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Looks correct, will double check tomorrow

That looks like a very nice, honest, original MJ. Great find! In terms of the ticking sound, it sounds like it could easily be either a lifter, piston slap, or an exhaust leak. I'd check for the exhaust leak first. The factory manifolds are known to crack and the intake and exhaust manifold bolts are prone to loosening up over time. That Lancia looks like a very cool project!

been having brake light issues.found the culprit.the original spacer,2 plastic bushings and bolt have been replaced with just a bolt.looking for everything minus the switch,thanks

Hi Guys, Picked this '89 Comanche Pioneer up about a week ago. Been sitting in the same spot in my neighborhood since I moved in 4 years ago. And as my new daily is an ND miata and my long term Lancia Fulvia project is coming to a close, it felt right to get something interesting with a little practicality to tinker on. Since it didn't run a friend helped me get it to the parking pad I have in my cul-de-sac. Quickly realized it didn't have spark or fuel. Spark was the ignition coil but I also threw a new cap and rotor at it for good measure. That solved the spark issue. Then I pulled the fuel pump... lol no wonder i didn't have fuel. So I yanked the whole tank and ordered some new stuff. This morning I rigged up a cheapo fuel pump inside a 1 gallon can to see what it would do and voila. Cranked right up. This allowed me to drive it into the garage where I can actually start to work on it. Looks nice next to the little Fulvia! The engine sounds pretty bad though.. not sure if it's a stuck lifter or something worse. Here's a YT link if anyone wants to listen and tell me! Maybe piston slap? maybe lifter? idk.. I drained the oil and will pull the pan to check things out. But headed on vacation in a couple days so it'll probably have to wait a few weeks. Bonus picture of the Fulvia project I'm finishing if anyone is interested.. I made a custom EFI system for this car over the last 4 years and it has been a long journey but finally close to done. Runs on a Haltech Nexus R3, has a cam sensor where the distributor was, so fully sequential injection and ignition with VR38 GTR coils, Pico injectors in some 3D printed aluminum runners, Carbon plenum I made, CWA400 water pump, etc etc.. Basically all custom but it was a really fun project. Wiring the car from scratch so that's a WIP but here's a pic as it currently is Looking forward to learning from you guys and getting this thing back on the road!

No movement in the ball joints is good news. That will save a headache and some money. The parts that you took pictures of are your sway bar end links in the first picture and your sway bar bushings in your second picture. The good news is that those are fairly cheap and easy to replace. I don't think that I will be the source of your troubles though. The job of the sway bar is to control side to side lean in corners for the most part, so in the grand scheme of things, it isn't necessary. You could pull the sway bar and end links off and then drive it a little bit to see if that fixes the issue, but be warned, the handling will be a little funky. If it cures your problem, then order the sway bar bushings and end links. If it doesn't fix the issue, maybe try the test again with the vehicle's weight on the ground. Really, it looks like you need end links and bushings either way, but I don't think that it is the cause of your issues.

I did some poking around today and basically found nothing. Had the front end on jack stands, my son turned the wheel back and fourth and nothing seemed to be wrong. No clunks or creaks, nothing looked or felt sloppy. I have little to no movement with the ball joints using the "pry bar under a tire" method. The only movement I found is illustrated here:

I like using scrap for projects. This was old pipe and pallet racking shelves. Currently has paint drying. I’ll flip it over and paint the other side later in the week.

Sharp MJ -- black with the cordovan interior looks good.

Missing all of the badges is the big one. The shininess of the paint also isn’t quite right. If you look at the engine bay shots and front suspension pics, they are nice, but clearly original. The paint is way nicer than the engine bay or underside though, pointing out it’s been painted. This is especially evident by looking at the firewall. It should look the same as the paint on the body.

What’s the tell that it’s been repainted? I don’t have a trained eye for it.

I'm a big fan of Chrysler Plum Crazy, and it keeps it in the family.

Oh also, for those keeping score, this 6000mi road trip is well over 12000mi now, and we're essentially at the halfway point

I’ve always wanted to try this. It looks like a blast

Ok. We're back at it. Things were weird for a bit in Bocas del Toro. Public protests evolved into rioting and violence, and eventually a police state developed and everything got a bit nasty. Fortunately we were safe out on the islands. Unfortunately our trip was delayed quite a bit, as the ferry did not run for several weeks, so we were essentially trapped. I can't complain too much about being trapped on a tropical island. While fresh produce became a bit scarce after awhile, everybody was still well-stocked with beer. I continued put my little 2.5 2wd MJ in places it should not be But we had a road trip planned, so the first day the ferry resumed, we jumped ship, and were the first tourists to cross the freshly liberated road out of Bocas province. We spent a day up in the mountains in Boquete, then on to Panama City. It was nice to see a little civilization for a change. You can find anything you need in Panama, and the public transportation is amazing. We enjoyed a few modern amenities like supermarkets, proper restaurants, and for the first time in my life I was happy to go to a shopping mall. We saw the old city, and visited the canal. I really enjoy this city. I would have liked to have spent a little more time here, as well as everywhere in this country, but time is ticking on the truck's permit, so we had to keep going. At the end of the first half of the Pan-American Highway is the little village of Yaviza. I had read quite a bit about the Darien gap and all the nasty stuff that happens there, so I was really only interested in going to the end of the road, and coming back. It turns out I was completely wrong. Darien province is amazing. The plants and animals are incredible. Everything is super super green. Everyone we spoke to was incredibly nice. They love their region and are very proud of it. I think it might just be my favorite part of panama. Not to be neglected: I found TWO other Comanches in Panama. One of them I already put in the registry. The other is a young couple in Bocas with an '89 4.0, 5 speed, 4wd that's lifted on 33s. I urged them to make an account on here, if for nothing else, to add theirs to the registry, but they also had some questions about clutch issues. Hopefully we hear from them soon. Next up, it's back to Costa Rica, probably in 2 days or so. And here is a general photo dump:

That does look like a nice one. Looks like a fairly recent repaint, but it looks pretty unmolested otherwise.

Can someone just confirm that the last 6 digits are the correct format? It was a little vague from the paperwork. This is a 1990 2.5L, AX5. It's owned by a gentleman in Chepo, Panama. Unfortunately I didn't get his name, it was just a chance encounter at a gas station. The truck looks very well maintained. He was proud to say it is all original, with a recent paint job. I didn't have a lot of time to poke around, but it looked like it was in excellent shape, inside and out. I gave the guy a CC card and one of @acerocknroll's enamel pins. (it's the red one)

I peruse Facebook Marketplace for idle fun and save each Comanche I come across. This one stood out as worthy of mention, appearing to be highly original and in good condition: https://www.facebook.com/share/1D6XDm1GWF/?mibextid=wwXIfr

I suppose the jig is up, ive honestly been interested in this for some time now and finally decided to get my feet wet! There's plenty of mud mowers out there but who is out there crawling their lawn tractors? (Credit to OKoffroadmowers and their online content) While ive been sitting on an older Murray 18GT to make some changes to, I came across a Sears suburban SS16 with some nobby tires already installed and figured id explore this setup first. Plan is to revive and tune up this Sears unit a bit as its in a rather neglected state and then apply what I can appreciate to how I build the 18GT. While its seeming like a cheat to start with something already "built" by some opinions - this Sears unit is primarily original. Only real work that's been done was aggressive tires on the rear rims and then front quad wheels welded to the original tractor wheel hub. For my interests there is plenty of actual work needed to be done yet. Ideally these will be offroad crawling tractors to sustain a weekend overland trip on the state land/trails up north. My plan is to add armor like bumper(s), skid plates, storage options for offroad and camping gear and offcourse Lighting! I'm rather solo in this endeavor, perhaps I'll persuade my buddies to join - who isnt intrigued by some smaller offroad action with unconventional machines ;)

Got started on the new front end. Have to figure out the wheel centerline, to begin fabricating the front crossmember. Lots of things to do one after another.

Happy 4th of July

time to reap the rewards of a job well done

Update make sure you pull the axle tube bearing out. The one that sits on the end of the intermediate shaft. The axle shaft does fit through the bearing but when turning it contacts the bearing and runs on the shaft. It could lead to a bent or broken axle shaft.

And they could be replaced when the road debris corrodes them.

This ↑. Right here is a much better idea honestly.

Much respect for looking into this. That embedded metal plate always seemed like overkill for a trim piece to me, but I guess the threaded studs probably made for quicker assembly line installation. One alternative to consider would be to mold that vertical wall a little thicker and sink a t-nut into the outboard side. Then, the end user would just need to run a bolt and washer through from the inboard side to install.