QUESTION: Ok, first you guys provide excellent info on this site, I recommend it to all my Jeep guys. But I need some help, I just bought an early 81 CJ8 and was wondering if you could help me figure out it’s production number? I get everything for decoding the VIN but the SSN part is messing me up. With a SSN of 010085, I know there weren’t 10,000 some CJ8’s made in 81. So any help would be great. Neil C.
ANSWER: Sometime Jeep left us with mysteries that unfortunately were lost to the masses when American Motors was bought by Chrysler. It’s probable that the numbers were out of sequence or started at a number. Perhaps your Jeep was number 85 instead of 10085? I think no one will ever really know.