Pete M

Sweet! I can't wait to get my copy! :D Jeep on! --Pete

I gotta imagine they will work. Mostly I'm guessing that because it doesn't come up very often. Mine never worked since I bought the truck so I removed the whole system and someday I'll find someway to adapt an XJ pull handle to the Ford 9". Someday. If worse comes to worst, you should be able to fabricate a spacer to put between the ebrake cable braket and the bed so it drops the assembly down some. I know I can get Bronco cables from the store, don't know about MJs. Jeep on! --Pete

What did you use? How did you mount them? What would you change? Mine are 3/16" wall 3x5" tube welded to bent 1/4" brackets. I have a 2x2" reciever built in with the hitch pin on the other side of the bumper. Front and rear are essentially the same but the front has the CJ-era grille gaurd and the towbar mounting points made from scrap steel. All bolts are grade 8. The front has three 1/2" bolts on the drivers side (two go to the steering box) and two 5/8" and one 1/2" bolt on the passenger side. I did NOT use the stock bumpoer mounting point for anything. They were never designed to have ANYthing pull on them. The rear utilizes upgraded strength stock bolts and then I added a 3/4" bolt per side. That bolt also is the rear mounting point for the rollbar and the tire carrier bolts to the center of the bumper for some triangulation in the system. I left the ends open for practical purposes like reaching bolts and providing nesting areas for sparrows (stupid birds). I trimmed the rear of the truck so the bumper brackets came straight out from the bumper. This negated ever using the tailgate again, but I had planned on ditching it anyway for the tire carrier. I could have fashioned the front bumper to follow the lines of the truck better, but prefer knowing that trees and rock will stay that much further from the body. All in all, I expect the bumpers to out-live the truck by several decades. :D Jeep on! --Pete front bumper: rear: passenger side front bracket in the rear I used part of the old bracket to provide the spacer to clear the shackle bracket cleanly. Notice there are only 3 little bolts. One of the old ones snapped off. Rust sucks! I figure with all the other anchor points it won't make a difference so I didn't bother to try drilling it out. The 3/4" bolt wasn't installed yet at that time. It's hard to tell, but this is the passenger side rear view showing the big bolt, bumper bracket, and the rollbar bracket all together. I hadn't drilled the holes yet when this shot was taken, but you can see how the tire carrier integrates with the bumper. I had to search around a while, but here's one showing the towbar.

The Olympic thing didn't supercede the normal trim levels. It was simply a sticker thing. (and ugly ones at that when the sticker is gold and the truck is dark red like mine *gag*) Jeep on! --Pete

Ther are no aftermarket full packs thus-far. The only alternatives we have available to us are paying someone to re-arching your current leafs or having a custom pack made, neither of which are very cheap. Just try to find an add-a-leaf that is long rather than short. They usually give a better ride. Rustys makes one. Careful about XJ add-a-leafs, as they will only provide about half of the lift the XJ would get (MJ leafs already have a lot of arch compared to XJs). On the other hand, many MJs are higher in the rear than the front, so maybe an XJ leaf would better match the new front springs. http://rustysoffroad.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=rustys&Product_Code=300MJAL&Category_Code=sus_xj_kit Jeep on! --Pete

The t-4 might have been used in some MJs in 86 (ands 84-86 XJs), but 87 and later 4-speed manuals should be AX-4 trannys. It's just an AX-5 (little brother to the AX-15) without overdrive. My Olympic edition consisted of decals. Little Olympic emblems and a big ugly gold stripe. I simply painted over them. Jeep on! --Pete

Careful with axles from rolled vehicles. The dana 30 is a light duty axle and can bend from even a mild looking roll depending on the circumstances that caused the roll. A slow roll offroad is usually fine, but an onroad roll is tricky due to the increased forces involved. It would suck to put all the effort into an axle that can't be aligned (or worse) due to a slight bend in it. Jeep on! --Pete

What do you mean "some" four cylinders? Starting in '87, ALL automatic MJ/XJs had overdrive trannys. What other auto trans had overdrive? Jeep on! --Pete

Personally I feel it's the best way to build a Comanche. :D Start with the size engine you want, A/C or not, auto or manual, and longbed or shortbed. These are the important choices as they are the hardest changes to make. The rest is bolt-in if you stick with Jeep parts. At the very least you'll need : -4wd trans and t-case (the best way to buy them together), -front driveshaft from an MJ/XJ that has the same engine/tranny that you have so you know it's the right length, -t-case shift linkage, shifter assembly, and that little bracket that bolts to the body to support said linkage, -Rear shaft from a 4x4 MJ with the same engine/trans (or have the 2wd shaft cut down) -MJ/XJ front axle that matches your rear gear ratio (this can either match the stock one or hopefully you can get a better ratio to match the bigger tires I'm sure you want, then get a rear axle to match) I recommend a non-CAD axle that has the bigger U-joints. -If you buy a rear axle, I recommend an 8.8 axle from a 95+ Ford Explorer which is stronger than a Dana 44 and can be found with 3.54/3.73/4.10 gears, disk brakes, and posi (any rear axle that didn't come from under an MJ will need new leaf pads welded on) -And get a factory shop manual too. If you buy an 87-88 truck, get the 89 shop manual. It's better than the older ones and the trucks are essentially the same. There are a lot of little details and particulars that can give you headaches when you try to mate everything up, so when you find something, ask about it before you plunk down money at the junkyard. Jeep on! --Pete

I don't necessarily mean the shafts themselves would break, but the mechanism that shifts them has caused countless headaches for MJ/XJ owners over the years. The biggest issue is most certainly a lack of maintenance on our almost 20 year old Jeeps, but it's a fact of life that most owners don't think about axle lube and vacuum lines until it's too late. 95 YJ shafts are a good upgrade, but finding one in the junkyards can seem impossible, where-as solid shafted XJs are everywhere. Aftermarket shafts exist, but if the owner can afford them, they might as well just get a regular locker. I don't know about everyone else, but when I recommend the solid shaft conversion, my intent is making the owner's life easier as well as making the truck stronger. Jeep on! --Pete

Not only is it just-one-more-thing-to-break, but they have the smaller U-joints. Upgrading to the later model shafts allows use of the Dana 44 size joints. But if yours works for you, then there's certainly no need to change anything. Jeep on! --Pete

31s may look a bit small underneath a 6" lift. That's usually a height reserved for 33s. As I said, this hobby has quite the snowball effect. To go up (from the 33s I have now) to 35s or 36s, I'd have to regear the axles (and if I'm going to do that then it makes sense to get some selectable lockers since I'm paying for the gear set-up anyway), some aftermarket flares to cover the tires, stronger axle shafts up front to survive them, bigger shocks to control them, improved brakes to halt them, and don't forget the cost of the tires themselves. If I remember right, it totaled like 3 grand or more to do it right. (Don't forget that my current engine is on its last legs too.) And that's why I still have the 33s. :D Jeep on! --Pete

So then I guess we're on for October 22nd at the Badlands. :D Spread the word!! Jeep on! --Pete

The Jeep 2.5Ls are a good little engine, but they are a 'little' engine and be aware that tire size increases are especiably noticable. Jeep on! --Pete

The Peugeot case splits along the top and bottom, meaning a front-to-back seam. The AX-15 had the huge ring and the front and rear sections of the case bolt to it. You are correct, 89 was the changeover year. Unfortunately, changing the 2wd AX15 to 4wd can cost as much as a junkyard tranny after you track down all the needed parts so it may not matter what you have now. 94 or 95 was the change to an external slave. Jeep on! --Pete

My tank has looked like that for 7 years now and I'm still waiting for it to leak before I touch it. I have no desire to disturb the rusty bolts before I absolutely have to. I have a short bed and I decided that going bigger doesn't look very do-able because of interference with the rear axle. Instead, I added two 5 gallon gerry cans to my truck. I like the look and I have quite a bit more range than before. cheaperthandirt.com has them for, well, dirt cheap. They even carry brand new ones now. Jeep on! --Pete I made my own mounts for either side of the spare tire, but there are the normal military mounts out there too.

All-wheel drive was a rare thing in the Comanche. Jeep apparantly figured nobody buying a truck wanted it. As far as I know, it only existed in 86 and that means you can't buy the 4.0 with it. The good news is that you can swap a np242 t-case behind the 4.0 without too much effort. If you're looking to ford 24" of water, you're going to want a 4.5-5.5 inch lift. The MJ and XJ are practially identical up front so any XJ lift will work there, then do a spring-over conversion to the rear. But it's a slippery slope in this hobby and one change requires another and then another and another, so it all depends on what you want in the end and what your budget is. Personally, I would buy a 2wd MJ (cheaper) and swap parts to make what I want. Oh, wait, that's what I did! :D Anyway, pick the engine you want (I'm guessing you want the 4.0), A/C or not, auto or manual (hard to swap between the two), and then buy a non-CAD front axle from a 2.5L MJ/XJ with 4.10 gears, grab an 8.8 from a 96+ Ford Explorer with 4.10s/disks/posi (better than a Dana 44), grab a later model XJ 4wd trans/t-case. Gearing is important in the mountains. Throwing on bigger tires without a gear change in the axles will make you engine feel sluggish and you'll curse it to no end on the big hills. This isn't the exact recipe I used, but it's much easier and almost as tough. Jeep on! --Pete P.S. plus, the satisfation of wheeling a truck you built is worth the effort. :D

Pioneer was a midrange trim designation, meaning it had more stuff than the Base, but not as much as the Eliminator. Other trim names over the years were sporTruck, X, XLS, Laredo and Cheif. We haven't gotten the info on comancheclub.com yet, so go see Rob's page: http://comanchemj.1hwy.com/photo6.html Jeep on! --Pete

I have, and I still have mud stuck in places to prove it. :D Ditto on the Rorp mud. It's more like wet concrete than wet dirt. :( I haven't been to Haspin yet, which is one of the reasons I wanted to go there. But I'm open to any of them. Now that I have the rocker and t-case protection I'm ready to hit those nasty Badland trails. :D Jeep on! --Pete P.S. The Lion's Back is actually private property now and for a fee you can go up it. Or for free you can take the nearby trails like we did and do hills just as steep and other hills just as narrow. I'm conviced that the Lions back is as famous as it is only because it happens to be right off the road so large crowds can easily gather.

Beats me. I'm certainly no expert on this forum template yet, but I know of nothing that would cause that for you. I have to sign in twice due to my admin status but you shouldn't. Check you cookie settings for anything concerning comancheclub.com Jeep on! --Pete

As a matter of fact I was thinking of the weekend of October 22. And we could do the badlands or RORP or Haspin acres (near Indianapolis). Jeep on! --Pete

Swapping another 2.5L is obviously the easiest way to go. The later model engines (TJ/XJ) are rated for more power (though that's probably due to the heads and intake rather than the block itself) and I've heard from a couple different sources that they swap right in using the accesories and brackets from your current engine. I haven't tried that myself though. Keep in mind that the 4.0L and 2.5L do not share the same engine-to-trans bolt patter. Another option for replacing the 2.5L is the Chevy 3.4L v6 because they do share bolt patterns and you might be able to keep your tranny. Check out the article I wrote on that: http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/jeepcomanche/files/ It's the second one down. If you have the AW-4 auto, you might have to convert it to a manual shift due to the computer-controlled aspect. Jeep on! --Pete

The stealership and the junkyard are the only places I know of. Jeep on! --Pete

I skimmed through it and couldn't find where it said that. But I did find that I misspoke earlier and said CV instead of Double Cardon. D'oh! I fixed it now. Even DC driveshafts shouldn't be set to exactly 0*, but I only saw the"rise in pinion angle from applied torque" as the reason. Maybe it was in reference to the single cardon shafts. Jeep on! --Pete

Mine is far from correct, but for whatever reason I got lucky and it works. Since you are welding them on and can put them where ever you want, it only makes sense to do it right. :D Right? I figured I was planning for the future when I get a SYE and a new driveshaft to go with it. Not sure when that will be though. Jeep on! --Pete P.S. I can't see how running 0 degrees will make a joint fail. If there's no movement of the needle bearings, where does the heat come from?