoses
upper and lower, front and back control arms
turn signals for the front
flasher unit to handle led bulbs
idler and tension pulleys
valve cover gasket
brake pads and shoes and hardware kits
thermostat and housing kit
And I put it on the charger last night and set it for recondition. Battery seems ok considering its like 0 degrees out:
I had enough room to get it in the barn part way so I wasn't laying on snow last night.
And next week when its a balmy 30 degrees and just a rain / snow mix I'll feel more like crawling under it more extensively.
I make no warrenties or claims of keeping this thread up to the minute. But I'll try to document it.