1993 Jeep Wrangler YJ - Time Machine

It still overheated, though. John had used a stock radiator from a '92 Camaro, which was aluminum with plastic tanks. It worked well back then, but something had happened to it to destroy its efficiency over the years. One morning, we noticed a drop of coolant under the Jeep. It turned out to be leaking from the joint between the aluminum and plastic on both sides of the radiator. Rather than try to fix it, we contacted Modine, who offers a bolt-in replacement radiator. It arrived quickly, and we installed it in about 10 minutes. The Jeep now runs at thermostat temperature, no matter what the load.

The suspension used leaf springs under the axles. The leaf packs had sagged a little over the years, so we decided to make a change. We wanted to keep the spring-under design, so we chose to use a set of Rubicon Express 4-1/2-inch extreme leaf springs. They made a huge difference. The Jeep sat up a couple more inches and rode great on- and off-road. While this technology can't match the coil suspensions we see today, it still works well on the trail, and there's still a place for leaf springs on backcountry 4x4s.

The fabric and windows had faded a bit, so we ordered some new carpet and a Bestop Replace-A-Top from 4 Wheel Drive Hardware. The top is made of sailcloth fabric and is incredibly quiet on the highway. What an improvement!

On the trail, we were surprised to find that this old-tech Jeep could still go just about anywhere it could fit. Yes, it hung up on the low crossmember, and the turning radius wasn't what we're used to because of the narrow frontend, but the YJ was still powerful, easy to control, and felt very stable on obstacles. The few changes we made had just made a good Jeep better. We're sure that with its new lease on life, John's old YJ will be seen in the backcountry for many more years.