CK5
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1997 Geo Tracker Daily
- Thread starter 80' 427
- Start date
So I don't have a lot of pictures but I will try to take some as I keep going. Sorry I fail at life Martin. So, my old man bought this 1997 Geo Tracker in 2000 with 32K miles or so as a Pivot checker/run about. He replaced the soft top with a hard top and otherwise just drove it with basic maintenance. About 3 years ago the Coop lifted it wrong (off the rockers and not the frame) and the doors became hard to shut till he jumped on sills. That and the fact the rear seat belt mounts were rusted out conviced him it was past its usable life, be bought a 2012 2 door wrangler rubicon 5 speed on 35s (real mileage getter). The Geo was since parked with ~150K 3 years ago. I kept trying to buy it as a cheap replacement for a Side X Side with all the locals starting to put on "Ag Tours". Finally, I convicted my dad I really did want it and he gave it to me. The tires were garbage and I knew I was going to want a bigger size so about 2 weeks ahead of picking it up I bought a rusty set of jeep 15x7 white spokes. Since have a buddy with a furnace and shot blaster, I had them cleaned up and painted gray since that is the color I had the most of in my spray paint collection. I was worried the gas was garbage but I bought a new battery and headed to the back of the Quonset. New battery installed it took maybe 15 secs of cranking and it came to life. I drove it to the front on flat tires to front to air up. I took a picture then swapped tires for the second pic.
So the first thing I did was to pull out the rear seat, and rusted out seatbelt mounts. I didn't want to be tempted to haul kids in a unit that had no belts. Then I built a gun rack to hold rifles. The more I thought about it, it would make a great coyote/coon hunting rig as well. Next I pulled off the hitch which had a 1" receiver rusted into it. Then I removed the rear bumper cover bumper and built a rear bumper with a high hitch and a pair of backup lights to help at night. I also took some of the old seat belt plastic and blocked the holes that were left.
Over the 4th I decided to add a 2" lift kit which was only $125. The bigger expense was the longer shocks, new struts, CVs and Manual hubs after having to destroy the auto hubs trying to get them off. I also removed the leaking (very expensive) load adjusting rear proportioning valve with a union and a block off on the front bypass.
I additionally replaced all the exhaust donuts, and brazed the exhaust. It had a EGR flow code so I found where you can clean the hole in the intake with a 9mm brush and some carb cleaner so the code is gone. I did my old TBI 350 trick and bumped the base timing from 5 to 10 deg and it picked up a bit of power. May try 2 more and see. Finally I keep thinking about building a front winch bumper and buying a SXS winch. I also keep thinking about a rear locker but I am concerned about the short wheel base. I just tinted the top glass to prevent looky loos from seeing what is in the back. I have been driving it almost every day and it is getting 22-24mpg.
This needs some baby mudders, it would look so much cooler!
My plan is to buy some SxS take off tires and put them on different wheels so I can have some aggressive tires for hunting the snow etc yet keep these ATs for just driving around on the dirt. I have some 32s saved on FB market place but I am afraid I will have to aggressively trim.
How hard is it to relocate the axles on these? You could rework the bumpers a little for more tire clearance. Just from looking at your pictures, it doesn't look like there's much overhang of the fender to trim back. There's always a body lift?
Ya, idk. There is some way to move the front forward but I more or less want to leave it as it. There are plenty of 30-31" tires out there, all pretty narrow(worried about floatation on the snow). I am not to excited to body lift at this point, don't want to find out how many bolts twist off.
Ya, not this week
Honestly it does way better than I thought is would simply because of how short it is. I have climbed some pretty steep hills in 2wd and open just because it is short and flexes enough to keep the tires planted. I wish it had a lower low range (which you can buy) but I am not excited to do the swap unless I have a second trans/transfer case.
Needs hood stacks.
Light weight helps a lot too.
It weighs right at 2600lbs so yes it is light. I noticed even with 235s the track it cuts on the muddy roads is significantly less than a truck cuts.
I loved my Trackers. Michigan didn’t love them back though.
