1987 Jeep Wrangler Photos, engines & full specs

AMC owned the Jeep brand since 1970, when it acquired the Kaiser Jeep Corporation. It produced the CJ (Civilian Jeep) until 1986 when it replaced it with the brand-new Jeep Wrangler.

Despite being one of the most produced off-road vehicles in history, the CJ had already started to show its wrinkles and limits. It has been in production in various forms and with several upgrades since 1944. Its high center of gravity and on-road behavior were no longer appreciated by customers. Then, after AMC was bought by Renault in 1979, the American automaker grew exponentially, especially thanks to the Cherokee lineup, which was introduced in 1984. But while that revolutionary SUV became the darling of many families, the adventure-oriented two-door CJ was not. As a result, the car manufacturer replaced it with the Wrangler YJ in 1986 for the 1987 model year. It came with significant upgrades, and many of its underpinnings were carried over from its bigger siblings, the Cherokee and the Wagoneer. Success followed, and Jeep sold almost 700,000 units of the Wrangler YJ between 1986 and 1996, when it was replaced by the TJ.

Jeep wanted to make a clear, easy-to-see distinction between the CJ and the YJ. One of the easiest ways to achieve that was to install rectangular headlights instead of the round ones offered by its predecessor. In addition, the seven-slat grille was not straight-up but slightly tilted rearward. Its metallic front bumper was still pushed forward, thus protecting the bodywork from bushes and other off-road obstacles. In addition, the wide fenders sat lower than the hood and sported turn signals on the sides.

From its profile, the Wrangler was easy to recognize as a genuine Jeep, especially with the available hard top removed. Its flat body panels and low-cut doors fitted with flush door handles were Jeep-specific. Like its predecessor, it could be driven without the doors and with the windshield folded down, tightened on the hood by special mounts. Out back, instead of the fold-down tailgate, it sported a side-hinged one, which also supported the spare wheel. The automaker offered the vehicle a folding roof that could be retracted behind the rear seats or left behind at home, as well as a removable hard top fitted with side and rear windows. As a result, customers were better protected against bad weather. The rear window was hinged on its upper side and could be tilted to ease loading and unloading the tiny trunk.

One of the most significant upgrades was found inside the vehicle. The cabin was fitted with a steel roll cage, protecting occupants in the event of a rollover crash. AMC had to pay millions of dollars in compensation due to such accidents for the CJ, and this was the ideal solution that it came with. Due to this safety device, it had to install slimmer front seats with integrated headrests that could slide forward to ease ingress and egress for the rear passengers. The dashboard was no longer a painted steel plate, as in the CJ, but a modern-looking dashboard filled with dials and gauges. Between the front occupants, the automaker installed a floor-mounted gear stick and the lever for the transfer box, which featured a shift-on-the-fly system for the 4x4 system. Drivers didn’t need to stop to switch from 2WD to 4WD, although they had to stop if they wanted to engage the low-range gear. In the back, the automaker placed a folding bench seat for two. Due to the short wheelbase of the vehicle, only the driver had enough legroom, while the side passenger had some trouble with the grab-handle in front of them, and the rear ones had minimal area between the rear seats and the front ones.

Under the hood, the base Wrangler YJ came with a single-point fuel-injected inline-four 2.5-liter engine, while the top-spec version featured a 4.2-liter carbureted inline-six powerplant. Later, these engines were upgraded to multi-point fuel injection systems. A 4.0-liter straight-six engine replaced the 4.2-liter unit in 1991. Between 1987 and 1991, AMC paired the engines with either a five-speed manual or a three-speed automatic, depending on the engine version.