mvusse

Voting for that one doesn't help me out any. We need a digital projector here at the Lynn.

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As far as I know they are. The only difference I have seen are the existence, or absence, of a grease fitting on the tie rod end.

As for painting, Krylon Fusion may work. It has specifically been designed for plastic, and is supposed to bond to it chemically.

Sounds like air in the system, but it could be a faulty master cylinder. Could possibly also the above mentioned, but I don't think it is. And our trucks use 45 degree double flairs.

Teach someone how to make it pop. Crawl underneath, with a flashlight if needed, and while the other person makes it pop, see what moves in a way it shouldn't. You will not be able to move it by hand, and you will not be able to get a pry bar in there in such a way as to make it move. It won't move up and down, it will move sideways.

Pictures of previous owner installed drop brackets, please.

To really slam a truck, dragging frame, will take a lot of fabrication and money no matter what vehicle you start with. But where it will just cost an a$$ lot of money to do it to an S10. that same a$$ lot of money won't nearly be enough to complete it on a Comanche.

To center the axle with 5.5" lift coils will take a longer (adjustable) track bar. To move the axle over to be able to bolt up the track bar (actually, axle stays in place while the vehicle moves over top of it, use the steering wheel. Yes, this will take two people. Alternatively, a ratchet strap can work too, but the steering wheel works much better. Especially with a foot on the brake pedal to keep the front wheels from rolling, and thus helping them not turn.

ZJ drag link is a direct fit, BUT: The FIRST thing I always suspects with a popping sound is the track bar frame bracket, second is the track bar axle bracket. My personal experience is the hole in the bracket wallows out, allowing the track bar to move. Barely audible outside the vehicle, but quite loud inside because the sound travels through the body structure. The track bar itself is hardly ever the issue, yet for some reason you can buy a track bar at any discount auto parts store, but the frame side bracket (which simply bolts on with 4 bolts) is not available. Have somebody underneath the truck checking every piece that moves when you make it pop, especially the ends of the track bar.

Independent Front Suspension

Be aware that this swap caused him to rebuild AX5 transmissions more or less on a monthly base.

I guess I need to pay better attention to what I read. I thought you were talking about replacing an MJ leaf with an XJ one, not adding it together with the entire original pack. Yes, SUA adding an XJ leaf to the pack will make the springs stiffer, but will add little to no lift. SOA, however, you still at least get the added height from the thickness of the additional leaf.

I thought diesel engines didn't produce any vacuum to speak of, so it should not have a vacuum system. Now I have never seen a Renault 2.1 in a Comanche or Cherokee, but every diesel I have looked under the hood ( granted, only a few) used hydroboost brakes because of this. Hope you will never need parts for the engine. Even in Europe parts have been discontinued for years and are impossible to find.

Maybe I have only seen worn out XJ leaf packs, and non worn out MJ leaf packs, but every XJ leaf pack I have seen not under a vehicle (9 packs from 5 different vehicles, ranging in age from 1990 through 1999) had considerately less free arch than every MJ leaf pack I have seen, including 2 wd ones (10 packs out of 5 vehicles ranging from 1987 through 1990). I lifted the rear of my daughter's XJ 3" by using the XJ main leafs followed by 3 Comanche leafs (some of them cut shorter to fit). I also drilled out the center pin hole in the XJ leaf to match the Comanche ones to use a larger pin to hold them together. With the weight of just the vehicle on it, stock XJ leaf packs are nearly flat. To flatten out MJ springs pretty much takes adding weight until it sits on the bump stops.

Instead of modifying the front axle, how feasible is it to modify the truck to work with IFS, like off an S10 or something?

Depends on how the shocks have been designed internally to be mounted. I do not believe any shocks out there can be mounted either way and work correctly no matter which way they are oriented. As far as boots go, they are designed to keep dust away. But if you take it through mud, or have a lot of rainy days driving it on a wet road, the boots are really good at trapping water and causing the shock to rust away faster than it normally would.

And neither are WJ unit bearings. Hence the reason for the swap.

Actually, I just saw one of them in the basement yesterday. Got me starting the think the other one might be down there as well. All it had was front ones, never had any on the back. If I can find both they might go on the Purple People Eater to keep road salt off my rockers this winter.

The firewall mods done in the 87 and newer trucks were to fit the long inline 6 engine. I'm pretty sure an LS V8 is shorter than the 4.0 straight six, so I don't believe any changes in the engine bay would affect you. All the radiator stuff is bolt in and might need to be modified anyway, so that shouldn't make much difference. And since you'll need to replace most of the electronics under the hood I don't see much of a difference there either. So I would start with the most rust free, dent free truck I could find regardless of year. Be aware that most people with a V8 in a Comanche or Cherokee seem to have cooling issues because the nose of our vehicles was simply not designed for enough airflow to dissipate the heat generated by a V8.

Unless you're running a few thousands watts of audio system (bed full of speakers was popular around here 20 years ago), or are building an offroad rig with winch and lots of lights, there's nothing a stock alternator wouldn't be able to handle.

All the technical details have already been covered above, so just my opinion on what I would do if I were in your shoes: Use the stock Dana 30 with the WJ knuckles. The JK wheels will just bolt on for the front then. For the rear get some 5 on 4.5 to 5 on 5 adapters from Spidertrax. This will allow the JK wheels to fit in the back and at the same time fix the problem with the rear wheels sitting too far back in the wheel wells like the stock setup does.

Stock most of trucks have a rake to them. I ran 1.75" spacers in front without doing anything in the rear and it looked good. I then ran the spacers plus 4.5" lift springs for a total of 6.25" in front and SOA with the stock springs in the rear giving my 5.5" and it sat mostly level. 1.75" spacer by itself on the front, or a 3" spacer front and either add-a-leaf or lift shackles in the rear should look pretty good.

I was about to point that out, although it could be either a Sterling 10.25 or 10.5. The housings between the two are identical, as are the carriers. The gears are not, and even though the 10.5 has bit larger ring gear, the 10.25 has a stronger pinion setup, which is the weakest part of these axles. 10.5 is 99 and newer, with disc brakes. 10.25 is 98 and older, having drum brakes. The 10.25 also has the near universal 8 on 6.5 bolt pattern, while the 10.5 has the Ford specific metric 8 on 170mm bolt pattern.

Measure the way it sits now, add 3" to the front and see how much you will need to go in the rear. We can go from there.