magellan

The insurance company didn't require the normal power of attorney paperwork and such since I kept the truck. They said they just don't bother with it on vehicles that old. According to them it's my responsibility to disclose that it's a rebuild if I repair and sell the truck. Fact is, I don't have time for the project. I wanted to keep the truck because the BFGs have less than 5,000 miles on them. They're going on my Tracker. A guy at work is interested in the truck. He drives a Comanche and has another parts truck. He's been lusting after mine for a long time. He has more time and motivation to take on this project than I do. If that doesn't work out, I'll be posting it here.

After much research, stubborness, and heated discussions on the phone, I won. I originally decided that they'd pay $3000 and let me keep the truck I'd be okay with it. The insurance company started at $2100 minus $100 for the truck. Today we agreed on $3,547 minus $540 for the truck. I was able to establish a value of $3,600 using current ads and ebay auctions combined with the insurance companies methods of adjusting for mileage. They couldn't agree to my established value but they were able to make allowances for sales tax and for the rental car that they didn't provide. Overall, I had about 3 hours involved in making my case. Now to decide what I'm doing with the truck...

Rebuilding it will be more of a project than I have time for. Got too many projects already. Here are some pictures of the damage. Notice how the upper and lower control arms apparently folded around the subframe when the body was slammed sideways. Also notice that the ashtray is crooked in the dash. The entire dash assembly has a slight bow along the bottom. Surprisingly, looking under the hood, there's no obvious damage at the firewall. Still haven't been able to get hold of the guy's insurance company. Hopefully they'll be answering the phone tomorrow. Jerry

Anyone have any experience dealing with insurance companies after having your Comanche hit? Some kid hit me in the front left side today. He couldn't see to pull out and assumed the road was clear. He hit my right front wheel, fender, bumper and door. The top of the right door is out about 3" from the top. It won't turn right because the inner fender is mashed against the wheel. The axle appears to be knocked about 1" off center to the left. The right rocker is buckled all the way to the back of the cab. The firewall took most of the hit and the dash is bowed all the way across the truck. I'm assuming it will be totalled. I wouldn't want it fixed because it would never be right. Unfortunately, I know I won't be able to replace it for what his insurance company will want to pay for it. This was a totally rust free CA truck with about 170K miles on it. The paint was faded badly, but it was dependable transportation and consistently got 19 mpg on my daily commute. It's an '89 with 4.0, 5-speed SWB with bucket seats. Thanks, Jerry

That's what I do, too. Most people don't. Based on your experience, I'll believe there's no mileage gain to be had. Thanks.

Given the context of the post and the fact that it was being compared to two other tube measurements, I believe everyone else figured out that "shaft" was a typo. With a front axle disconnect, at best the left axle shaft and side gear always spinning, the carrier is stationary, the spider gears are spinning at axle speed, and the right inner axle shaft is spinning at the same speed as the left axle but in the opposite direction. If there's enough viscous drag in the side gears and spider gears to overcome the friction and viscous drag in the carrier, the carrier could rotate at a low speed and the right axle shaft would spin slower than the left. Without a front axle disconnect both axle shafts, the carrier, ring gear, pinion, and driveshaft spin together. The advantages of a modern axle with unit bearings and no lockouts are: 1) It's cheaper because there are fewer parts. 2) It's cheaper to assemble. 3) It's more compact. 4) Your mall crawler's front axle stays lubricated even though 4wd is never used. 5) People who are two dumb or lazy to lock the hubs will buy the 4wd vehicle they didn't need to begin with. 6) I believe repairs are supposed to be cheaper because unit bearing replacement requires less skill and supposedly less time. Economics aren't the only factor driving me to consider the swap. I've hated front axle disconnects since a broken shift fork left our YJ stranded in 2 feet of snow. Also, I've never been impressed with the braking power of our XJ or MJ. Neither vehicle has ever been able to lock all 4 brakes on dry pavement with 30x9.5 BFGs and the brake fade is terrible. The Scout brakes could always lock 31s. My intention is to get bigger brakes on the front and use Lincoln discs on Dana 44 rears. I agree with your :roll:. Internal friction of any type of rolling element bearing in good condition is going to be far less than the frictional and viscous drag of turning a hypoid gear set in 90W gear lube. The Waggy axle swap might have some merit, although I prefer the 5x5.5 lug pattern. What makes it stronger than a Scout 44? Scout has the only 8-bolt spindles I've found, but I've never been into a Waggy axle. That's interesting. I might not be surprised by an unnoticeable difference between lockouts and the disconnect, but I would expect a noticeable difference between a non-disconnect axle and either of the other options. Did you check the mileage on individual tanks, or was it a running average over several tanks? My mileage fluctuates by 10% from tank to tank just due to variations in where and how I'm driving, but I see pretty consistent numbers out of a 5-tank average. I need to rig an electric motor to an axle and use the current draw to determine how much horsepower is being lost to back-drive a front axle. That's definitely worth doing before I convert an axle.

Scout Dana 44s have a passenger's side pumpkin and low pinion. The right spring perch is cast into the pumpkin. It's not a simple axle swap and for my purposes I don't need a stronger front differential. I would like to have lock-outs, bigger brakes, and a 44 rear.

I did a little more measuring on axles tonight. The MJ/XJ HP Dana 30 has 2.5" axle tubes. Scout Dana 44s use 2.75" tubes. I measured an early Scout II axle shaft and it's 2.5" diameter. Front axle U-joints are the same for MJ/XJ, CJ, and Scout II Dana 30. Scout Dana 44s use a different (I assume bigger) part number. Scout Dana 30 and Dana 44 knuckles and disc brakes are the interchangeable. Scout Dana 30s are hard to find, expecially with disc brakes so CJ axles may be a better donor for this swap. Anyone got a CJ Dana 30 that they can measure to verify the 2.5" tube diameter? How do CJ disc brakes compare to MJ/XJ brakes?

I've been contemplating this one for a while. I'm guessing that being able to disengage the front hubs on our '97 XJ has to be worth 1-2 mpg. One-piece axles with lock-outs would definitely be stronger than the MJ axle disconnect. I'm thinking about taking an XJ non-disconnect HP Dana 30, cutting the steering knuckles off at the welds and replacing them with Scout Dana 44 knuckles. I should be able to use the XJ inner axle shafts with the Scout stub shafts and all Scout parts from the knuckle out. This setup would give me bigger brakes, lock-outs, tighter turning radius and 5 on 5.5 bolt pattern. I'll swap in a Scout Dana 44 rear to match. Steering linkage will require some minor modification. The only slight problem I've found is that the HP Dana 30 tubes are smaller OD than the Dana 44 tubes, so I'll have to make spacer rings to go between the tubes and knuckles. Anybody done anything similar? Know of any potential problems I'm not seeing? Is there an older style Dana 30 or Dana 44 knuckle that had the same tube diameter as the HP Dana 30? I lean toward using Scout axles because I have piles of them, but a CJ Dana 30 might be a better donor for the knuckles. Thanks

When we lifted my nephew's TJ Unlimited Rubicon, I swapped his tires and wheels to my stock '89 MJ for a few days. With normal street driving there was no rub anywhere even at full lock. I liked the way they looked, but I didn't want 16" rims because of the replacement tire cost. These were the factory Rubicon Goodyear tires with about 16,000 miles on them. With my 5-spoke 15x7 TJ rims and 30x9.5 BFG All-Terrains, I get rub on the lower control arm at left lock but not right. What's the scoop on the WJ lower control arms? Do they bend in for clearance? Are they the same length as the MJ arms? What years interchange?

Thanks for the info everyone. The '93 XJ seats I have installed right now do not have the separate side bolsters. If I can find a nice set of seats that have the separate side bolsters, I'll use them. If not I'll swap my current pads and upholstery to 2-door XJ/MJ frames.

I posted this about a year ago. http://www.comancheclub.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=17246 If you're interested in some-assembly-required, I'll work up a price to do a single kit. I've been pretty happy with it. I've used it to pull my 8' utility trailer quite a bit with gross weights from 1 to 2 tons. The only issue I've had is that it slipped in the adjustment slots when I was yanking out a couple small pear tree stumps with a tow strap hooked to the ball on my 8" drop hitch--I really shouldn't have been doing that anyway. I obviously have spent the money on DOT testing and approval. Actual strength depends on your welding ability. The whole thing was designed for a 500 lb tongue weight and 1000 lb pull with appropriate safety factors. BTW, the stiffener plate under the receiver is 1/2", not 1/4" as it said in the old post.

I just installed bucket seats in my '89 MJ using bases from an '88 (I think) Eliminator and seats from a '93 Cherokee 4-door. I initially didn't get the buckets from the Eliminator because the upholstery was trashed. The Cherokee seat donor only had 24K miles so the upholstery was in excellent shape. I paid $30 for the pair. It was in a junkyard because it had been hit hard in the right B-pillar. I removed the upholstery from the seats, washed it, and reassembled the seats. Upon installing the seats, I realized they don't flip forward, so I don't have easy access behind the seats. This afternoon I went back to back to the yard with the Eliminator with plans to buy the seats and swap my upholstery and cushions over to the Comanche seat frames. The cushions are badly ripped and the trim was busted around the driver's side tilt hanle. The woman who runs the junkyard started out at $50 each for the seats. I offered her $20 for the pair. We didn't reach an agreement. The bottom of the Eliminator seat frames and the seat padding are identical to the '93 seats. The '93 seat backs are all one piece with one pad. The Eliminator seats had separate pieces for the lateral support. I assume the padding style is a difference in years. Can anyone tell me when the seat back padding switched from 3 pieces to one? Are the internal frames the same for both styles so that I could swap my '93 padding and upholstery to the earlier frames? Obviously, I'll have to cut the holes in the '93 upholstery for the tilt latch and handle. Thanks for the help.

Shoot me a price with shipping to 47846 unless your around central IN or central IL. Then I'd probably just come pick it up. Thanks.

Hadn't gotten back to check the replies. Wow, this thread deteriorated in a hurry. :eek: Still looking for an answer on steel vs. aluminum shift fork. If it's aluminum, I'd suspect in over the vacuum actuator. We had one of the aluminum shift forks fail on a '92 YJ. It left us in 14" of snow in 2wd. I just didn't know if the MJs used the aluminum version or the stronger steel unit. I guess I'll start pulling it apart. Thanks, Jerry

Yesterday, my '89 Comanche developed what I'll call a slight hiccup in the driveline. Occasionally, I can feel something slip slightly while cruising down the snow and ice covered road in 4-HI. I can think of two possible causes. The first is a stretched chain starting to slip in the NP231. I'd bet on this one because the truck has about 155K and I just had to rebuild our XJ NP231 at 165K. The second thing I'm wondering about is whether or not the front axle disconnect isn't engaging securely because of a broken shift fork. Would the '89 MJ have a steel or die-cast aluminum shift fork in the disconnect? We had a '92 YJ that used an aluminum shift fork. The fork broke in half and left us in 10" of snow with no power to the front wheels. Any thoughts? Thanks, Jerry

Thanks for the compliments. If there's any interest in them, I'd make a run of DIY kits. I think I should be able to do the laser & press brake work and ship them anywhere in the lower 48 for under $200. It's all 3/16" plate except the 1/4" reinforcement under the step. The whole thing weighs about 90 lbs. I'm going to do a matching one for the front sometime, but I probably won't mess with it until fall.

Haven't posted much here, but I thought you all might be interested in seeing my step bumper with integral receiver. There are a few slight changes I'd make if I were doing it again, but overall I'm pretty pleased with it. The gap below the tail lights needs closed up a little. The license plate light mounting was an afterthought and I didn't have room to get the drill in to make the lights level. It was designed in Autodesk Inventor. All the parts were laser cut and CNC formed. Jerry