Sir Sam

Nope. West is on fire now. Time to leave the west. No reason to move to it.

haha no, that was a typo. I mean a dozen WJs. I do see Jks on occasion, but they are usually really phucked up. I did see a rubicon recently. Someone snagged the rear before I could and the front was in a number of pieces.

I think most of this is pretty much moot. Any day of the week there are a dozen JKs in the yards, and probably a few with the akebono brakes. I’m disappointed to hear the JK brakes seem to be a little sub par compared to WJ.

ya I can get a measurement. I have an XJ d30 here with knuckles off and the Jk d44 here with knuckles off. I actually bought a new JK knuckle to complete my axle, I picked up an 8k mile JK d44 over ten years ago, but it was missing the knuckle, saw you can get aftermarket these days reasonably priced.

I know. but look at the difference in size. is this something you have done and know works? Lots of people don’t swap the ball joints when doing the WJ swaps on XJs. Doesn’t mean it’s right.

Not sure if swapping ball joints would get it to seat right though.

Here is an XJ knuckle on. JK D44. The C is larger and the upper ball joint isn’t fully seated. https://colorado4wheel.com/images/1988_MJ/MJ221.jpg

my JK knuckles don’t fit my XJ axles. if I remember I’ll take pic so show the difference. The JK Cs are larger than the XJ Cs. I’m also remembering that the JK axles won’t fit into XJ hubs, and vice versa long time back I mocked up WJ knuckle and WJ hub with a JK Moab. i think it needed some spacers I used washer for, maybe that’s where a JKS spacer would come in.

Is the renix alternator internally voltage regulated or external? for newer Jeeps the ZJ alternator is some like 120 amps. I used a 160 amp alternator from a Durango, but it requires some grinding to clear, whereas the ZJ alternator seems to fit without issue. However the voltage regulator might give a compatibility issue, you can purchase external voltage regulators.

I see them maybe a few times a year at the yards. It’s harder to find 99+ ones. Even harder to find 99+ ones for a 2door. then there are a bunch of low class people at the yards who rip door panels apart looking for aftermarket speakers they almost never find.

Fairly rare. Keep in most most 97+ XJs were optioned nearly the same, without can’t variations. But you could get both base and sport with manual windows. but all of them had electric mirrors.

I’m loving my all disk setup with the WJ big brakes. Even with my heavy load range E tired it stops very well. to the OP. I bought a set of stainless steel lines for a newer Cherokee, also grab a newer Cherokee brake booster and master cylinder and you are off to a good start on replacing the brake system. I had to modify and extend the Cherokee rear line to the back. I added a couple of extra bends to clear the MJ bump outs on the frame rail, and straighten the rear part a little and then run the last few feet of line myself. I bought stainless steel line to match the new Cherokee lines that were stainless. The cupornickle stuff already mentioned is also good and softer than the stainless. I bought a quality bending tool and flaring tool to make life easier, but I also have other projects that need brake lines custom made. welcome to the Comanche world.

Maybe 150 or so, there is some highway between trails so it seems like more based on odometer, but discounting some highway miles is reasonable in the estimate. I put about 1000 miles on it in one weekend.

So then I went to Ouray for the holiday weekend: Had to do some clearancing on my dads CRD pinch seam: Then down to telluride and over to Ophir: And then the next day we ran to the top of black bear: Ive been leaving the rear camera on when driving the trails, here it is waiting in traffic for the temporary light on 550: Back at camp: The novelty of the 00 interior in an 88 has still not work off for me: Started on stickers: With tailgate down: Diesel ready for bed: And then the smoke moved in: Managed to snag some badges:

Ok so without the A pillar seal there is an incredible amount of wind noise that comes in. So I figured a way to use the newer seal without a ton of work, I grabbed a 4 foot peice of small aluminum angle. And then used double sided 3m foam tape to hold it in place. Initially I was going to rivet or screw it to the factory holes, but that didn't work out, and the 3m tape seems to do good. Ive known this was something else with the 97+ swap for years, and I'm honestly surprised by how simple it ended up being. And its sooooo much quieter with the seal in place. Measuring on my yellow jeep where the lip is: Which is also where the metal ends here: and you can see the metal is the perfect size to replicate the lip: There is a slight arc to the window, so I bent the aluminum channel a little bit, and then did a couple of layers of thin foam tape, thicker tape would be better: And then put the seal on: And with the door closed: I also drilled more holes in the painters pole I picked up to use as support legs, one hole every inch to give lots of adjustment range.

Some late model vehicles have gentex mirrors with different options. From several Subaru’s I have gotten the mirrors with homelink, auto dim, compass, and outside temp. There is a higher level model that has map lights built in as well. I’m not sure what vehicle to get that from.

The KJ parking brake cables work perfectly fine with the stock bracket and adjuster.

Man one of these day’s I need to find a good tailgate. Mine is kinda ratty.

My 88XJ was a Laredo and MJ 88XJ was a limited. Both had 242s. next Jeep I had was a 93 sport with 5speed. Very basic, mini console and manual windows, no AC. but no CAD and the 231 transfer case seemed normal since it was a manual it would be different. then I got a 2000XJ freedom, again auto with 242. Sometime after that I got a 96XJ auto/231. it wasn’t untill about this time that I figured out the 232 was the default transfer case, and not the 242. Overall more of my jeeps have had 242s than 231s. Didn’t know about the CAD axles for a long time as well.

Well ordered from fiat. I’m going to figure out something temporary for this holiday weekend camping trip.

Thanks, a bit of genius driven by Necessity. Real pleased with myself over that one.

Ok finally time that I’m hitting small stuff on the MJ, I’m missing opposite halves on opposite sides, so I really have nothing functional. what options do I have? I thought I saw someone cutting down a GM rubber? Are the tailgate side and bed side the same or different. Thanks all.

Ok more progress. I got a hole holesawed out for the backup camera. I got a rubber grommet for one of the firewall plugs and got the wiring run through it. I ran 12AWG wiring back for both of the lights, ran in in stainless steel snake skin down the firewall near the exhaust, heat shrinking the ends to hold it in place, and then ran the rest in flexible black wire loom. Inside the cab I tapped into the reverse light feed, ran that wire up to a relay, and the radio. The radio uses the reverse feed to kick on the backup camera, the relay is what turns on the rear floods. Also tied into the trigger of the relay is my rear flood light switch. This switch is the factory rear fog switch from the UK. It lights up with the headlight backlight, and the indicator light turns on when the rear floods are on. As factory and clean as it gets. May seem like a minor thing, but this was two evenings of work to get it installed to my standards. Using front fog wiring to reference: Success! Rear fog indicator switch: Lit up: Left to right: Heated mirror, Extended Idle(not hooked up yet), Front fogs(No fogs yet), Rear Fog. I wish I could find a factory extended idle switch! Then this morning I helped a friend install an eaton elocker in his spare D30A for his CRD. I got to use my new Yukon clamshell bearing puller. Works REALLY well. Then I got to doing a little cleanup and organizing. I ordered a white board earlier this week for project planning. I got a big one because I figured why not. But after it came in I realized it was freakin big and the walls have stuff all over them that blocks easy access to it. However if I turn it upright, turns out its exactly the size of the door. So I borrowed a hole saw from Justin and made it fit. Great use of space that otherwise would never get used! Proud of myself for that idea. So I got the workbench starting to be cleared off. And then got the vise we bought last week mounted. Honestly I should have bought one months ago, I've made do without it for this project, but there were some many times I was wishing I had one.

I think that defines it a little better. 242 transfer case: I'm a big fan of these and all my jeeps have them. From my perspective the only downside is that the bolt on SYE is damm expensive, so the hack n tap is the way to go. Suspension upgrade for better handling....well, make sure its all in good order, generally don't lift it if you want it to handle curves better. Retain your swaybar. I think a set of metric ton springs will probably do what you want for the rear loading. Brake well.......I think the WJ is the no brainer goto for this. Might be harder for you to find those parts than myself, I can drive an hour to denver any day of the week and pickup the parts from a junkyard. It changes the economics if you have to look for those parts online. I'm also a fan of rear disks, if you didn't already have a D44 I would tell you to swap in a KJ 8.25 from an 03+ These come with disks and the parking brake cables work with the stock MJ brackets and such. A ford 8.8 is also a good option. The D44 is strong, but the axle tubes are a little small compared to the 8.25 and 8.8. The perk to the 8.8 is that they are common enough that finding one with 4.10s or 4.10s and LSD is possible without much hassle. You might consider the cost of a complete axle somewhere with LSD compared to the cost of disk brakes and Detroit true track in the rear. I think what you want is attainable with a mild build, you don't have to go crazy with 1-tons and long arm lift for what you want. Metric ton springs and spring over axle with some front lift might get you exactly where you want to be.

You are right it’s not rocket surgery. It’s on the fly engineering, trust me I do it all the time. Not just on my vehicles, but also on US Navy gas turbines/systems. I don’t need a reminder about engineering hours vs margins or ship dates. Sure engineering always has constraints, trust me I know. But let’s take the example of a transmission cooler. There are lots of aftermarket coolers out there, it’s easy to slap one on with those through radiator push ties, cut and splice a line with rubber hose. Does it work? sure! Now go look at the Factory transmission cooler setup. The cooler is a little small for my tastes, and I would guess that’s some cost cutting there. But how it connects to the existing trans lines, carefully designed and bent hardlines that fit the vehicle perfectly and route out of the way. when you try to recreate that, or do something else, it’s more likely that you will have an issue with it, your line chafes, or comes loose, hits the belt, and then gets a hole rubbed in it that spews ATF all over the front of your engine while climbing a pass on i10 between LA and Vegas in 102 degree heat, eventually leading to enough atf hitting the exhaust manifold to catch fire, leaving a burned up Jeep on the side of the road and a permanent scar of the car fire on the road. Seriously, drive that stretch of road and look at all the car fire scars! Now that’s a worst case hyperbole, but even the best case of a failure is still a headache. Sure, you can plan it out, take your time and do it right, and still have issues come up. Sure maybe you have no issues for 40k miles, and then something happens you would only have known about if you out 40k miles of use on, and then you go “ok I got this fixed and I made a change so I know this exact problem won’t happen again.” But the thing is, the factory did that, and did it in an accelerated way that you cannot. I’m not saying our jeeps were perfect from the get go, but they were pretty damm reliable. So generally the more you modify and change, the more likely you are to spend time making things right, including going through several iterations while you get things dialed in. Here is where the KISS principle comes into play, it’s easy to let the scope creep come in and say “go big or go home” but simple is better. So let’s bring that back around to the OP. OP wants a “1-ton” Comanche, which is sort of a subjective goal. Let’s say the goal is suspension and axles to give a safe equivalent load rating to a F250. Well which is easier and more reliable, an MJ with tons of modifications, or a stock F250. I don’t care how well you do the MJ, give each one the exact same use and the F250 will be an “easier” vehicle, either from the debugging, or from an off the shelf parts availability. Which brings it back to the OP, what’s the goal? The OP makes it sound like they want a work truck, so is it a fun project Jeep that it doesn’t matter it’s down a few days while you order some new TREs from rough stuff? Or is it an everyday “I need to get work done and I don’t have time for my work truck to be down” type of vehicle?