My Comanche buildup, 4.0L swap

Glad to see so many Comanche fans out there, this is a great site. I had to share mine so here she is. The truck was bone stock and rolled when I bought it for $400 several years ago. I wish I had some before pics, but the first pic here is the earliest one I have. The top was crushed in, luckily the local junk yard had a Comanche at the time so I got the top of the cab for $75.

I have a nice '69 Jeepster, but I hate taking it on the trails because I don't want to scratch my nice paint job! My goal for the Comanche was to build a trail rig. Something that I didn't have to worry about scratching or denting. That's what I built it for and it works great. I have about $3k in the entire Jeep (minus the tires), and it will outwheel rigs that cost thousands more. Everyone makes fun of the D35, but it hasn't broke yet after 6 years of hard wheeling.

Details:

'86 MJ, longbed

Shortened wheelbase 1 foot by moving the rear leafs forward (so it's about the same as a shortbed now)

Spring over in rear with some home fabbed buggy springs

Full cage, plan to make top removal

4.88's, D30 front with ARB locker, D35 non-clip rear with Detroit locker

35" tires

Ditched the bench seat and put in some buckets out of a Ford Probe.

4.0L/Auto swap

It did have a 2.5L with AX5, NP 207 that I ran for about 3 years, but I recently completed a 4.0L swap with AW4 and NP242. At the same time I swapped the tan colored dash with a newer gray dash and instrument cluster.

The firewall needs a little adjustment for rear of the 4.0L valve cover to clear, just a few hits with a hammer took care of that. Motor mounts are different, but bolt right in. The trans crossmember mounts in further back with the 4.0/auto. So you can either re-fab the cross member mounts on the frame, or I chose to re-fab the cross member to fit. The front core support is way different, had to cut away lots of metal on the front to get the radiator and air box to fit. The hood and hood latches are different, I opted to keep my hood and forget about the latches and went with some hood pins. Fuel pump is bigger than the 2.5L's fuel pump, so I replaced that.

The engine, trans, and transfercase were from a '89 Cherokee. I used a complete 4.0L/auto wiring harness, dash, and ECU/TCU from a '90 Cherokee.

nice lookin mj. that paint job is almost the same as I'm putting on mine. but mine is going to have all the willys stuff one it. ill get drawings up of it on here soon. then the real things once its done. 4 years on the d35 on 35s?! well just to warn you, the d35 is really weak and you may want to find a d44 or 8.8 rear axle just incase something goes wrong. and where/how did you get that green for the paint because I'm gonna need some asap? or can you atleast tell me the name of that color?

alex

I found the paint at Walmart. It was Krylon Camouflage, here's a pic of the can. I bought a couple cases of this stuff about 4 years ago now, I only have a few cans left. I'm not sure if they still sell it but I haven't seen it lately. They had a Woodlands Scheme that consisted of 4 different colors, a Desert Scheme with 3 colors, and a Winter scheme with 4 colors. I just used the Olive color from the Woodland scheme.

cool ill have to see if i can find any or order any somewhere. thx.

alex

I like :D

I am curios about how you have your rear springs set-up, and would like to know more info.

Nice looking rig

Thanks, here's some pics of the rear spring setup. Basically I took the stock mounting plate and flipped it upside down on top of the springs and fabbed up some new spring perches on the axle housings.

The shocks sit at about a 45 degree angle, and I used the stock shocks to run up and mount to the frame, these are to reduce axle wrap and axle hop. I'm not sure if they really help anything, but the setup works pretty well (and looks cool too!)

Nice looking rig. I am starting a 4.0 swap this week. Did you run in to anything that was unexpected? I have a 90 mj so no messaging is required on the firewall. My doner is an 88 xj.

I waqs talking about the way you have the top rear spring eye mounted. It looks like you kinda did an elliptical setup, but not sure.

When we set my rear shocks up, we decided since most of the wheeling I do is off camber, that mounting the shocks straight up and down was best. Axle wrap isn't that big of an issue with my rig as the alcans come with an anti wrap leaf. Even still I need to build man antiwrap bar eventually. I think we will do that when we swap the D60's under my rig :twisted:

Love the paint job.

I think you would have been happier swapping in a built 4.3 or 350. its just about the same amount of work. I am on the prowl for an mid 90's 4wd balzer or s-10, that has been wrecked. hat way I can get it cheap, and get everything to do the swap.

GIRsMJ86:

they still sold the paints he was talkin bout at walmart not to long ago cause we did the desert-camo job on my bro's 90XJ pretty good stuff. it hasnt faded after nearly a year.

I waqs talking about the way you have the top rear spring eye mounted. It looks like you kinda did an elliptical setup, but not sure.

I won't speak for him; but it looks like a 3/4 eliptical setup. I contemplaited one. Then got lazy.

I know this topics been around awhile but i just got the itch... :brows: I just wanted to ask if i could get a detailed description of the eliptical setup on the rear. I would like to do this and would prefer to make it instead of purchasing. If you could tell me what springs to use and where to cut and how to mount. Also is there any reason i couldnt mount this setup closer to the frame it looks like you have around 2" above your mount. If anybody else has done this i would like as many designs and opinions as posible.

Thanks

Cole

Google search it, there's about 300 writeups on how to do it to CJ/YJs. It's the same concept.

i like this article on it, i thought it explained the steps fairly well. Probably going to follow these instructions when I do it on my manche. Other then the lift, is the other purpose to stop binding of the axle as stated above?

http://www.jeeptech.com/susp/elliptical.html

how much lift does the 3/4 give a manche? anyone know a rough estimate?

It's ment more for improved flex than lift. How much lift you get depends on the springs you use, and where you mount them, and how long you leave them.

Personally, I didn't bother with it partly because I'm lazy, and partly because they are apparently rather unstable when off-camber.

Personally, I didn't bother with it partly because I'm lazy, and partly because they are apparently rather unstable when off-camber.

Tell me more please i would like to know as much as possible before deciding what I'm going to do and how.

Thanks

Cole

I have no first hand experience with 3/4 elliptical, but the people I know who ran it, much like revolver shackles, made the decesions that stability outweighed flex in this case.

They were all CJ/YJs, and their wheelbase might have been working against them.

I guess if i try it and it sucks i can always remove it and make it like it was. :cheers:

Haven't been on the site lately... updated the links so the pics work now.

I've always liked the look of your MJ. Glad to see you came back.

I think a cooler in this situation is really not needed.

If it's cold enough, your carbonated beverages will end up frozen. :( Maybe he's keeping something warm? :cheers: