Transmission failed in 1996. It was a spring that broke inside case.
Overhead Cam seized in 1998. Oil flow stopped because of stuck oil pressure regulator. My fault - I ignored the light because it was full of oil.
Alternator gave out in 2002.
Not a bad record for 8 years.
Love/hate the vehicle. It rides hard, gets great mileage, looks funny, turns very wide which is a good safety feature, but makes it hell to parallel park. The engine compartment is very well organized and a pleasure to work in compared to US cars of the same era. Beware of 4WD on icy streets. Over 30mph you WILL eventually go out of control and spin helplessly. In 8 years living in Maine, I've only seen 1 other Rocky.
I live in Puerto Rico and parts are not easy to find. This is my second comment about the accident. I've seen at least 20 in the whole island. Any body knows about a place over the INTERNET to buy parts?
John Betancourt.
About the 4WD on icy streets: It's because it uses a part-time type 4WD which works well at lower speed and/or rugged terrain (bad roads, mud, sand). Because the nature of a part-time 4WD is having the same speed between the front axle and rear axle, you'll get trouble when driving it at high speed because naturally front axle runs faster than rear when turning/cornering where it's impossible to do with a part-time 4WD active.
Solution:
1. Drive at lower speed and carefully when comes to icy streets.
2. If you have more money, try to install/modify the transfer case with a full-time 4WD which have a center differential so you can use 4WD mode at higher speed on icy roads. Make sure that it's lockable because an unlockable full-time 4WD will give much trouble on muddy, sandy, and rough road.
Desianto F. W., Indonesia.
Note: A Comments RSS Feed 
is available. New comments appear in the Members Area before the main site