87manche

currently I've nothing more than basic hand tools. So all my work involves a lot of cursing and sweat. Of course I do have my sawzall, which happens to be the best tool ever.

well, I crawled under there last night, it looks like a PO replaced that vacuum line to the axle and just didn't bother hooking up the switch. I'll have to figure out how to hook it back up when it's daylight.

yeah, but rustoleum is the hella cheaper :)

So, I found another comanche in the junkyard. It's got the 4 banger and a 5 speed ax-5. Does anyone know if the ax-5 and ax-15 shifter are interchangable? I don't need the shift tower, just the retention rings. I didn't want to go through all the hassle of tearing it out to find that they're different.. I'll be so stoked if they're the same, I'll have a $15 shifter to replace my damaged one.

Yeah I may have to see if the local advance has a chiltons for this truck. I take it the MJ and XJ share a manual? It's been my experience that haynes and shiltons are pretty worthless for anything more than diagrams.

Does anybody have the vacuum routing diagrams for the 87 comanche. I plan on redoing all the vacuum lines, I'm going to follow whats in there, but I'd like to know if any hackery has been done that needs to be put back to stock. Thanks. I promise that after this first month I'll stop asking all these annoying qustions

thanks for the info fellas. I'll look into the vacuum line for blockage and such. I take it the sensor in the engine compartment is the vacuum switch?

I'll certainly be doing that, I need to attack the light surface rust on the underside of my bed while it's still in good shape. Of course, I probably will just spray the whole thing down with rustoleum after I wire brush it. can't' be too fancy.

yeah, i had 150K on mine, but I traded it in on the mj. It wasn't worth much. One thing to watch out for with the escort is the fuel pump hanger assembly. Pull your rear seat bench, it should be held in by two white brackets, you push in the buttons to release the seat. There should be an access panel there, pull it out and inspect the plate there. Mine started to leak, and I didn't know it for some time. The hanger/sender assembly isn't painted, and it will rust. When I turned the key and energized the fuel pump fuel would just well up through the rusted metal like a water spring! :shock: Of course my wagon spent all it's life in Ohio, where salt is the states best friend. I finally just called it, the front subframe was all hosed, tranny was hanging from the motor practically. Always started though, that motor would have run right until it fell out of the car.

ok, I'll find the sensor and check that. then move onto the dash light. Thanks for the info DC. this place is great.

man that's awesome! How hard is it to take off the bed, I need to do the same thing to my MJ.

so, is my 87 supposed to have a 4wd light on he dash? I shift to 4wd and I get no indicators. $WD is engaged, I found a gravel parking lot and spun a tire on both axles. Man, I wish I could find a manual

I had the same motor in a 93. If you break the timing belt it's no big deal, it's not an interference motor, ask me how I know :) Getting the head off isn't a big deal. If you need some help let me know, I took the head off mine, and I rebuilt an 88 323 motor that was basically the same block. The biggest b*@$£ about the timing belt is the tensioner that's built into the water pump houseing. If you can front the $50 to get a new one do it, other wise it's a total b*@$£ to get that pulley to move. I lubed mine up with WD-40 to get it to slide far enough for the new belt install. Smelled funy for a while till it burnt off, but never caused any problems. I'd take it to a good engine place, see if they can weld the head. If it's a pinhole maybe, crack not likely. Otherwise, I'd just go to a junkyard and pull a whole head off, pay a machine shop the $50 they want to deck it. I doubt you'll have clearance issues.

man, you guys have fun. I'll be sure to make the next years. as soon as I rebuild the tranny and get some lockers.

So I tested and adjusted the TPS sensor. It was a little off. Read about .95V at idle, I adjusted it to .83. Manual says .85 is where I want to be. Problem is still there. I was putting together theories of why the ECu wold be cutting fuel. Reading in the Renix EFI manual it says that during startup if the pedal is pushed all the way in then it figures a flood condition and will cut all injector cicuits. So I'm going to see if the ECu isn't reading sensors properly and thinks that it's still in start mode. I don't see how, but I suppose it's possible.

No, I haven't yet. I'm going to do that tonight. I'm going to test and possibly recalibrate it. Maybe I can get my idle to where it needs to be.

TPS was the first thing I thought. Maybe the voltage at WOT flips it out. It does idel a bit lower than the 600 RPM mark, about 450. I'm going to get out the DVM and look into that. The fun of owning a jeep :)

Youre sure it comes from the block? I was thinking maybe a throout bearing, or something in the tranny. That's about what my tranny sounds like and it has a bad main shaft bearing.

I don't think it's the limiter. I left it in second and slowly eased the RPMs to about 4K. About half pedal. It got there just fine. as soon as I stabbed the pedal to the floor it bucked, let off the pedal to about 3/4 and it accelerated again to about 4500. It's a very odd problem. I'm going to get out the service manual and start troubleshooting sensors and such, I really think it's a computer problem. It's like the fuel just got shut off.

well, I talked with my mechanic friend, he said it sounds like the main shaft bearing. SO that sucks. hopefully it will last another 2 weeks or so until I get it fixed. Good new is I found a place with a lift to work on it. So no crawling on the concrete with a tranny :)

SO, A few updates. I replaced the fuel filter, it was rusty so it needed to go anyway. Problem is still there. I've narrowed down the circumstances. Doesn't matter what gear, as long as it's WOT, accelerating and above 3500 RPM. This includes if I lightly pedal up above 3 grand and punch it to the floor. The cutout happes the instant the pedal is all the way down. I think it may be a TPS issue. It works fine a 7/8 pedal but not full pedal. I think for some reason the ECU is cutting the fuel. I'm going to track down all th sensors tomorrow night, and recalibrate the TPS. Hopefully that fixes it.

My 87 came with a cherry bomb. It's not so bad. A bit annoyingly loud at WOT.

So, Now that I've got all the fluids and such changed today was the first time I pushed the truck hard. A WOT run through the gears wasn't as much fun as I thought. At about 3200 RPM it's like somebody just turned off the ignition. RPMs came back down below 3K and the truck runs fine. I've done most of the tune up stuff already. Plugs, Wires, Cap, Rotor. I need to do the fuel filter yet, I suppose it could be not enough flow, but it really seems like an ignition cutout. I'm going to check all the sensor wires and such, make sure they've got good connections. Could it be the coil failing at high RPMs?

eah I got the service manual. I've also got a friend that's a retired Chysler master mechanic. some horsetrading might be in order.

well, I could borrow a car to get me to work and back, Perhaps take about a week and do it. The service manual says all the tools needed, so I'd have to get those. I figure that if I can take a clock apart and put it back together then I should be able to do a tranny, it's just a big geartrain