GonzoTheGreat

I think this sums up the MJ life just perfectly, barring that one occasional MJ guy you meet every few years at a convenience store when you're just trying to buy a cup of coffee, and then you end up talking for like 2 hours and at the end you can't even remember the guy's name, but you know damn well every detail about his truck, his dog, his ex-wife, and the spare parts that he's definitely gonna sell you for a super good deal, except you never even got his number, and you're probably never going to see him again, but hey, that guy was a great guy! Amiright?

Those don't look too bad. I could be wrong, but from these photos it doesn't look structural. I think if you pry the rubbers off, you'll find good, clean steel underneath, and you can just clean up and repaint any bits around there that were rusty. As for the rubbing, you said you have a 3" lift and it's the passenger side that is rubbing? Do you still have the stock track bar? If the track bar is too short, it's gonna pull the whole axle to the driver's side. Try putting the wheels straight, and measure the distance from frame to tire. It should be equal on both sides if the axle is centered.

I think someone misunderstood how eBay works. Maybe it was the same guy who put the "bench seat" in the blue one...

I'll add to the confusion: when the map hose came off my '88, I had a very hard start and a low, staggering idle. Maybe it depends on the ambient air pressure at the time. Regardless, a disconnected MAP hose will cause some sort of significant issue, and should be addressed. I'll also add that Ive had a similar crank no-start, with good spark, after sitting for a long time, and it ended up being dry piston rings that didn't build enough compression for combustion. Have you checked compression?

That clothespin trick is awesome. So simple, and so genius. I'm gonna remember that.

Is the strainer rolling around, loose in the bottom of the tank?

Yeah sort of, the factory one ends in an angle against the wheel wells, and the plates are slightly curved.

I just got back to Italy for a few weeks of house-sitting, taking some courses, and wrenching on this turd again: Then I'll work a temp gig or two. I'm a yacht engineer (mechanic), and the summer season will be winding down in the Med, so I'll be somewhere between here and the Caribbean until I've saved enough to feel comfortable going back to the Comanche. I'll definitely take a few more pics when I'm back to the truck, but the camping set up is pretty rudimentary. There's four identical totes that make a flat surface to sleep on if the weather is bad, but we try to use the tent, or more commonly, cheap apartments. You can get a decent apartment on booking or aribnb for like $20-30/night in a lot of places with a kitchenette and everything. so for me, if I can camp for $15 or have a full apartment for $20 it's a no-brainer. The only time it makes more sense to camp is in the touristy areas where the prices change severely. One of the totes is just kitchen, one is cleaning/showers/etc. and two are personal belongings. I also have a decent sized Coleman 12V fridge that is powered by the service battery which is in the toolbox. The toolbox is sizeable and separate from the rest of the cap on the driver's side. We only have a "pocket rocket" style camp stove, but it's perfect for espressos every morning in the moka pot (Italian-style ), or to prepare basic one-pot meals. The new addition of the PVC shower is a big improvement on the pile of plastic bottles we were keeping for dishes, etc. It's not luxury, but it's comfortable. Compared to the crew-quarters on a lot of yachts, the 6' bed is actually really spacious. I've already got a million ideas for a long-bed in the future with a high-top fiberglass shell, better drive-train options, and bed-drawer storage, but for now, this is the truck that I have, so we'll enjoy it while we're there.

Ok, I had a rough first impression with Belize. Apparently it's illegal to bring beer into Belize. Fruits, vegetables, narcotics, assault rifles, nuclear warheads, and unregistered human remains, I understand, and we made sure to avoid taking those items through EVERY boarder crossing, but beer was a surprise, and for those that don't know it, I tend to like beer, and I had planned on sharing local Central American beers with my family and friends when I got home. Long story short, I had 26 beers "surrendered" at the border. I won't confirm or deny if that was ALL of the beer that I was carrying, but it was a traumatic loss regardless. To top it off, I did some research and found out that it's not even about taxes or religion, or anything I can understand or respect. The guy who founded the largest brewery/bottled-water/cocacola plant in Belize was also a senator, and used legislation to build his business into a monopoly. I tried not to let that ruin the Belize experience. We saw some more Mayan ruins, and visited a small cacao farm run by a present-day Mayan family. We spent a day in Placencia to do the tourist thing, and overall, our time in the country was actually pretty nice. I also made some progress in my side quest of crossing increasingly sketchy ferries. This one was a four-car capacity river crossing barge with HAND-CRANK cable on drum propulsion. Not gonna lie, I didn't need to see the pyramid on the other side. I just wanted to ride the ferry. After Belize it was time to wrap up this leg of the trip, as the budget demanded. We crossed into Mexico and spent a couple days at the "Lake of Seven Colors" just over the boarder, then went up to Cancun. Cancun is in the state of Quintana Roo, which, like Baja, is a duty-free zone, meaning I can drive my foreign-plated vehicle there for as long as I want, no local paperwork needed, as long as I have insurance, and my MA registration is good. This avoids all of the silly storage shenanigans I had to deal with in Costa Rica last year. I can now store the truck privately, where I want and when I want. So I found a Quebecois dude who runs an overlanding business just outside of Cancun, and he offers a very reasonable vehicle storage service. It was a little sad to say goodbye again, but this time I know the truck is in good hands, and I can keep in touch with the storage guy whenever I want. Not sure exactly how long it'll be this time, but hopefully just a couple months. I will be sure to post an update when I return.

I'm glad to hear it! You never know on a webforum. There's no instant gratification like on social media, but I much prefer it this way. Honduras was my personal favorite part of this trip. Super nice people, a wide variety of natural environments, the best craft beer scene, and coffee at every gas station. That's honestly all I need in life. Ironically I didn't get a lot of pictures there. We entered at the furthest west border crossing, which was again on the pan-american highway, but this time we shot straight up to Tegucigalpa, staying in a mountain lodge just before the city. We explored the city a little bit, but we're not really city folk, so we headed up to Lake Yojoa, about halfway between Tegucigalpa and the Atlantic coast. That was a really neat spot. We spent a few days at a brewery/hostel and enjoyed the lake life. It felt like almost a temperate climate, but still full of wild palms and cultivated cacao and pineapples. After that we went up to the Atlantic coast for a couple days, stopping in San Pedro Sula to check out the craft beer scene. Shout out to Lupulos for being the best brewery in Central America. Then it was on to Guatemala. We aimed north this time and found a place to stay where we could easily get to Flores, Tikal, and the Belize border. Flores was Pleasant, but very touristy. Tikal was super cool. Deep in the jungle it's a seemingly endless chain of Mayan ruins. We spent a full day there, but that was barely enough time to see it all. Also sometime during the border crossing I picked up a tek screw in the right rear tire. Shout out to Safety Seal AGAIN for saving the trip... well, saving me significant headache at least. It would have been nice to stay longer, but but now we had a concrete plan and a schedule to keep, so we headed for Belize.

Technically it's a mod of the bedcap, but for now that's part of the Comanche. I built a tube-shower out of black PVC with a schrader valve in the cap so I can pressurize it. I have a Stanley jumper pack/air compressor and if I set it to +/-5psi I get decent water pressure. I have to figure out a more permanent mounting method, but for now the ratchet straps are working, and we've got hot showers, on the go. The 6ish gallons of water that it holds helps balance all the tools in the drivers side of the cap. I also wired up a 12V socket inside the cap that runs off the accessory battery. This runs the 12V Coleman cooler to keep the beer groceries cold.

We stayed in the Nicoya peninsula for a few days, in the same area as last year, then moved on to Nicaragua. The nature there is incredible, but the socialist dictatorship thing is a little spooky. There are flags of the Sandinista party EVERYWHERE, and they have a ridiculous amount of bureaucratic bull---- to enter and exit the country. Regardless, we enjoyed the people and the places. We stayed in Granada and Managua for a few nights. Everything in that area is very volcanic with a few active, and a lot of dormant volcanoes. we drove up a crazy dirt road to the top of a caldera outside of Managua, which is some kind of state park. The grounds-keeper told us it's the "second-most dangerous caldera in the world." My Spanish is not good enough to clarify that detail, so I have no idea where that statistic comes from, but it sounds like if you swim in the lake, you die. We did not confirm this fact in practice. After that we went down to the Bay of Fonseca for a few days where there is another volcano, where you can see Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador from the top. We stayed in a little fishing community there where I was actually pretty shocked to find a disc golf course. It would have been nice to spend more time exploring the country, but the protest-delay in Panama set us back a few weeks, so we had to hustle a little bit. Next up: Honduras. It's been a good trip!

I'm way past due for an update, so if people are still following along, I'll post some progress. Costa Rica was good. We crossed at Paso Canoas on the Pan-American Highway and mainly followed the Pacific coast. First stop was Pavones, to see the world's second longest left. I'm still not much of a surfer, but the girlfriend had see some instagram documentary or something about the town, and wanted to see it, so we went. Super chill locals, beautiful nature, and a lot of hippy gringos. Everything was as-advertised. We continued from there up to Uvita, making a quick stop in Golfito, and also a historical site with a lot of big balls. Actually, pre-columbian natives made these giant stone spheres for spiritual/political reasons. It was pretty cool. A banana farmer found them buried under his field. There's now a little museum and a ton of info about the site, and Costa Rica's archaeological history in general. We saw some cave beaches, a whale-tale shaped beach, black beaches, white beaches public beaches, private beaches, salty beaches, brackish beaches, fresh-water beaches. I was starting to feel an Anakin Skywalker aversion to sand, but then we spent a couple days up in the mountains. It was sorely needed. I was amazed how much cooler it was, and it was nice to spend a few days not soaked in sweat. If I do something like this again, I'll make sure the vehicle has AC. Monte Verde is neat little town. Kind of touristy, which isn't really our speed, but tourists often accompany breweries, which is definitely my speed, and I can highly recommend Monte Verde Brewing co. I was also constantly reminded how terrible the Costa Rican roads are once you leave the highway. Despite having some of the highest taxes in the region, and being much more "developed" than its northern neighbors, Costa Rica has a pretty deficient ways and means situation. Despite my one-wheel-peel and the automatic, I managed to dodge a few hairy situations.

I believe the carburetted engines have a mechanical fuel pump on the side of the engine itself. I'm not sure where the older MJs have a fuel filter, but it's probably also on the engine, after the pump. Make sure you have fuel flow from the filter to the bowl while cranking. If you're getting fuel to the carb, then, like @89 MJsaid, the bowl and/or jets are probably gummed up from sitting, and the carb will need a good cleaning. This is general carbed engine info. Hopefully someone with one of these engines can chime in with the specific location of these components. For reference, is this the 2.5L four cylinder, or the 2.8 V6 engine? If you put your truck's specs in your signature, it makes it easier for people to help.

The Peugeot tranny works fine for daily driving, and light off-road. A lot of trucks will have no issues with them ever. It gets a bad reputation because it doesn't handle abuse. Mine had no problems for years in stock configuration. Then I put 33s on, and I was off-road quite a bit, then it didn't take long before the input bearing started to fail. Same goes for adding more power. This tranny was originally designed for a Peugeot sedan, and the stock 4.0 is near the upper limit of what it can handle. If you plan to keep it stock and don't beat on it, the Peugeot tranny is fine. Any big modifications, and you might want to look at upgrading. Now would definitely be the time, if you do go that route. No sense pulling the drivetrain twice. It's not a bad swap to do. I had all the parts gathered, and did the full job in one weekend, start to finish. And it looks like youll be halfway there with the drivetrain pulled. I used a couple write ups for parts lists, etc. this is going back 10 years or so, but I'll see if I can find them. Edit: this one has a lot of good info and links to other write ups. https://comancheclub.com/topic/11581-ba105-to-ax15-or-aw4-swap-info/

There are MJ Mexico groups on Facebook. A ton of comanches are still on the road down here. I cross from Belize to QR this week. Can I be an honorary member?

If you see it again, I'd love to watch it. I didn't find anyone around to ask about it.

Hey! I've done some contract work down there! mostly for the big one in Wareham, but I've been to all the CT branches. That claw machine is pretty wild! Also nice score on the Sentry!

I almost didn't see it, while driving by, but on the side of CA-13, just outside of Rio Nance, Honduras, I found this... How do I say it... "Heavily modified" MJ. I didn't get a pic, but there are large rocks stacked behind the seat to counterbalance the crane, in lieu of engine block weight... The scooter transmission has a driveshaft welded from its output to the MJ tranny input. So I'm sure it was self-propelled like this at one point. It looks like it's become a permanent fixture here for pulling engines with the electric hoist on the end of the boom.

Stock, the black wire has a female spade terminal, and there is a male spade terminal soldered/braised onto the sending unit flange for ground, like @eaglescout526said. Orange is pump + Purple is gauge sender I also had the black wire break on my '89, and somehow the pump grounded through the tank and straps, and it still worked

And with all these parts on hand now, I think seeking out another MJ is the only thing that makes sense

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

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:

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)