1982 Jeep CJ-7 Jamboree The Rarest CJ-7 Ever Built & One of the Rarest Jeeps of All Time

Jambo Parts

Below we summarize the Jambo's key features and parts. We organize this page to follow the January 27, 1982, Product Direction Letter that defined the Jambo.

Special Exterior Product Content

	Jamboree Decal Lettering on Hood Sides Jambos included "Jamboree" decal lettering on both sides of the hood. The lettering is all black and in an outline font. The lettering does not include any white. In addition, the hood blister did not include a black decal, as seen on the Renegade II. You can more about the lettering here.
	Black Vinyl Spare Tire Cover with Jamboree Special Imprint (Printing in Straight Shade Simulation of Body Color)  The Jambo came with a specially designed and matching spare tire cover. Notice that the color was supposed to match the body color (Topaz Gold Metallic). It only fit the small polyspare. For this reason, most owners tossed the tire cover in favor of a larger cover to fit their full-size spare. The tire cover is nearly impossible to find today. You can read more about the tire cover here.
	Black Vinyl CJ Laredo Hi Back Bucket Seats and Rear Seat (Gold Accent Straps Replace Silver) The core of the Jambo package are the high-back bucket seats and matching fixed rear seat. The front seats were just like the front seats used in the Laredo. However, the silver insert straps used on the Laredo were replaced with gold purse straps. Only about one-quarter of Jambos have their seats and they are nearly impossible to find today. You can read more about the seats here.
	Special Jamboree Commemorative Plaque on I.P. Serialized 1 to 2,500 The Jambos were all numberd via a commemorative plaque on the instrument panel. Jeep planned to produce 2500 Jambos and they included four digits in the numbering. We now know that Jeep only produced fewer than 600 Jambos. So, all Jambos have a leading "0". Interestingly, the chromed plastic housing used for the plaque was made by Ford. You can read more about the plaque here.

Production Components -- Released Out of Normal Context

	Exterior Color -- 2H Topaz Gold (Wagoneer Color) Jeep planned to paint all Jambos Topaz Gold Metallic (2H), just like they had painted all the '79 CJ-5 Silver Anniversaries a single color. Only Jambos could be painted Topaz Gold Metallic, which had been reserved for the Wagoneer. Later Jeep painted about 70 Jambos Olympic White (9B). If you are restoring your 2H Jambo you need to make sure you get the right paint color (BASF 2H). Nearly all 2H formulas you can buy today are too gold. You can read more about the paint here.
	Chrome Front Bumper and Chrome Rear Bumperettes (Laredo Pkg) The Jambo used the same chrome bumper and bumperettes found on the Laredo. These were an updgrade from the black bumper used on the Renegade. Finding original bumpers and bumperettes in good condition is difficult. An NOS bumper is quite expensive. You can read more about the bumper here.
	Floor and Wheel-House Carpeting -- Black (Laredo Pkg) The Jambo included the same black floor and wheel-house carpetting used on the Laredo. This carpetting includes a plastic heel pad for the driver. You can read more about the carpet here.
	Black Rocker Panel Molding (Renegade/Laredo Pkg) Jambo rockers were part of the decor group and were the same ones used on the Laredo. Jambo rockers are supposed to be black. What today look like aluminum or chrome rockers are actually faded anodized black rockers. The Jambo was designed by Jim W. Alexander. Do you really think a designer would put sliver colored rockers next to gold paint? Didn't your wife tell you that she can't wear silver and gold together? You can read more about this here.

Special Group of Accessory Items -- To Be Dealer Installed

	Ramsey Electric Winch and Mounting Kit The Ramsey winch was a dealer-installed option. The correct model is the Ramsey 2001 8000-lb electric winch. This has a 4-way roller-type fairlead, rather than a hawse fairlead (model 2000). The Ramsey 2000/2001 is a worm-gear winch, not a planetary gear winch, like the REP 8000. You can read more about the winch here.
	AM/FM/CB Radio and Antenna The Jambo did not come with a factory-installed radio. The AM/FM/CB was a dealer-installed option. The same CB was also used in the Wagoneer. As with all OEM radios, it will not fit if your dash has been cut. You can read more about the CB here.
	Dual Radio Speakers The Jambo did not come with a factory-installed radio. The speakers were a dealer-installed option. The CJs came with either AM or AM/FM speakers. You can read more about the speakers here.
	Over Windshield Light Mounting Bar With Off-Road Driving Lights (Must be Wired to Meet Calif. State Laws) The Jambo came standard with Marchal 850 fog lights and stone covers. These are mounted below the headlights on the bumper. The lights on the optional light bar are Marchal 859 driving lights. The lens on the Marchal lights was clear, not yellow. The housing was chrome, not plastic. You can read more about the Marchal lights here.
	Brush Guard (Requires Relocating Factory Installed Fog Lamps) The Jambo brush guard was a dealer-installed option. It is actually two pieces: the brush guard and the grille guard (described below). The grille guard is only the center section that is attached to the winch. The brush guard is the remainder. The center section can be changed out depending on whether or not you have a Ramsey winch, Warn winch, or no winch. You can read more about the brush guard here.
	Fire Extinguisher (Pending Engineering Approval of Mounting/Location) We are not sure where the fire extinguisher was mounted or if it was ever approved for installation in the Jambo. We have never seen an OEM fire extinguisher mounted in a Jambo. In addition, we have checked with four original Jambo owners and none of their Jambos came with a fire extinguisher. However, we do have a picture of 1980 CJ-7 that has a factory fire extinguisher mounted under the passenger seat. Since it was approved in 1980, this does suggest the Jambos should have had a fire extinguisher. You can read more about that here.
	Grille Guard -- With Ramsey Winch The grille guard is the center section of the brush guard, which can be changed to match the winch configuration. The picture to the left shows the grille guard with the Ramsey 2001 winch. If you did not have a winch then grille guard went straight across and also had a portion that protected the grille, similar to the Ramsey setup. You can read more about the grille guard here.

Regular Production Options Included 

	258 6 Cylinder Engine The Jambo came standard with AMC's 258 ci (4.2 L) engine. This was an upgrade from the 151 ci 4-cyl. The 258 is undersquare (3.75" bore / 3.895" stroke) and produces 145 hp @ 4300 rpm and 215 ft-lb of torque at 1600 rpm. Though the 304 ci V8, which was discontinued after 1981, is sexier, most off-road enthusiasts believe the 258 is superior to the 304 because of its much better low-rpm torque. You can read more about the engine, including date coding, here.
	5 Speed Manual Transmission The Jambo came standard with the BorgWarner T-5 manual transmission, which was new in 1982. This was an upgrde from the BorgWarner T-4 that was mated to the 4-cyl 151 ci engine. The G-5 is an excellent and dependable tranmission that is easily adapted to four-wheel-drive use. About 20 Jambos came equiped with the TorqueFlite (Chrysler) 999 automatic transmission.
	Chrome Styled Wheels (4) and Goodyear P235 Wrangler Radial Tires The Jambo used the same 15" x 7" chrome wheels as the Laredo. These wheels use a 5-lug pattern and have holes drilled on a 5.5" diamater for center caps. The wheels were produced in Canada and are all date stamped on the interior backside. Jambo wheel dates range from 2-1-82 through about 6-15-82. The date can be related to the Jambo badge number. You can read more about the wheels here. The tires were Goodyear P235 Wrangler Radials. These are 29" tall and 9.25" wide. These were an upgrade from P225/75R15 that were the base-model Jeeps and the CJ-7 Limited. These tires are still produced. Here they are on Goodyear's website.
	20 Gallon Fuel Tank The Jambo came standard with a 20-gallon fuel tank, which was an upgrade from the 15.5 gallon. You can read more about the fuel tank here.
	H.D. (Heavy Duty) Battery, Alternator, Cooling, and Suspension The Jambo came with an upgraded battery (56-450 Cold Crank), alternator (63-amp), cooling system, and suspension. The heavy duty cooling system included a larger fan with 7 blades instead of 4, a fan shroud, and a 17-fins per inch radiator. You can read more about the cooling system here. Heavy-duty suspension included six leafs front and rear, compared to the standard 4 front / 5 rear. Jambos sit about 1/2-inch higher than stock CJ-7s. You can read about the springs here. We are tracking down information on the other systems.
	Trac-Loc Rear Axle Like all 1976-1986 CJs, the Jambo rear axle was the AMC 20. The Jambo was supposed to come standard with 2.73 gears and the Trac-Loc limited-slip rear differential, designed for use with Jeep's Dana 300 transfer case. The Trac-Loc was an upgrade from the standard open differential, which is no good off-road. However, some lucky Jambo owners, that lived in high-altitude areas, got 3.31 gears. Others got a 2.73 open differential. You can read more about the rear axle here.
	Black Vinyl Soft Top - Soft Doors The Jambo was based on the CJ-7 soft top. This was the Whitco top. Multiple setups seem to have been produced: soft top with soft doors, soft top with hard doors, and also a full hard top. We know that some Jambos were ordered with a hard top. Here are the Whitco 5107 installation instructions.
	Halogen Fog Lights The Jambo came standard with Marchal 850 fog lamps and stone covers. The lights on the optional light bar are Marchal 859 driving lights. We believe most came with clear lenses, but some could have been amber, depending on state regulations. The housing was chrome, not plastic. The stone covers are very rare today. You can read more about the Marchal lights here.
	Tachometer and Rally Clock The Jambo included the Laredo's rally clock (left) and tachometer (right). The clock was quartz. These are very hard to find today and quite expensive when you do find one.
	Saddle Bags and Rollbar Pad The Jambo came standard with saddle bags and a rollbar pad. These are both hard to find today.
	Decor Group (Less Bright Rocker Mldg.) The Decor Group included black rocker panel molding, sports steering wheel (not leather wrapped), front frame cover, and instrument panel overlay. The wording "Less Bright Rocker Mldg." is confusing. It means that Jambo did not include bright (chrome) rocker molding (i.e., Jeep literally did mean "Less Bright Rocker Mldg." and not "Less-Bright Rocker Mldg."), since the rocker molding was elsewhere defined as being black. Also, Jeep uses "Less X" in other contexts to mean without.
	Console The Jambo included a black console that was also used in the Laredo package. It is hard to find consoles today that are in good shape. You can read more about the console here.
	Tilt Steering Wheel The Jambo included tilt steering, like the Laredo. However, instead of the Laredo leather-wrapped steering wheel, the Jambo steering wheel was the Renegade's "soft feel" sport steering wheel. You can read more about the steering wheel here.

Other Equipment

	Air Conditioning The original Jambo specs specifically excluded AC. This was because an under-dash AC system required relocating the ashtray to the dash--right where the Jambo badge goes. So, no AC for you! Seriously, it is a convertable! Take the top off if you're hot. The Jambo Registry believes that Jambos #0031 through #0450 did not include factory AC. However, dealers could have installed AC. We believe that after #0450, Jeep allowed AC as a factory option. You can read more about the AC issue here.
	Ashtray Now to that pesky little ashtray that caused so much trouble with the AC. The ashtray in all CJs was black and mounted just under the left-hand side of the instrument overlay. The ashtray was not painted to match the exterior color. You can read more about the ashtray here.
	Side-View Mirrors The Jambo came with a rear view mirror and a driver-side mirror, but no passenger-side mirror. Most states required two mirrors, not three--some states only one. You don't need the passenger side mirror and don't want it off road. Remember, the Jambo was an off-road Jeep, not a Laredo.
	Passenger Assist Bar (Grab Bar) The Jambo came with the standard plain black grab bar. However, we know of one Jambo that seems to have come with the Laredo leather-wrapped grab bar.
	Goodyear P225 (Temporary Use) Polyspare Tire The Jambos came with a small (P225/75D15), temporary use, polyspare tire, instead of a full size spare. This fact led many Jambo owners to toss their Jambo spare tires and tire covers--a fact that sickens current owners. You can read more about the spare tire here.
	Instrument Panel Pad Most Jambo instrument panel (or dash) pads had thick ends. The thin-end pad was for CJs whose hard doors had wind wings (vents). Jeep introduced vents near the end of the 1982 model year. We believe that all Jambos made before mid-June 1982 had dash pads with thick ends. After this date, some Jambos did come with thin-end dash pads and hard doors with vents. Some Jambos had thin end dash pads without hard doors. Jeep seems to have been somewhat inconsistent on this. They were consistent in the sense that hard doors with vents got the thin-end dash pad. However, having a thin-end dash pad does not mean your Jambo had hard doors with vents. The pad with thick ends is very hard to find now. You can read more about the pad here.
	Antenna The Jambo did not come with a factory installed radio. This was a dealer-installed option. The standard AM/FM antenna was mounted just below the cowl and front fender on the passenger side. If you are installing an antenna you can use this corrected factory template, which identifies the correct location. To read more about the antenna click here.
	Instrument Cluster The Jambo uses the same speedometer as all 1982 CJs: an 85 mph speedometer and a six-digit odometer. This setup was new in 1982. The 1981 instrument cluster, which was only used for one year, had an 85 mph speedometer and a five-digit odometer. Prior to 1981, Jeep used a 90 mph speedometer. The six-digit odometer used on the Jambo is very important because it does not rollover. Owners of CJs prior to 1982 often claim very low mileage, when, in fact, the milage is 100,000 miles higher. Buyer beware!!! The other problem with pre-1981 CJs is that they did not use a standarized 17-digit VIN and cannot be checked in VIN databases. You can read more about the instrument cluster here.
	Hood Catch CJs hood catches were Argent Silver, not stainless or chrome. This same color was used on AMC grilles, such as on the Javelin. The picture to the left is of a hood catch from a 2000 original mile Laredo. This is what your hood catches are supposed to look like. If you are going for an A+ restoration, you need Argent Silver hood catches! You can read more about the hood catches here.

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