gogmorgo

Have you checked your battery cables? A loose/corroded connection can allow enough current for accessories but not the starter. That said, if cycling the key "corrects" the problem, that might be where it's located... The ignition switch.

If those Simpson belts are the cam style, pull the sticker off the back and make G*DF****NGD*MN CERTAIN that cam bolt is tight. A friend of mine had a VERY BAD experience in a burning car with those belts because the cam bolt got loose and the release handle came off. My friend's alive, don't worry, but still you'll never see me with Simpson products after that... I bolted those brand new belts in to the car less than a week prior. That sticker is there telling you that bolt is tight and hasn't been tampered with. The hell it is... On a more positive note, what racing seats are those? They look like they go pretty well in there. How were they to mount up? Also, I really like the cage. I eventually want to do something similar, then stretch some canvas or something inside it. Inside means I can still use the cage to support a roofrack without compromising watertightness. And in the old days, a lot of roll cages and the like were made with old plumbing pipe, as it was often the best stuff available for it. Can't say it was all that effective, but it was better than nothing. A lot of the workbenches and tool and/or scrap metal racks in the shop I was in at school were made out of old pipe, and they were supporting a crap ton of weight.

The only controversy is because it's mostly illegal to tamper with emissions equipment. Some jurisdictions care more than others.

So when you turn the key (and it doesn't start) does it click or do anything else? The motor quitting could be related to a no-start, but it's unlikely it would be related to a no-crank. Let us know what motor and trans you've got.

It could be either, could be both, could be neither... you don't give us much to go on. You say it's intermittent... does that mean there's something you can do to make it work, or do you just come back and try again later? If you've got an automatic transmission, then your neutral safety switch (nss) could likely use a good cleaning. It's a fairly common issue that will probably hit you sooner or later, especially if you see a lot of wet, muddy, or slushy driving. http://bc4x4.com/tech/2010/jeep-neutral-safety-switch-nss/ I had an intermittent no-crank, sometimes starting in neutral or moving the shifter back and forth quickly would get it to make enough contact to start. Other times, I just had to resort to shorting the solenoid, which once got me cuffed and tossed in the back of a cop car for stealing my own truck. :shake: Other symptoms included intermittent reverse lights. When I cracked open the nss, it was full of a gritty, muddy, tar-like substance. I cleaned it up with brake cleaner, repacked it with dielectric grease, and ran a bead of RTV around the edge to seal it up.

I second the opinion of not really being able to tell what's going on from the video. I've tried getting clean GoPro shots of suspension movement on a racecar (mostly for the purpose of me being a total nerd — there wasn't anything wrong, I just wanted to watch it move under different load conditions) and even with a camera mounted solidly onto the chassis, there was enough vibration in a car that didn't noticeably vibrate on a smooth surface that I couldn't really see much beyond what I could by pushing against the stationary car. What you're describing sounds a lot like the phenomenon known as Death Wobble. I've never experienced it myself, and no one person can put down a single answer as to what exactly happens and what is the be-all end all solution, but one major cause is improper front suspension geometry due to a poorly planned lift. Others have proposed tire imbalance as a trigger, as well as variously worn or damaged components. Look it up, see what you find out. You may not find too many specific Comanche answers, but remember that the front suspension is identical to an XJ Cherokee.

Another half-inch this morning... Still not enough anywhere for awd donuts in the Lada :(

I can kinda see this happening if the bearing(s?) in the dizzy failed and seized, but if that's what happened, I'd be concerned about the distributor gear and camshaft. They aren't really built for turning more than a free-spinning dizzy shaft.

Your '89 model year is indicated by the tenth digit, 'K', regardless of when it was built. Some of the older info isn't accurate in most decoders... If you go into your local Jeep dealer, they should be able to look up your build sheet.

Started working at Part Source a bit over a week ago (as a Parts driver, but mostly I've been putting away freight) to get a little more cash flow to help get this thing back off the ground. Mostly out of curiosity I had one of the guys there price out a new motor. After employee discounts, all in I'd be looking at ~$2000 for a brand new motor from, IIRC, Northwest Engine Exchange out of Spokane. All told that's not too bad, but it's not in the realm of plausibility at this point. I haven't found a motor locally yet, but I haven't really started looking either. I'd likely wait for a couple This summer when I bought the Lada there was a decent one (~95,000 miles) at a wrecker in Winnipeg that I was going to go home with if the Lada didn't pan out, and it still seems to be there. I may or may not end up there at Christmas, and I'm kinda planning on bringing it home if I do and don't find something here first. XJ donors are a little harder to find cheep here than in Winnipeg, because they aren't stolen so often... lol. I've got heated garage space now for storing/working on it, just need to get the MJ here. Also, a '90 Eliminator just went up nearby on Kijiji, asking $1500. I might offer him the Lada in trade. :rotf:

First semi-decent accumulation of snow here today. Maybe an inch and a half. The Lada could use better tires, but I guess it's not too bad... except I really miss the sure-footedness of my Comanche. Actually, I just straight up miss the MJ. I need to get another motor in there ASAP.

Arguably the best way to go from long bed to short bed is to buy another MJ that already has a short bed, instead of compromising your vehicle by effectively chopping it in half. Also, there was no short bed in '86, so I don't know what fuel tank you're talking about. Depending on where things are being cut, you might not be able to use either tank in a "factory" way. The tank is formed around the bed's structure, and IIRC actually hangs from the bed itself, right around where you'd need to cut the frame ahead of the rear axle. The fuel door is not in the same location relative to anything on the short bed and long bed, as well, so you may encounter issues trying to use the stock filler neck. If you're 100% committed to shortening your bed, you may just have to wait and see how things line up after being stuck back together before you can know exactly what you're up against, especially as it sounds as though you aren't doing it yourself. For what it's worth, I have the biggest option tank on my LWB, and it basically goes all the way from the back of the cab to the wheel well. There's no way it would fit in the same way in a SWB truck.

Do the wiring upgrade first and see how you like it. For me, it was a HUGE improvement. It also helps prevent your headlight switch from failing and/or setting your Jeep on fire. As far as the upgraded bulbs go, I put in the XV's because that's what the part store had as a "oem equivalent". The only difference between those and the regular ones was that my driver's side low beam wasn't burnt out any more. They might have been less yellow as well, but I didn't notice much improvement until I did the wiring upgrade after my headlight switch set itself on fire. I put together my own relay harness with the intention of going to 100+ watt bulbs (my harness would support up to 180W/bulb as is, and with a couple simple additions 360W because I ran 10awg wire), but after installing the harness with the bulbs I'd been running, I decided that brighter bulbs were entirely unnecessary. I was commuting mostly on an unlit highway at night, and never had an issue with visibility on what amounts to little more than stock headlights. The factory headlights were 35/65W (low/high), and the XV's are 55/65W. Literally no difference with the high beams. The illuminated area of the low beams is too compromised (so as not to blind oncoming traffic) to notice what little difference there is.

This is the rather long thread about the General Spring group buy deal: http://comancheclub.com/topic/36694-military-wrapped-springs-with-lift-group-buy/ This is the link to the uncatalogued listing on General Spring's website: http://www.generalspringkc.com/product_p/gsc-571.htm A discounted price is mentioned in the thread a couple times, but you might have to call them to get it. I'm pretty sure the price is also per side, not for a pair. I've been meaning to get myself a set of these springs, but every time I have enough money saved up, something more pressing fails on the Comanche so the money gets spent on something else...

This comes up every now and again. Try clearing your browser's cache.

In addition to regular stuff, General Spring also does a "ComancheClub Special," which is a military wrap mt capacity spring, which they say is good for 2 to 3 inches of lift or so, depending on which springs you have. I'll post the link when I get home.

The Hell Creek site is a little odd. Click on "Product Line" in the top left, then click what you're looking for in the list that opens up, a kit, individual springs, etc. Then scroll down to where it says "Chevy/GMC", right above the little spreadsheet thing, and hit the "Next" button beside that until Jeep comes up. Then in the little window in the spreadsheet, scroll down to MJ Comanche or MJ Comanche Metric Ton, and select year, lift, etc. It doesn't look like Hell Creek sells a 3" MT spring. There were a few other threads about rear springs recently that may help you out a bit. General Spring makes a few different MJ springs, and there's one other manufacturer that comes up in discussion, but I can't remember the name...

So long as your transmission is behaving normally while in forward gears, then I don't expect that it would damage anything, although I can't really comment without actually knowing what's going on. If it seems to be slipping or grabbing more than one gear at a time, then that's a problem. What I'm saying about things not lining up is based on experience I had after recently removing the shifter. I didn't quite get the panel lined back up again in the console, and so the shifter indicated R when I was actually in Neutral, N when I was in Drive, etc. The transmission's reverse was somewhere between Park and indicated reverse. It was a while before I noticed anything was wrong, because I very rarely actually looked at the shifter while I was using it. If whoever swapped in your long block pulled the engine and transmission out as a unit, your shifter may also have been removed to disconnect the shift cables from it, and may not have been put back perfectly. Even if the transmission stayed in the truck, the shifter is often removed for better access to the top bellhousing bolts. Maybe describing what happens in each shifter position will help someone else answer whether or not you'll damage your transmission by driving as is. Don't look at the gear indicator while you're shifting, feel for the shift detents. Start in Park with your foot on the brake pedal and then go through reverse, neutral, drive, "3" and "2-1". Use a bit of gas in each position to see if the truck moves. Do your reverse lights come on at all as you move through gears? Can you leave it in a position with the reverse lights on and attempt to make the truck move? Does Park actually lock the transmission and prevent the truck from moving? The gear indicator is a few pieces of plastic that are pushed around by the shifter, and has nothing to do with what's actually happening at the transmission end of things. If the linkage is slipping, you'll likely run out of shifter travel before hitting all the gear detents. Remember that there are six of them, and that 2-1 is one position, not two. If it's badly adjusted, you should still be able to move between gear positions, but it won't have much to do with what the gear indicator says. The detents ("clicks") you feel when you shift gears are happening inside the transmission, not at the shifter. Again, it sounds to me like you're simply passing over reverse and hitting neutral instead of reverse, and then you're in drive when you think you're actually in neutral, and then in third when you're actually in drive. Third behaves exactly the same as drive until you're up to speeds when overdrive would be useful. I'm not sure the linkage is really all that adjustable, though. IIRC, the cable simply pulls/pushes against a lever on the side of the transmission, and in reality the only variable is the length of the cable, which shouldn't change. I'm 300 miles away from my MJ, so it's kinda difficult for me to crawl under and check. Also, the tranny computer only takes care of shifting between forward gears and torque converter lock-up. It also reads shifter positions off the transmission, not the shifter. Again, the shift indicator has very little to do with what gear you're actually in, and it's one of the few things that can go wrong. The only other things I can think of would be a broken shift cable (not the case because you're shifting) or else something is seriously buggered up inside your transmission such that it's grabbing gears when it shouldn't be (i.e. drive in neutral).

How are you determining what gear you're in, looking at the indicator on the shifter, or counting detents as you shift? Sounds to me like the indicator isn't lined up properly with the shifter.

This is a fairly recent thread by a newer member. He talks a bit about what he did to lower it, and you likely can get more by talking to him. http://comancheclub.com/topic/44547-wagoneer-xj-header-panel-with-a-4th-gen-mazda-b-series-bumper/ This one seems to be exactly what you're planning on doing. http://comancheclub.com/topic/41177-my-88-mj-streetable-autocross-road-racer-build/ And here's another, with lots of pics of the lowering process. http://comancheclub.com/topic/36999-george/ I'm interested in seeing how this turns out, as I was considering doing something similar with my MJ for a while.

Also worth mentioning, 4x4 is pretty well a bolt-on swap. Lots of threads on here about the conversion.

There are a couple MJ's on here that were lowered, if you do a search. My internet's out and I'm on my phone, but I'll see if I can find the threads and post up the links when I get my internet sorted.

There's always the option of fixing a vehicle after a failure up here, although the question of whether or not it's worth it usually comes up for things like rust. A failed inspection in Manitoba is between you and the mechanic, so you can always sell the car on to some other sucker. However, a savvy seller will get the inspection done before selling (it's good for a year), as the cost of the inspection will be much less than the increase in value of the car, assuming major repairs aren't needed. The Lada I bought this summer seems to have been a bit of a safety inspection reject, although I really have no idea of the history. The glovebox had two temporary insurance documents good for a week each, three weeks apart, the last one three weeks before I bought it. Both gave the reason for insurance as "seeking safety inspection". There were no failed inspection sheets with it so I don't really know what he had so much trouble with since I only needed to replace three light bulbs and the horn, patch the rear hatch weatherstripping, and reconnect the reverse light switch to pass the inspection...

I've got that image extension error a few times before, too. From my experience, it's usually when I've screwed up an image with a bad URL or something similar. My guess is that it creates an invalid and invisible "mystery image" that is almost impossible to get rid of because you can't see where it is, and I usually end up having to restart the post. As a general rule, you should avoid Internet Exploder. It's always been a pretty poor browser, feature wise, and the amount of security holes (due to its integration with Windows) make it mostly the best browser for downloading another browser. Chrome works great but sucks up your computer's ressources pretty hard, which won't be much of an issue if you don't do much else with your computer. I've never really been a fan of Firefox, but I've been using it more and more lately because my go-to (Opera) has been proving more and more unstable as of late.

CAD D30's were phased out between 90 and 92. Anything after '93 and you should be in the clear. Non-CAD D30's were available before that, but very rare. If you're pulling parts at a yard, just look for a non-CAD axle. If you're ordering new, the manufacturer should specify. Also note you'll need to get new seals if you're putting a single-piece shaft in a CAD housing, as the CAD seals will not work with a single-piece shaft. There are a bunch of threads on here about that.