mvusse

Before her cheerleading practice I had my daughter get in the truck quick and move the steering wheel left and right while I was underneath, and sure enough, the bolt holding the track bar to the frame bracket is flexing left and right. Either the hole in the bracket is oblong (again), or the nut is loose. Once the rain quits I'll get underneath and tighten that up, hopefully fixing the DW.

I used a 95 Dakota rear hose. I'm not sure from what year to what year is the same, but I know 95 works.

Well, the new alternator is in. That is the worst design of how to fit an alternator in a vehicle I have ever seen. There are 2 bolts holding the alternator on, but to be able to remove it, the bracket in front of the alternator also needs to be removed :mad: I decided the easiest way to get to everything is to remove the front of the truck: bumper, header panel including grill and lights, radiator support and radiator. Took me some 5 hours. I also got some new bolts and reinstalled the missing shock. Took it for a spin and death wobble is still there. I did make it through the potholes in town, but once out of town I hit a larger bump at 50mph and sure enough. :headpop: The new springs ride completely different too, and when you add the new lcas, track bar and sway bar quick discos it feels tighter as well. So I still have to straighten up my steering wheel, as it is off by 1/4 turn now, install my new rear shocks, install some lift shackles (happened to run into a pair this afternoon, but they are on a truck that needs to get to Buffalo before they can come off), get new front brake hoses, figure out and install new front shocks (currently still running the stock ones with 3" extensions), and get the DW fixed. Got to check the sway bar frame bracket nut first, as I know for a fact everything else is tight, if that doesn't do it I'm shortening the lcas. Oh, and I need to get an alignment and rotate my tires. 3 1/2 weeks? Plenty of time...

Even though the dash is wired for the switch, your headlight harness is not unless your truck came with fog lights from the factory.

If you want to talk to us, join us at Badlands offroad park in Attica, IN October 25.

Thanks, that will help too. Any idea on front shocks 5" longer than stock? Anyone? I could get universal shocks, but they cost 2x or 3x more than stock type ones.

i just straightened out the hard line and drilled a new hole lower for the mount on the "frame". it gets kinda tight at full flex, so this winter I'm putting on rubicon express brake lines front and rear (i already have them, just waiting to be installed) That's how I was thinking of doing it. If it works for 6.5", I'm sure it will for 4.5". Need to flex the suspension first (easy to do when you have access to a forklift ) to find the center point. I just hope I can fix that DW. Hopefully installing the missing shock will do it. If not, I will have to play with the lcas a bit (shorten them up some?) before I get an alignment. Easiest way to get the axle situated correctly is to get adjustable ucas, but they are out of budget for now.

Say Wade, how did you do your front brake lines? You're running 6.5" of lift, right?

Got it all together, got my rear brake lines done, front ones dangling loose so I could temporarily connect them and went around the block. Truck had a shimmy to it, which was caused by me torquing every bolt, except the lug nuts! They were just finger tight. So I tighten up the lug nuts and get on my way to pick up the new rear shocks. Hit a bump in the road at 25 or 30 mph and immediately have death wobble so bad it effed up the alternator big time. Volt meter dropped to ~11 volts or so, and the bearings are whining. That's when I remembered I am still missing one front shock because the bolts had broke off. DOH! Took the Suburban to get the shocks and a reman alternator, and ran out of daylight to get the old one out. That fan shroud and front skid I installed sure know how to get in the way. Hopefully tomorrow I can finish replacing the alternator, install my new rear shocks, get new bolts for the front shock and drive it again while trying to figure out front shocks and brake lines and getting a wheel alignment done. Also, my new rear shocks, Monroe #59358, do not measure 26 1/8" as the store told me (they measured end to end!), but 25" fully extended. 2" longer than stock, and 1" beyond full droop on the rear axle.

Why do you want a hitch stronger than class III, when the max tow rating for the truck with trailer brakes and weight distributing hitch is only 5,000 pounds? Supposedly U-haul also makes a class III to fit Comanches.

Thanks for the cards, Pete. Just in time, too, as I just got my first chance to card a Comanche!

Well, my daughter can't make it, so I'm flying solo this time.

I had read that lift thread as well, and used to measure 21" on one side, 21.5" on the other side. I measured the way the FSM does it, and measure 11.25" on both sides. Stock (for 4wd) is specified as 9.2" +/- .5", 2ws is 1" less. So my passenger side was at the upper limit of the factory specs before the lift springs, driver side was .5" more. And according to those numbers the springs lifted me 2" over stock 4wd, 3" over stock 2wd. Anyway, I got all the lift components bolted on, but need to torque all the bolts yet. Definitely need to get some lift shackles (chevy drop shackles) for the back. Front 4.5" springs actually netted me a bit more than 4.5, but will probably settle a bit over time. Does still look good with my tires (P235/75R15), and doesn't make the tires look too puny. When it is time for new tires I'll put 33s under there. Didn't have too much trouble; I already knew the lcas limit droop to the bare minimum needed to get 1.75" spacer blocks in with stock springs, so they came off first. They are being replaced with MO adjustable ones anyway. Then I find out the stock track bar will still not let the ds droop enough, so off it came. But then again, it is also going to be replaced with a MO adjustable one. After I got the ds done, I find out the ps droop is now limited by the uca. Disconnected it at the axle and I was good to go. Springs are in, lca's were a bit of a pain to get the axle lined up, but went in with a bit of thinking (gotta be smarter than the truck :D ), no problem with the sway bar discos, but the track bar hit a small hitch: it comes with a 1/2" bolt for the axle end. The stock hole is 7/16". That took me a good half hour since I only have 1 1/2" drill bit, and it turned out to be dull. Still, for pretty much completely customizing the front suspension, it went a lot easier than it could have been. A very well thought out and put together lift kit. Rear shocks should arrive tomorrow (Monroe #59358, $20.99 a piece with an extended length center to center of 26 1/8"). Autozone could get me Gabriel #61582 for $21.99, which supposedly measure 25", but would take longer to arrive. And since my last set of shocks from them turned out to be heater cores, I'm not the least bit happy with them right now. New to me spring plate with unbroken shock mount should also arrive tomorrow and I have the new rear brake hose ready to install. Have yet to figure out my front shocks and brake hoses, though. And as well as I can tell with the skid plate in the way, my recent coolant leak seems to be the lower radiator hose. Have been driving for almost a week with a new one of those in the back, and when I get in there to replace it I'm going to try to track down my power steering leak as well. I should be good to go with 2 weeks to spare! Pictures to follow after I'm done wrenching.

Looks like a nice find, and welcome to the first day of the rest of your life :D As for swapping in a 4.0, the 86 firewall was not designed for a 4.0 to fit, so you might have to do some customizing with a hammer. Oh, and beer's in the fridge :cheers:

Back on topic, I have the 4.0/AW4 and 3.55 gears with 29" tires. It does fine for me. When I move up to 33s I might want to regear, though.

Running rich may be O2 sensor. But then, I have no experience with the 2.5l.

And just HOW am I supposed to be able to vote? :D

We dropped to $3.49 today. It was $3.96 just a week and a half ago.

I just like your avatar. :banana:

$3.599

Replacement parts arrived this afternoon, and it's all there! With a bit of luck, it should all be together (except for the broken shock mount) before Monday. If things go as planned, broken shock mount should be taken care of Monday evening. :wrench:

???? My axle is still sitting on top of the springs. SOA is in the planning for the (very distant) future.

Well, I'm a little disappointed. I have the springs in, bolted the axle back in, and put my old shocks back in for the time being. They work at ride height, but limit droop by 1". Center of wheel to bottom lip of flare is 22.5" on both sides. With the stock springs I had 21.5" ds, and 21" ps. So the 3" lift springs only lifted me 1-1.5". Will still work with the 4.5" front coils, though, as they *should* put the front at about 21.25". Maybe I'll get some Chevy lift shackles for myself for Christmas. On a side note, DHL threw the box of lift parts around hard enough for the track bar to come through the corner and they lost the heim joint and track bar hardware kit out of the box before it was delivered on my front porch. I called Motion, they called me back after trying to deal with DHL, I tried to deal with DHL and left an email. I get another call from Motion this morning and replacement parts are on the way as I type this!

I just bought mine from Motion Offroad. I did change out the front coils for 4.5" ones, to eliminate some of the rake, as I believe a 4wd truck should sit fairly level. I have not installed it yet, so I can't really tell how it rides, but I've been very happy with other stuff I bought from them in the past. I have absolutely no experience with buying from anywhere else, but the consensus seems to be to stay away from anything from Rusty's.

Transfer case drop could help the length by lessening the angle. If you shorten the side of a right triangle, the hypotenuse also shortens. So if you drop the transfer case 1", the length driveshaft needed shortens by sqrt ( ( rise-1)²+ run² ) - rise² -run² where rise is the height difference (straight up from the floor) between the top and bottom U-joints on the drive shaft and run is the distance (parallel to the floor) between the two U-joints. I simplified a bit here, as I assumed a 1" tcase drop drops the top U-joint 1" In reality it would drop a fraction more than 1". Anyway, he's dropping the Tcase 1" and taking the 2 lower leafs out of hs springs ( those pack have 9 leafs in them!). Hopefully that will drop the back down a bit, because 5.5" just looks funny with 31" tires, and solve the binding issue at the yoke. If not, he is still going to grind it until he can get a YJ yoke from a junk yard. Here's a pic with the lift springs in. Front is a RE 3" lift, which will get 1.75" spacers added later this week: The yoke is currently (before the upcoming changes) engaged 1 7/8" into the transfer case.