Possible Jeep Owner to Become Montero Owner?

[AeroSynch]

Hey guys I am selling my 99 Cherokee Limited and saw this on my local CL:

http://miami.craigslist.org/brw/cto/2422945290.html

I want it. I just need to sell the Jeep. However, can anyone quickly school me on the Gen 2.5, especially at 150K miles? I love that body style and the color is even better!

Any opinions, what to look out for, timing belt intervals (60K I believe) etc?

Thank you, I appreciate it!

 

[off-roader]

Yes the replacement period is 60k although ive seen them last far longer than that (100k+). It would be preferred if it came with the winter package cause you get the bigger locking rear differential which has a 9.5" ring gear:Wow1: which is bigger than pretty much all other non-commercial passenger vehicle diffs with the exception of a Dana 60.

Also earlier models came with 4.6x:1 ring and pinion gears. The gen 2.5 switched to 4.2x:1 gears for better gas mileage. If you plan to wheel it then consider an upgrade to either 4.6 or even 4.9 gears.

Other than that, these are considered gen 2.5's cause they used the gen 2 and added the flared fenders. The gen 2.5 started in 98. Not much else to watch out for.

One thing to check is all the Montero v6's of this vintage will suffer from worn valve stem seals causing smokey exhaust upon a cold engine start up or after idling for a while. If not yet, then eventually. Not a huge deal for my needs but others may want to have the seals replaced. This can be done without doing a valve job but many shops don't know how (either doing the rope or LP air trick to stop the valves from falling into the cylinder while you R&R the seals).

Othe than that, I don't recall any real issues.

 

[AeroSynch]

Thanks for all the information man! Damn that's a huge rear axle.

 

[off-roader]

Thanks for all the information man! Damn that's a huge rear axle.

Yeah, the standard Montero v6 gears are D44 sized. Axle sizes increase accordingly to the gear sizes. As big as they are, they can still break as I unfortunately found out in my old '90 v6 Montero. It happened around the time we were learning that gen I trailing arms have to be re-enforced or they will break which results in also damaging the axle housing.

This is what happened to me. One year on the 'con my driver side trailing arm broke and then a year or so later the housing failed at a weld resulting in the axle breaking and also damaging one side of my ARB locker. I replaced the entire rear end with the help of 2 close friends (housing,diff, axles, trailing arms with another which had the factory LSD) on the trail, using 2 hilift jacks, a couple of jack stands and lots of elbow grease.

Was certainly a memorable day that us 3 will never forget. Also helps to cement friendships and the two of them are close friends and wheeling buddies to this day.