1978 Wagoneer buying advice

[thecantaloupeman]

So I just came across a 600 dollar 78 Wagoneer. It sounds like it "misses" on one or two cylinders according to owner. He says that he thinks the cylinder heads need rebuilt/replaced. I'm really into this thing and for 600 bucks it is a steal. The seats look great, dash is a bit rough but not unfixable, one side is completely rust free, and it has no rust in floor panels (no carpet so you can tell). The owner has also done repairs on it recently including a starter, coil, new windshield, fuel pump, distributor, etc.

The downsides are obviously that it may need heads replaced and the rust/body damage. One side is rust free, but the other has rust under the driver's side door in the rocker panel. It's got half the bumper missing, the hoods bent a bit in the front right corner and the front right quarter panel (may have been in small fender bender). The paint is pretty much gone as well. All the negatives are pretty much only cosmetic which I'm totally willing to deal with for a while so that I can say I've got a Wagoneer!

I don't really know what to do. I'm an hour away from it so I don't wanna waste a trip out there. How difficult would it be to get it into driving condition? Is it difficult to remove the headers on the amc 360? Is it something I could do in a few days? I've never done anything like that. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

I've attached a pic of part of the ad which says what he's replaced.

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[tedlovesjeeps71]

Go to bank.
Withdraw $600.00
Go get wagoneer.

[tedlovesjeeps71]

Go to bank.
Withdraw $600.00
Go get wagoneer.

[thecantaloupeman]

Go to bank.
Withdraw $600.00
Go get wagoneer.

Lol seriously haha? I should probably mention this will be my first car should I purchase it. I'm just worried I'll get stuck with something I won't be able to get driving. I also have an HOA so I can only work on it in the garage and can't have it apart for weeks at a time.

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[letank]

Go to bank.
Withdraw $600.00
Go get wagoneer.

Lol seriously haha? I should probably mention this will be my first car should I purchase it. I'm just worried I'll get stuck with something I won't be able to get driving. I also have an HOA so I can only work on it in the garage and can't have it apart for weeks at a time.

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Your first car, you are a daredevil, because it is not a car, but a Jeep...

My 6th wagoneer was a low budget purchase, the engine was shaking a bit... but heck, wires, cap and rotor and spark plug with a carb rebuilt... no brainer... it ended up being a chewed up cam... now -knock on wood- it runs really nice.

Otherwise the biggest challenge on those old beasts is rust... frame rust is terrible, but being a 78, the metal gas tank is not isolated from the skid plate if you have a skik plate for the gas tank... so this is good

otherwise the other challenge is the 4x4 quadra trac, but heck, now you can buy the parts to keep is original...

Next, is what you think are the heads to be overhauled... may be a trip to a local mechanic to have his opinion for even an hour of his time could save your sanity... 77 could be a 401 specs engine... can you spell 10mpg...

as everything, you need to go and check it out... with the $600 in your pocket

as always check all the fluids, engine oil to be at level and not black, same for transmission oil... engine at operating temp, trans in neutral after having driven 10 or 20 miles... then the coolant... for the differential you have to rely on your hearing and for the the 4x4 transfer case... shift to any available options... low range...

Make sure that the heater is working and giving you a decent flow of hot air, feet or defrost... check the electric tailgate... up and down

we want to see pict? In which part of the country is the beast?

[thecantaloupeman]

Go to bank.
Withdraw $600.00
Go get wagoneer.

Lol seriously haha? I should probably mention this will be my first car should I purchase it. I'm just worried I'll get stuck with something I won't be able to get driving. I also have an HOA so I can only work on it in the garage and can't have it apart for weeks at a time.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Your first car, you are a daredevil, because it is not a car, but a Jeep...

My 6th wagoneer was a low budget purchase, the engine was shaking a bit... but heck, wires, cap and rotor and spark plug with a carb rebuilt... no brainer... it ended up being a chewed up cam... now -knock on wood- it runs really nice.

Otherwise the biggest challenge on those old beasts is rust... frame rust is terrible, but being a 78, the metal gas tank is not isolated from the skid plate if you have a skik plate for the gas tank... so this is good

otherwise the other challenge is the 4x4 quadra trac, but heck, now you can buy the parts to keep is original...

Next, is what you think are the heads to be overhauled... may be a trip to a local mechanic to have his opinion for even an hour of his time could save your sanity... 77 could be a 401 specs engine... can you spell 10mpg...

as everything, you need to go and check it out... with the $600 in your pocket

as always check all the fluids, engine oil to be at level and not black, same for transmission oil... engine at operating temp, trans in neutral after having driven 10 or 20 miles... then the coolant... for the differential you have to rely on your hearing and for the the 4x4 transfer case... shift to any available options... low range...

Make sure that the heater is working and giving you a decent flow of hot air, feet or defrost... check the electric tailgate... up and down

we want to see pict? In which part of the country is the beast?

Here are some pictures. The passenger side is the bad side, but the driver's side is nice. Unfortunately the guy says the engine dies when you try to drive it. That kinda worries me because I can't see what it drives like before I buy it. It also doesn't appear to have a heater inside the car but I could be wrong. The dash looks like it's falling apart too but the seats are pretty nice.

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[mx71]

Rockers are available new, but the fenders/hood/grill/bumper you'll have to find off a parts vehicle or ebay. Probably will also need a new core support, and I'd be looking for radiator leaks. If it was driven for a while with a leaking radiator, could have overheated and toasted the motor. Not saying not to buy it, but always plan for the motor to be much worse than the seller says. Worst case scenario, plan for a motor rebuild or replacement. Body stuff can be fixed, but will be a little pricey if you don't have the skills to do it yourself. Look for frontal frame damage. Could just be from a road salting place, but the rust/paint under the hood looks like there might have been a fire at some point. Me personally, I would stay away from it, but I'm from a place where rust isn't as much of a problem.

Worst case scenario, you'd at the very MINIMUM make your money back in parts if it's too big of a project for you, but it'd be sitting around awhile. If the interior is black, I want to buy the interior arm rests.

[SJTD]

I would't take that for free unless it was to part it out. If the right side is rusted that badly I'd bet the other side is bad enough to need fixing but not obvious being on the shadowed side in the picher.

Maybe if you want something to beat on for a while but not for $600.

[letank]

x2 as above, avoid!
The body damage is might not look too severe, but these parts are a pain to replace for a first project because of availability hood, fender, inner fender and valence to find located and bought at a local junkyard. Bondo is a poor substitute because it attracts water, welding panel is the real way to patch up rusty parts.
The fender arches being cut out, especially the rear ones, are open gaps for water and rust to destroy the rear area.
The surface rust can be deeper than expected, especially at the A pillar and the roof, rust work is really messy, especially with the HOA watching you.
$600 is cheap but before you know it, you will have sunk another $2K and months of labor with uncertain results, the rig does not move on its own power.
Find a $4K running rig, you will still spend a lot of time fixing the usual flaws.

[thecantaloupeman]

x2 as above, avoid!
The body damage is might not look too severe, but these parts are a pain to replace for a first project because of availability hood, fender, inner fender and valence to find located and bought at a local junkyard. Bondo is a poor substitute because it attracts water, welding panel is the real way to patch up rusty parts.
The fender arches being cut out, especially the rear ones, are open gaps for water and rust to destroy the rear area.
The surface rust can be deeper than expected, especially at the A pillar and the roof, rust work is really messy, especially with the HOA watching you.
$600 is cheap but before you know it, you will have sunk another $2K and months of labor with uncertain results, the rig does not move on its own power.
Find a $4K running rig, you will still spend a lot of time fixing the usual flaws.

If I'm honest I'm not worried about how it looks, just more how it runs. I most likely will only keep it a few years until I can afford a nicer Waggie.

If it's not gonna a run though I don't want it at all. It would be nice if it was just a spark plugs and or something. Although now I am a bit worried that it got into an accident and had a fire or something. That would explain the front end damage, the weird rust under the hood, and why it doesn't run.

I asked if he could send a walk-around video so I could hear it run and so I could see the other rust up closer.


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[thecantaloupeman]

x2 as above, avoid!
The body damage is might not look too severe, but these parts are a pain to replace for a first project because of availability hood, fender, inner fender and valence to find located and bought at a local junkyard. Bondo is a poor substitute because it attracts water, welding panel is the real way to patch up rusty parts.
The fender arches being cut out, especially the rear ones, are open gaps for water and rust to destroy the rear area.
The surface rust can be deeper than expected, especially at the A pillar and the roof, rust work is really messy, especially with the HOA watching you.
$600 is cheap but before you know it, you will have sunk another $2K and months of labor with uncertain results, the rig does not move on its own power.
Find a $4K running rig, you will still spend a lot of time fixing the usual flaws.

If I'm honest I'm not worried about how it looks, just more how it runs. I most likely will only keep it a few years until I can afford a nicer Waggie.

If it's not gonna a run though I don't want it at all. It would be nice if it was just a spark plugs and or something. Although now I am a bit worried that it got into an accident and had a fire or something. That would explain the front end damage, the weird rust under the hood, and why it doesn't run.

I asked if he could send a walk-around video so I could hear it run and so I could see the other rust up closer.


Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[thecantaloupeman]

x2 as above, avoid!
The body damage is might not look too severe, but these parts are a pain to replace for a first project because of availability hood, fender, inner fender and valence to find located and bought at a local junkyard. Bondo is a poor substitute because it attracts water, welding panel is the real way to patch up rusty parts.
The fender arches being cut out, especially the rear ones, are open gaps for water and rust to destroy the rear area.
The surface rust can be deeper than expected, especially at the A pillar and the roof, rust work is really messy, especially with the HOA watching you.
$600 is cheap but before you know it, you will have sunk another $2K and months of labor with uncertain results, the rig does not move on its own power.
Find a $4K running rig, you will still spend a lot of time fixing the usual flaws.

If I'm honest I'm not worried about how it looks, just more how it runs. I most likely will only keep it a few years until I can afford a nicer Waggie.

If it's not gonna a run though I don't want it at all. It would be nice if it was just a spark plugs and or something. Although now I am a bit worried that it got into an accident and had a fire or something. That would explain the front end damage, the weird rust under the hood, and why it doesn't run.

I asked if he could send a walk-around video so I could hear it run and so I could see the other rust up closer.


Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[tedlovesjeeps71]

Lol seriously haha? I should probably mention this will be my first car should I purchase it. I'm just worried I'll get stuck with something I won't be able to get driving. I also have an HOA so I can only work on it in the garage and can't have it apart for weeks at a time.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Your first car, you are a daredevil, because it is not a car, but a Jeep...

My 6th wagoneer was a low budget purchase, the engine was shaking a bit... but heck, wires, cap and rotor and spark plug with a carb rebuilt... no brainer... it ended up being a chewed up cam... now -knock on wood- it runs really nice.

Otherwise the biggest challenge on those old beasts is rust... frame rust is terrible, but being a 78, the metal gas tank is not isolated from the skid plate if you have a skik plate for the gas tank... so this is good

otherwise the other challenge is the 4x4 quadra trac, but heck, now you can buy the parts to keep is original...

Next, is what you think are the heads to be overhauled... may be a trip to a local mechanic to have his opinion for even an hour of his time could save your sanity... 77 could be a 401 specs engine... can you spell 10mpg...

as everything, you need to go and check it out... with the $600 in your pocket

as always check all the fluids, engine oil to be at level and not black, same for transmission oil... engine at operating temp, trans in neutral after having driven 10 or 20 miles... then the coolant... for the differential you have to rely on your hearing and for the the 4x4 transfer case... shift to any available options... low range...

Make sure that the heater is working and giving you a decent flow of hot air, feet or defrost... check the electric tailgate... up and down

we want to see pict? In which part of the country is the beast?

Here are some pictures. The passenger side is the bad side, but the driver's side is nice. Unfortunately the guy says the engine dies when you try to drive it. That kinda worries me because I can't see what it drives like before I buy it. It also doesn't appear to have a heater inside the car but I could be wrong. The dash looks like it's falling apart too but the seats are pretty nice.

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Here's the heater core circled. It actually looks new...odd.


It sounds like you're a young guy just looking for a cool set of wheels. I was there but I gotta say, nothing is ever easy or cheap with these old beasts. Reliability is always a question too.
If you don't have the skills (do you?) Or the money to pay others, it may be better to pass on this. It may be something(a) fairly simple keeping it from running. Or, it may not. If you do that have $600 in petty cash, the ability to work on it (or pay for work), then you may be better off finding something else. Jmho

[letank]

If I'm honest I'm not worried about how it looks, just more how it runs. I most likely will only keep it a few years until I can afford a nicer Waggie.

If it's not gonna a run though I don't want it at all. It would be nice if it was just a spark plugs and or something. Although now I am a bit worried that it got into an accident and had a fire or something. That would explain the front end damage, the weird rust under the hood, and why it doesn't run.

Stalling upon getting onto drive can be many things, as simple as a vacuum leak, from a disconnected hose, a carburetor set too lean , 2.5 turn on the idle mix is a quick fix or a failed enrichment circuit -carb rebuilt kit will fix that one-

you have may have to deal with old gasoline... or add fresh gas and dilute the old stuff, IIRC 78 has the access trap under the rear bench so this is not too bad

the distributor is set weird you cannot advance it more because the vacuum canister is set too close to the PS pump.

The yellow wires below the cruise control unit with the exposed resistor wires... I have not seen this set up.

The master cylinder is unlike what is found on OE of this vintage, and the vacuum hose for the booster might be connected elsewhere than the OE set.

How many miles on the odometer -remember it will not have the 100Kmiles? but is an indication... where is that gem located? because of salt issues!

[mx71]

Sounds like you're underestimating the amount of this work this needs. It's a 41 year old vehicle. It will need more than spark plugs. Based on what you've said here, I'd stay away from it if I were you. You can get something much better for only 4-500 more.

[thecantaloupeman]

If I'm honest I'm not worried about how it looks, just more how it runs. I most likely will only keep it a few years until I can afford a nicer Waggie.

If it's not gonna a run though I don't want it at all. It would be nice if it was just a spark plugs and or something. Although now I am a bit worried that it got into an accident and had a fire or something. That would explain the front end damage, the weird rust under the hood, and why it doesn't run.

Stalling upon getting onto drive can be many things, as simple as a vacuum leak, from a disconnected hose, a carburetor set too lean , 2.5 turn on the idle mix is a quick fix or a failed enrichment circuit -carb rebuilt kit will fix that one-

you have may have to deal with old gasoline... or add fresh gas and dilute the old stuff, IIRC 78 has the access trap under the rear bench so this is not too bad

the distributor is set weird you cannot advance it more because the vacuum canister is set too close to the PS pump.

The yellow wires below the cruise control unit with the exposed resistor wires... I have not seen this set up.

The master cylinder is unlike what is found on OE of this vintage, and the vacuum hose for the booster might be connected elsewhere than the OE set.

How many miles on the odometer -remember it will not have the 100Kmiles? but is an indication... where is that gem located? because of salt issues!

The car is in CO. The yellow wires might be the aftermarket usb charger he installed. Another thing I noticed is there isn't a battery so it must've been sitting for a while. I haven't asked what the dash says about miles because it's a swapped gauge cluster so I didn't think to ask. Also I will send some more photos for you to check out that master cylinder. Another thing that bothers me, is the VIN isn't a real Jeep VIN. At least I think.

The VIN is supposedly 38A15NN113089
And engine code 204N10

I did some research on that ol'jeep page and it didn't match up. Only a few things lined up like the 8 meaning 1978 and the "15" meaning Wagoneer. There are numbers in letter spots it's really strange.



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[thecantaloupeman]

Sounds like you're underestimating the amount of this work this needs. It's a 41 year old vehicle. It will need more than spark plugs. Based on what you've said here, I'd stay away from it if I were you. You can get something much better for only 4-500 more.

I totally realize that. For me it will just be a point a to point b car. As long as it runs and maybe looks a bit better than it does now I'm happy. It is a Wagoneer after all and I haven't seen a Wagoneer this cheap in a while. I know it's rough, but I'm not planning to fully restored it. If it has some rust on the back quarter that's fine. Rockers I might fix, I shouldn't have a problem finding a bumper (there's plenty of FSJs at the local junkyard) engine will definitely need to be fixed, but I'm mostly concerned about the engine and how it runs. And yes I am young, but I have a decent amount of knowledge. I feel like if I am able to at least identify the problem first, I should be able to just ask around on forums or search up a procedure on YouTube to fix it. I do have an extra grand to spend on fixing it. Right now I've got 1600 in the bank ready to go. I just really want a Wagoneer and it looks like at the moment that this is the only one I might see for a while that I can afford.

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[mx71]

Dude, I really want you to have a Wagoneer. Selfishly, I want everyone to have a Wagoneer so more parts are made for it, but everything about this one screams run away.

[thecantaloupeman]

Dude, I really want you to have a Wagoneer. Selfishly, I want everyone to have a Wagoneer so more parts are made for it, but everything about this one screams run away.

Yeah I totally understand. He's supposed to send a video of it running and a walk-around later in the week. That might give me even more evidence to stay away, but if it doesn't I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

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[tedlovesjeeps71]

If I'm honest I'm not worried about how it looks, just more how it runs. I most likely will only keep it a few years until I can afford a nicer Waggie.

If it's not gonna a run though I don't want it at all. It would be nice if it was just a spark plugs and or something. Although now I am a bit worried that it got into an accident and had a fire or something. That would explain the front end damage, the weird rust under the hood, and why it doesn't run.

Stalling upon getting onto drive can be many things, as simple as a vacuum leak, from a disconnected hose, a carburetor set too lean , 2.5 turn on the idle mix is a quick fix or a failed enrichment circuit -carb rebuilt kit will fix that one-

you have may have to deal with old gasoline... or add fresh gas and dilute the old stuff, IIRC 78 has the access trap under the rear bench so this is not too bad

the distributor is set weird you cannot advance it more because the vacuum canister is set too close to the PS pump.

The yellow wires below the cruise control unit with the exposed resistor wires... I have not seen this set up.

The master cylinder is unlike what is found on OE of this vintage, and the vacuum hose for the booster might be connected elsewhere than the OE set.

How many miles on the odometer -remember it will not have the 100Kmiles? but is an indication... where is that gem located? because of salt issues!

The car is in CO. The yellow wires might be the aftermarket usb charger he installed. Another thing I noticed is there isn't a battery so it must've been sitting for a while. I haven't asked what the dash says about miles because it's a swapped gauge cluster so I didn't think to ask. Also I will send some more photos for you to check out that master cylinder. Another thing that bothers me, is the VIN isn't a real Jeep VIN. At least I think.

The VIN is supposedly 38A15NN113089
And engine code 204N10

I did some research on that ol'jeep page and it didn't match up. Only a few things lined up like the 8 meaning 1978 and the "15" meaning Wagoneer. There are numbers in letter spots it's really strange.



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Jeep, not car. (We can be a fussy bunch, haha)
You could see if anyone that actually knows waggys is in the part of Colorado it's located in and would be willing to look at it for you. Most are pretty honest folks that wouldn't try and snake it out from you and would give an honest opinion. Just a thought.