jeepcoma

Looks like mine :( I need to get mine fixed too, and soon. How do your rockers look from underneath? What's the C2C source for pans?

Had a terrible vibe show up overnight. Removed the front driveshaft and problem gone, so time to replace all the ujoints. Turning into a bigger project, some I've been putting off for a while but I want to get everything tip-top before winter. Did this week: pulled front axle removed LCAs replaced axle-side UCA bushings swap coils for V8 ZJ coils to balance the MT rears ordered parts looked at rust underneath :ack: :grrrr: :help: to do next week: cut UCAs off frame replace UCA/LCA bushings check pinion angle of rear axle and shim to correct angle? replace all ujoints put back together

Hammer worked great! I cleaned up the new bushings and tossed them in the freezer. Then I removed the old bushings (cut them out) and cleaned up the inside surface on the axle. A little bit of heat on the axle, a little bit of grease on the ice-cold bushings, and they pounded right in. Huzzah! Now I just have to finish cutting off the nuts to the get chassis-side UCA bolts out :fs1:

I'm trying to replace all the bushing on the front end. After I dropped the front axle I realized that the upper control arms have one bushing that's attached to the arm (like both bushing on the LCAs), but one is attached to the axle (which is dumb because I have my old axle sitting about 10 feet away and I walk past it every day, so I should have remembered). I don't have a press and was just going to bring in the arms to a shop to have them press the old bushings out and the new ones in. So I can bring in the uppers and lowers and get 6 out of the 8 control arm bushings replaced, but what can I do about the axle bushings? Is there a special tool I can use (or rent) to press these out? Or am I stuck replacing 6 of them now and driving it to a shop so they can do the axle ones (or potentially I could borrow another truck and bring the axle in too).

I had some electronic items for sale on CL, got a call from some guy who wanted to check it out and pick some things up. Gave him the address, arranged a time, wait around and he's a no-show. I called him back and he says "what electronic stuff? I never called you". Right buddy, like I don't have caller ID and didn't just speak to you a few hours ago...

Nice Jav. Mine is a very low-buck bare-bones 304 with the three-speed (on the tree) 998, open rear end, drums all around, nothing fancy. I have a few semi-vintage go-fast parts on it, dual-point distributor, 4-bbl carb and intake, baby cam to swap in when I get around to it... Haven't been driving it much, though I did drive it pretty frequently a while back. Had a brake line pop, parked it for a bit until I fixed it. Radiator sprung a leak, parked it for a bit until I fixed it. Charging system went, parked it for a bit, then my brother parked his Mustang in front of the garage door and blocked it in. Did some traveling, got married, bought a house, spent all my money, got other projects to work on, yadda yadda car has been sitting just waiting for a money infusion. Need to replace some trim pieces around the windshield, and to be honest I'm more afraid of other drivers on the road than anything else when I take it out, so for the time being I'm content to let it sit in the garage knowing its glory days will come again in the not too distant future. Started like this...

bandaid? tires are a part of your overall ratio and should be in any calculations. :thumbsup: 30x9.5s on 3.55s worked great for me. I hope you're not trying to make a car out of a truck. :hmm: Maybe "bandaid" was the wrong word, I mean I'd be back to the original performance characteristics and gear ratio spreads, which is what I'd like to change. Besides, so what if I want to make it more car-like (which I don't). I thought the great thing about Jeeps was customizing them to make them uniquely yours. My MJ is a street work truck that sees a lot of pavement. I want to improve its performance in the areas it makes sense to me, so I'm not interested in huge lift and big tires and the usual (I'll have to get a second MJ for that :D ); if there was an easy and inexpensive transmission swap that had better ratios for my intended use, I'd jump on it. I guess the short answer to my question of a sport transmission option is "no, there isn't".

Crap! I knew I was missing something... :doh: The irony is Jeep's "Sportruck" model... :yes: Merging into highway traffic or street driving, 3k rpm in 2nd, 3rd, or 4th gear is pretty common in order to get moving. So no, I don't run at 80 MPH on the highway, but cruising at 65 mph is right around 2250 RPM where the engine is just starting to make power. It has noticeably better passing power in 5th gear at that speed than if you back down a bit to 2k. I do agree the 3.55 gearing is much better than the 3.07s, it's just not what I consider ideal. Is it wrong to want to improve my Jeep to suit my liking? Thanks, will check it out! :thumbsup:

225/75/15 I was thinking of putting larger tires on to reduce the overall ratio back to where it was before (which would also fix the speedo/odo since I never swapped the speed sensor), but it seems more of a bandaid than a cure.

Statistician by day... grease monkey by night.

What type of Jav do you have? I have a '73...

Hmm.. no thanks. When I lived in Australia my wife had Daihatsu 1.3L 5-spd... and that was the sporty model (you could get a 3 cyl 1.0L auto trans with A/C :eek::ack: ). It was fun though, we'd load it with three passengers and weeks worth of camping gear way over GVWR and head though 1000 km straight through roads that reminded me of the Tail of the Dragon here in the US. Was fun though, short throw shifter, smooth clutch, close ratios... that's what I want now. Even loaded as it was, it had plenty of power to pass big rigs going up hill on shared 2-lane roads, if you kept it in the powerband.

Great write-up. When I bought my truck I made a note to do the headliner, but I haven't actually looked up while sitting in it since so it hasn't bothered me yet :dunno:

I remember finding a great page about all sorts of transmission info but can't seem to find it now. Anyway, my question is, are there any alternatives regarding gear ratios in the stock AX-15? Since switching from 3.07 to 3.55 gears (and stock sized tires with no plans to change) I'm frustrated by how low 1st gear is and how wide each shift is. 1st is pretty much useless except for getting rolling (which I realize is the point of 1st but I feel like I have to shift at 2-3 mph); if I need any sort of real acceleration I really have to wind it up each gear to 4k-ish so the revs don't drop too low when shifting to the next gear; engine braking is pretty much pointless as I never get down below 3rd; the throws are also long and clunky with difficulty engaging.. Conversely though 4th and 5th are pretty useful on regular roads and the highway, I'm never lacking for power on the highway in 5th and it's really in the sweet spot when going fast enough to put the revs around 2500. Stock AX-15 I google is listed below, are there any close ratio or "sporty" options I could swap in? Wouldn't mind dumping the internal slave while I'm at it. First Gear 3.83 Second Gear 2.33 Third Gear 1.44 Fourth Gear 1.00 Fifth Gear 0.79

Didn't happen on my '91 odo. The whole assembly comes right out and each number freewheels but for a particular spot where it's keyed, sort of like lock tumblers. It's easy to make a mess out of things, but it can all be reset back to 00000000 and then incremented to whatever number you want.

Went to rotate the tires. Right rear tire was very black on the inside, so I pulled the drum off and everything was covered in goo. :fs1: Diff fluid leaking though an axle seal maybe? It's definitely not brake fluid so I don't know what else it could be. Then, watched the truck roll off the rear jackstands. With the rear wheels off. :headpop: Slammed right down on the brake drums, but didn't seem to do any damage. I have never, ever had a jack or jackstand incident before and it's a bit worrysome to think if I had been under there. :oops:

1) finding comancheclub.com?? 2) swap 3.07 D30/D35 with welded on bald tires for 3.55 D30/D44 w/ aussies front and rear with nice turbine wheels and new tires 3) JCROffroad rear bumper with tow hitch 4) Hell's Creek metric ton springs Next top mod will be replacing all the worn front suspension bushings and joints, followed by new floor pans and rocker panels.

Did you check the most basic of basics... the air filter? Sounds very similar to what my Bronco used to do, after a few hours of driving in the rain or snow. Turned out it was sucking water up through the grill and saturating the air filter element, causing it to run extremely rich. It got to the point where I'd be in 2nd gear WOT trying to get up a 2% grade on the highway, until I finally figured it out.

I've got good condition stock 4x4 springs in my shed if you're interested, located in RI. Took them off to upgrade to MT springs but they had no sag that I could tell when I removed them.

Here's one, could be a good fishing truck. Already has a hitch. http://boston.craigslist.org/nos/cto/1730392824.html

Yes I do have the factory leafs. Update on the truck, it's been running great as of late. Have just been doing the little maintenence things, new cap and rotor, plugs, installed an MSD 6A (which was actually a nice improvement). New serpentine belt is on the way. Hauling a bed full of bricks last week convinced me I couldn't keep putting off the suspension repairs (I've been driving with no swaybar), so I got swaybar endlink bushings, control arm bushings upper and lower, trackbar bushings. Ball joints will be next but I wanted to take care of the basics first. Installed the endlinks this weekend and wow what a difference. When I swapped front axles, most of the bushings were pretty beat up, but at the time I just needed to get the swap done and from then on it was easy to put off replacing the bushings. Anyway, one of the endlinks was so worn it allowed enough play that the bolt just sheared right off. Still need to figure out the front end wobble over bumps (precursor to deathwobble it seems), hoping the trackbar bushings cure that or one of the other worn out pieces. And, high speed vibration that I'm getting. Need to fix the rear pinion angle and replace the driveshaft ujoints and see if that fixes it (and maybe the worn bushings too).

Went for a drive with the swaybar endlinks repaired and connected. Wow what a differnece!

The handle on my gate broke so now I'm using vice grips to yank each side open. Only problem is, it's completely rusted inside the gate and the linkage mechanism to release the lock is nearly done in. It won't be long before it's completely rusted away and breaks to the point where I can't open it. My question is, how difficult is this to repair? I took a quick look at it yesterday and it doesn't seem obvious to me how to disassemble, other than cutting the gate apart to replace the mechanism then welding back together?? Is that why the gates are in such demand all the time? Externally my gate is in good shape, it's just the parts on the inside that are rusted out. Anyway, if the easiest (or only real) option is just to replace the gate, I think I'll take you up on your offer if it still stands.

Put my MT springs to good use and stuffed the bed full of bricks. Engine didn't even feel the load but the body sure did, now I'm ordering new bushings all around!

If you're looking at craigslist and other places, be sure to enter the common misspellings like "commanche", "comanchee", and "commanchee". I ended up buying mine from a guy in New Hampshire, he had it spelled wrong. Funny thing is he even commented how he didn't get many responses to his ad. Here's one I found, seems pricey but might be nice: http://boston.craigslist.org/nos/ctd/1720245878.html I'll keep an eye out too locally.