VixJeep

Here are a few pictures from more recently. I just put the front bumper, bumper ends, and new grille on this week. This is a Mopar "old new stock" grille I found and bought. I don't know if any of the Comanche trucks came with a chrome grille, but the after market ones fade really bad, so I bought it. Honest opinions guys, (guys being a term to include anyone reading this post - we aren't excluding anyone here), is the chrome grille too much? The only things remotely chrome looking on the truck are the front Jeep emblem and the side Comanche emblems. I kinda like it - not sure yet. The paint color will be the original metallic dark blue. Eventually. I also realize that till I get it painted its like putting lipstick on a pig. The Comanche doesn't get cranked and driven often, so I've been charging the battery a lot to start it. Battery was 5 1/2 years old, so I bought a new one last week. Hooked it up and it fired off great! Then I saw the voltmeter at 9 v. Well crap. Then I realized that the alternator is the only thing run off the belt that has never been changed. It lasted 32 years and about 400,000 miles. It looks like almighty hell since this truck spewed oil out the ccv for many years, and I'm impressed that it has hung in for so long. Any tips on which amperage alternator is most suited for a 4.0, stock everything? The 61a, 85a, and 100a are all priced within about 8 dollars on Ebay. Go with the bigger one? Advantages, disadvantages? In the 2015 pictures posted above, that is Pee Wee, the one-eyed cat. He inspects my work and is a real taskmaster. Here are a few recent pictures. Pics are 1 Window wiper trim before 2 New trim, channel, door seal 3 After installing 4, 5 New bumper and grille Chrome Grille, yes or no?

Hi everyone, I was going to update my pics today when I realized that I never posted any. That has led to a search through phones and old files, and I posted a few from 2015 and 2016. More coming. I bought my Comanche new on December 17, 1987, and it was my first new vehicle. It is older than two of my three kids, and a part of the family now. Although it still needs paint and interior done, I have made great strides toward getting it back in good running order. I'll run through some of the things I've done toward that goal a little later on. My finished Comanche should look almost exactly as it came off the showroom floor, with the exception of the hockey stick stripes. No lift, no mudders, no winch, just a fully restored beauty.

I'm looking for one too. Mine is a Pioneer with the step bumper. Looks like the Weston 63000, but has the plastic step tops. I'm headed out this morning to a junkyard I found with 3 MJ's on the lot. I'm near Memphis, and would drive a good distance to get it. Shipping, possibly. MJjunkie, if I can't find a bumper in the area, I'm going to straighten this one a bit. I'm missing the left plastic step piece that goes on the top. Let me know if you have one of those. Thanks.

That's a pretty good drive from the Memphis area, but if I can schedule a visit to see my Mom in Corinth that weekend, it's not too far. Awaiting time and date. I find out tomorrow when the Dr. is doing my shoulder surgery. I might get lucky and be off work.

SUCCESS!!!! I kept coming back to air in the system. When I took the upper radiator hose off to fill it yesterday, I noticed that the radiator was only 3/4 full. I wasn't getting ALL of the air out, the air traveled to the engine where it heated and expanded quickly. This morning, I cut the top radiator hose and installed the Moroso 1 1/4" inline filler. It took over a half gallon of fluid to fill the system up from there. Then I bled it through the sensor at the rear. Cranked it, and at 5 minutes, it was just getting up to 180 degrees. It went on up to 210, then the thermostat opened, and it went back down. I knew I had it then. It leveled off around 210 and ran like it should. I took it for a drive, about 15 minutes or so and everything is good. I celebrated by replacing the idler pulley and installing my new fan shroud. Thanks to everyone that offered suggestions. I couldn't have done it without you. So, now that it runs, I can charge the A/C. The compressor and dryer have been on for months - but there was no point in trying it as long as it overheated. Next major project will either be new paint job or new seats, carpet, headliner. I'm leaning towards paint first.

UPDATE Thanks to everyone that has responded so far. I appreciate ALL input. Something that sounds silly is probably whats going to fix it. Now we're getting somewhere! I bought a BlockChek system at NAPA. It was the only one they had. $43. I ran the test twice, and there is NO emission gas in the coolant!!! Cool. I was beginning to wonder. I also checked my water pump. Its a GMB 110-1080. According to the pictures I found of it, its the right one for the serpentine belt. The thermostat is in there the right way. I made sure of that. I pulled out all the stops today. First, I took the top radiator hose off and filled it there. The radiator was only about 2/3 full. Then I jacked up the front bumper, and burped some air out of the valve I installed in the thermostat housing. I let it down and then jacked up the rear bumper about 18" above the front, and burped it at the sensor. It had a lot of air in it - still. I've repeated that a couple of times, and get the same result. At about 6 minutes, I shut it off around 220 degrees. I thought of a couple of others, too. I checked my bottom radiator hose and made sure that it was getting warm when the thermostat opens. It was warm. And belt routing. I'm pretty sure everything is right, but I haven't found my diagram yet to make sure.

The lower hose is a new one, and it has the spring in it. I tried it 3 times today. Instead of letting it get so hot, I ran it up to 210 and shut it off. First time, I detected a little steam escaping from the hose coming off the reservoir. After it cooled, I reworked the clamp and tried again. Second attempt, I still saw a little steam escaping, same place, and added a second clamp. It still had some pressure on it when I took the cap off. Third attempt, I let it get up to about 220 degrees, and the pressure held. Each time, I'm burping air out of it. So it looks like I had a leak(s) in the system, which would explain the overheating. It doesn't appear to be leaking now, but I probably didn't get all the air out of it. I'll burp it a time or two in the morning and see if it will run any cooler. If not, we go to plan B.

I got the NAPA 703-1396 cap and tried it this morning. I parked it nose down, removed the sensor at the back, and burped it till it was all fluid. Put the cap on, cranked it up. It took 6 minutes for the temp to get to one notch shy of the red line. It also boiled out at the cap. So, the question is.....just how tight do you get it? You only get a couple of turns till you can feel the gasket contact the neck, and it gets tough to turn. I got about 1/4 turn more, then put both hands on it and turned it a bit more. I guess I need to repeat this in the morning, with the cap tighter. If it gets hot, I already have the Moroso filler neck for the upper hose, and I think I can make the reservoir bottle into an overflow tank. I'm also going to have a closer look at the filler neck. That bottle is new, but its boiled over about 20 times since I got it.

Welcome aboard from a fellow Tennessean. I'm about as far from Memphis as you are from Nashville.

One more item: Cruiser, thanks so much for the tips and tricks. When refreshing my grounds, I found that my negative battery cable is connected to the block on the dipstick bracket bolt. Still gotta fix that. I've done the C101 connectors. Trying to work my way through them all, but a long way from done.

Alright, I can go with the new NAPA cap for the reservoir. it makes sense that the coolant wouldn't expand as much as it appears to be. Instead, air is escaping with pressure and being drawn back in when it cools. A coolant test isn't a bad idea either. As to the other questions, the radiator was replaced in 2011, but it only has a few thousand miles on it (less then 10,000). The coolant bottle and cap I am using is an OEM from the dealership, and was bought last summer. The darn cap alone was nearly $20. That would be a quick, easy project for tomorrow, but the 2 NAPA's near me don't have it, and we're expecting 5-8 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow. I'll take the lazy way out and order it online. By the time we thaw out, I'll be ready to go. Thanks for all the input. I haven't ruled out anything yet. I'm going to start here and see how it goes.

I hesitate to even begin another post about a Comanche overheating. I've read all the posts I can find here and elsewhere. The problem is that its still overheating. I will give you a little background and what I have tried, then post a couple of questions. This is an 88MJ, 4.0L, SWB 2WD. mileage - around 400,000 miles. It has about 15k miles on a rebuilt motor, and a new radiator was put in at the same time. I have done a pressure check on all cylinders and they are all around 140-150. It ran OK all spring, then started overheating as the weather warmed up this past summer. (Note: I bought this truck new, and have NEVER had an overheating problem). Crank it, 5 minutes later its boiling over. My first purchase was an OEM reservoir and OEM cap, since it was blowing the old one off. After a few more boil-overs, I removed and replaced the thermostat. I bought the one with the little valve in it, and I put the valve near 12 o'clock. I went with what was recommended for the vehicle - 185 or 190 degrees. (In the past I've used a 165 degree) I realized that my problem was probably trapped air, so I changed the thermostat cover out with a newer model one that had an opening for a sensor in the top. I put a valve in there. (I saw this somewhere, it wasn't my concoction). I parked it nose up, jacked it up a little to get more angle, and bled it from the front. Same result. Five minutes, and it was in the red. I now know the right way to do this. As I was working with it, the water pump started to make a little noise, so I replaced the water pump and the fan clutch. Until this point, when it got hot, it would leak from somewhere. I had to reposition and super-tighten all hoses, and it still drips a few drops under pressure, but not like it did. I saw a post where someone mentioned the heater valve. That was a new revelation. There was no vacuum hooked up to it, so I held it open with a zip tie, turned the HVAC to warm, fan off, put it nose down, and burped it. ran it, let it cool. repeat. I've done that 4 times now. I remove the sensor, air comes out, coolant comes out. reinstall sensor, run it, and now it takes about 7 minutes to get to about 235+, and here's the kicker. When cool, the reservoir is almost full. When I bleed the air out, the reservoir goes down to about 1 inch of fluid. After I run the cycle and let it cool, its at the same place it was before. There is no less air in the system after 4 times burping it. I havent had to add coolant. That confuses me, cause that means the air I burp out comes right back - do I just need to keep on doing this? So, here are my main questions: 1) Could the higher temp thermostat be the problem? or, rather, could a lower temp thermo help? 2) I plan on bypassing the heater valve, but until then, could that be the source of my problem? 3) When running it to burp it should the heat actually be blowing, or just in the warm position, fan off? 4) I looked at the metal reservoir method, the closed to open system change (with and without radiator replacement). I have the Moroso inline filler on order for the top radiator hose, but haven't figured out which reservoir would be best. Has anyone found one that fits well where the reservoir sits? Any tips? 5) My question here is how the heck does the open system work better? How does any fluid in the overflow get pulled back in the system if needed? I'd really like to be able to wrap my head around this. 6) What have I missed, or where did I go wrong? This almost has to be something "easy" that my ADD just skipped right over. Thanks in advance, guys.

I had just put a rebuilt engine in my 88 MJ Pioneer 4.0, and it developed a miss in the #5 cylinder. After $900+ at the dealer, and a new ECU, they said I needed a wiring harness. I bought a can of non conductive contact and electrical cleaner, an old toothbrush, a small pick, and a pocket flat head screwdriver and scraped and cleaned all of the connections. Problem resolved. I'm right with you on the 400k miles.

Thanks all. I have it going for now. Added a switch, so I can turn it off when it gets cold. By fan clutch, do you mean the A/C clutch that turns the aux fan on? Eventually, I'll figure out how it all goes and hook it up like it should be. For now, I just put the fan in and couldn't find any previous wiring, so I'm just getting it running so I can drive the truck while my Honda is in the shop. The A/C isn't running - got to put the new compressor in. It was overheating pretty quick. I found some vacuum issues and it's running a lot cooler now, just need to get it up over 12 mpg. I went from a Honda Fit at 34 mpg to the jeep at 12. I should be closer to 17, but I've got some work to do to get there.

I wasn't planning on putting a dash switch in, but then I hadn't thought about winter warm-up. The lighter might do the trick to pull power from. I also have a fused line from the battery to the stereo that would cover it. I'd just have to switch it on and off as I need it. I got in there looking around and found the stereo wire - and heard a vacuum leak. There's a dual plug going into the throttle body that was out. Plugged it in, and it killed the engine. Looks like it goes to the MAP sensor (I think. In the middle top of the firewall), and the other side is plugged off. Looks like I have an additional "project of the day". It'll just barely idle when it is plugged in. I'll have to do a little research on this one. Thanks for the help on this one guys.

Hi all. Todays project for me is to wire my aux fan up so that when the truck is running, the fan is running. When my engine was replaced, the fan was never put back in. I installed it, but can't find the original wires for it. The truck likes to heat up in traffic, so I feel better with it running all the time. It's an 88 Pioneer 4.0L Is there a good source of power under the hood, or do I need to go under the dash with it? I'm alligator clipping it on to the battery now. Thanks in advance. Once I get this one done, I think I'm on to the hard projects.

I bought a remanufactured ECU for my 88 4.0 for $125 online. Works great and the price was reasonable.