This is the haytian jeep. We bought it in the summer of 2002 shortly before the birth of Roxanne. Formerly tap-taps were the mode of transportation, but with the coming of P.Roxanne I figured that some private transportation was in order.
Found it advertized in the Nouvelliste of Port au Prince. No price listed of course, they never list a price. So I called and the owner spoke English, went to see it, he asked 2500 u$d and I willingly paid it. It started and ran fine, nothing was falling off and the four wheel drive worked. Good price.
Almost immediately after the purchase we drove to Cap Haitian with it.
The carburation was off and it pinged while going up hills. So the first investment
was in a new carburettor. Not knowing anything about the local auto parts stores,
nor a reputable mechanicien, i ordered a weber carb on the internet. That took
a long time to arrive, with a hefty bill for shipping and import tax, and there
were no main jets in it. That little difficulty of no jets was solved with the
aid of Fritz, a neighbor of the hotel where we lived who was always hanging
out on the street listening to the news on the radio. He speaks english and
is a good mechanicien with a horde of tools. We drilled out some jets from the
carb off his old Mitsubishi sedan and it was running! That was a week of torment.
A later trip to a speed shop in Miami got the proper jets. That trip also got
a new radiator, the next investment. The old radiator wasn't bad yet so this
replacement of a radiator which remained unblocked was a novelty for the Haytian
scene.
The transmission leaked oil. Changing all the fluids after buying the car revealed that the trans was empty. It emptied itself quite rapidly after each fillup. This was a problem solved by the garage that I discovered, CGEM. Centre Gestion something Mechanical. Robert Martin, the Maitre, speaks perfect english and has been back in Hayti doing business for 20 years or so. He overhauled the transmission and put in a new clutch and trans mount. Dismantled it and put in new gaskets actually, no new internal parts were installed in the Peugeot transmission that came on this 1987 YJ model.
The springs were sagging so I picked up two used leaf springs at a suspension shop in florida at the same time I got the radiator. New urethane bushings for the springs too.
Some trip brought new solid welded shackles and two existing springs were re-built at 'the forge' in Port au Prince. I put the new 5 leaf springs (for the rear) on the front of the car, replacing the 4 link originals.
The newly built 7 leaf springs went on the rear. This jeep now comfortably carries 6 or seven people without bottoming out. New shocks all around help out too. Most cars here never get the shocks replaced.
Tie rods usually are not replaced until they break and leave the car resting on it's frame in the street. It still doesn't ride too badly and carrying heavy loads is a regular occurence.
It rides considerably higher now so a transmission lowering kit was installed. Mail order. Ideally I should get one of those 'slip joint eliminators' which put a CV joint on the back of the transfer case. New axle ratios and some kind of limited slip diff take precedence over the CV joint setup. This thing came with 3.07 ratios, unfortunately. I want 4.10 ratios and a positraction rear end with one of those new torsen style front differentials.
The garage has two brand new rear Dana 44 axles (with heavy duty 4.09 ratios and positraction) for a Cherokee sitting there getting real dusty. This thing has the stock Dana 35 in back. Unfortunately the brake backing plates are different for these axles so I'd have to find a junkyard with axle shafts and complete brake assemblies for the Dana 44 to use one of these axles on my rig.
I did put in a Posi-Lok to activate the front axle. To turn it on, make it drive.
It
was rigged to be on all the time, which spins the gears unneccesarily. There
are no vacuum lines on this car (except for the
distributor advance) to activate the axle engager. Not much in the way of wiring either. I rigged the horn
to a button on the middle of the dashboard. The co-pilot can sound the horn
for corners now. That dashboard was a waste of money. I paid 200 u$d for it
at a jeep re-builder in Broward county. The oil pressure and coolant temperature
gauges still don't work accurately. Some resistance problem in the wiring which
no one has explained satisfactorily. The air conditioner works, I replaced the
condenser but I hardly ever use it. This Caframo
12 volt fan serves nicely for cooling. Got it years ago at Real Goods in Hopland,
Calif. Got a replacement fan blade at West Marine.
February 2005 saw new front brakes and a water pump installed. Bought downtown PauP when there wasn't much war down there. Hey, it's been a pretty good bad road car. It took Dok Phillipe and I on the Rallye du Beaumont in 2003. We made it to the end with the radiator hanging from country sisal rope. I still keep the numbers from the concourse (race) on it.
