Advice on first jeep purchase

You're reading the table right, but the table is wrong. The T-18 was only available with the 232 or 258 in '72-75 ('76 too AFAIK). A factory 304-T-18 was not available until '77-79.

It may be sloppy, or Jeep may have been planning to offer the 304-T-18 combo when the manual was printed. That's not the only mistake in that section. The Renegade colors aren't shown at all, for example, and there were plenty of '72 Renegades.

 

1973 JEEP windshield with pad. I was told it was a Renegade JEEP when it was being parted out.

 

It could be that the first picture is too small to tell, but it looks to me like the corners have no stitching on the Jeep on the OP's pics. Look at the corners on the pad above and you'll see that the cover is stitched together out of flat vinyl. The '73 pad looks like that too. Not sure about '74, but by '75 the pad was an injection molded outside filled with high density foam. The corners have no stitching, the corners are more rounded, and the texture is cast in to the surface.

You can see the later dash pad here on my '75:



Note that this pad had a limited run (1-2 years at most), since the design changes in '76 made the shape of the dash pad entirely different.

hth!

 

When I ordered my 1978 from the dealer in Youngstown Ohio, Oct 77 the T-18 with the 304 was unavailable. I asked the dealer to verify that, He supposedly, checked with Toledo before I ordered. FWIW
I also checked whether the CJ-6 was available, and was told it was for import only.

Jay

 

Yeah, well, I'm not sure about '77-79. We've discussed this before, and some members have claimed that the 304 was available, at least in '79 (? - IIRC the discussion). How about the CJ-7? Maybe it was a CJ-7 that had the 304-T-18 combo. Or it may have been CA only - though typically CA got fewer drivetrain combos than the rest of the nation.

Certainly the '77-79 CJ T-18 was a wide ratio (granny gear) transmission, while the '71-76 CJ sixes got the close ratio T-18.

I can see why Jeep might not want to sell the 304 with the WR T-18 - that could be a prodigious axle snapper in the wrong hands.

Yes, the CJ-6 was export-only after 1975.

 

hi tim i have another question. is it possible then that whoever owned this jeep in the 70's and 80's couldve somehow purchased a t-18 4speed tranny and had it put in? and also what do you personally think is the most likely thing to have happened to it for it to have gotten a 4speed tranny, basically i mean what wouldve been the most likely 4speed to have been available back then?
thanks.
mike

 

so i have one more question do you gusy think that the kind off jeep im looking at purchasing could be a daily driver an dbe safe?

 

Oh. I thought that was clear. Transmission swaps are common, especially to the heavy duty truck 4-speeds like the T-18. They are apopular upgrade.

Back in the '70s you could have swapped in the T-18 with all Jeep parts, bought over the Jeep parts department counter. When I bought my 6-cylinder 3-speed CJ-6 back in 1975, the dealership offered to convert it to a T-18 4-speed. You could have bought the floor panels used with the 6-cylinder T-18 in a CJ, and installed either a close-ratio (CJ type) or wide-ratio (6-cylinder Jeep truck type) T-18 with all Jeep parts. All new parts would have been more expensive than a mix of new and junkyard parts - it could be done either way with comparative ease.

I don't think there's anything that prevented Jeep from offering the T-18 with the 304, from an 'available parts' point of view. They just chose not to.

The usual way to do this swap today is to buy a conversion kit from a place like Novak http://www.novak-adapt.com/catalog/kit_188.htm and then handle the driveshafts, floor panels, crossmember, transmission mounts etc. using a collection of Ford, original Jeep, aftermarket Jeep, and homemade parts. It's a common conversion, even today.

 

I'm surprised nobody noticed what seems to be the factory installed ash tray under the dash to the right of the heater controls.

 

thanks a lot guys. just one more question. can a jeep like be a safe daily driver? and i probably shouldve mentioned this before but i am 6"5 and weigh about 250lbs. do you think that i would fit?

 

In a 6 yes you have room to move the seat back. I am 6'2" and had to do cut back in the wheel well of my 5 becouse I could not fit:?

 

Re safety, compared to a new car? No, it's not as safe as a new car. Safety equipment has evolved, and even in the day, these Jeeps were a very spartan choice for a daily driver. That said, I would not be reluctant to drive one every day. Today, I have a daily driver car plus my Jeeps, but when I was younger, the Jeep was my only car.

The logistics of depending on a 35 year old car for your transportation to and from work may not be something you want to take on. Daily driving for a few miles every few days is probably good for them, but putting a lot of miles on a car like that every day will surely present some surprises.

Re the seating, I'm 5' 9" and fit fine. At 6'5", you will probably want to notch the wheelhouse behind the seat and move the seat back.