They say knowledge is power. But, it can also be a curse – especially when it comes to used vehicles. The more you know about cars and the more in-tune you are with your own, the more you start to pick a part all the little “issues” that normal people just ignore and/or chalk up to having an older vehicle. I’ll give you an example.

The current workhorse of my fleet is “our” 1997 Jeep Cherokee XJ – aka “RJ” (introduced a couple of posts back). This vehicle is the main shared mode of transportation for myself and my better half, who in fact refers to it as “her Jeep” which is totally fine – she was the one who stopped me from selling it after all. RJ has had a bit of a resurgence in 2023 after sitting mostly idle for nearly two years while I prioritized other things, keeping RJ “off to the side” with a lengthy plan of making it “perfect.”

After realizing the errors of my ways – and in a desire to have a “winter beater” with an actual working heater – I decided to not get it right but instead, just get it running… and boy has it been doing a lot of running. So much so that this past weekend, I almost slipped back into some bad habits of tearing apart a perfectly good running and driving vehicle just to chase after some idea of “perfection.”

RJ has 176K miles and what I can only assume are the original ball joints. Ball joints are really important for a solid axle vehicle because they keep the steering knuckle seated within the axle housing. As they wear out, they allow for excess play in the steering knuckle while the vehicle moves along, which is usually translated through vibrations in the steering wheel. At speeds greater than 70 mph, RJ has a very slight shimmy that is worse when turning slightly right.

It’s a solid “2” on the 0-10 scale of “are we going to die?”

But a solid 2 isn’t 0 and it will only get progressively worse. Knowing this means I want to replace the ball joints even though I obviously don’t really need to – these can continue to be milked for thousands of miles. But regardless, I hatched a plan to scam my dad into helping me replace the ball joints – which is a “if you give a mouse a cookie” type of job anyways. Here’s what you have to disassemble to get to them in the first place:

• Brake calipers
• Brake rotors
• Wheel unit bearings
• Axle shafts
• Tie-rod ends

“If I have to take all that off, I might as well replace/upgrade them right? Oh, and while I’m in there, might was well replace the sway bar with a thicker aftermarket one I already have.”

“Oh, and I might as well replace the upper and lower controls arms too – I have replacements after all…“

“Well now – if I do that, the axle will be out of the Jeep and it has surface rust – maybe I should have it rebuilt and install a locker? Yeah! Let’s do that!”

Then, my dad stepped in and as if channeling his inner Freiburger and Dulcich – two legends he’s never even heard of – he talked me off the ledge of snowballing scope creep and brought me back down to reality. I legitimately rely on this Jeep to take me places – it’s way more than just a fun weekend vehicle – it’s an actual daily driven machine. Opening up the can of worms I was about to open wouldn’t take a day to get done – it would take multiple. And while I could afford the multiple day thrash while juggling my day job, it would be stress on top of stress and distraction after distraction. I had other priorities and those priorities depended on the Jeep.

So, instead of spending hours, days, and hundreds of dollars, I spent $56 and 20 minutes doing a much needed oil change and rear brake adjustment. This resulted in my favorite anecdote of the whole ordeal.

Me: “I thought drum brakes were supposed to self adjust while you drive around?”

Dad: “Yeah well, a lot of things are supposed to do a lot of things.”

That they are – thanks for the reality check, dad! Someday soon I will tear the front end a part and fix all the little things that are wrong with the old Jeep but until then, I’m still keeping it running even though it’s not entirely right.