87Warrior

A Toyota Camry is a very good first car. Get one with the 4 cylinder and it will be dead reliable. Want one with AWD? Try a Venza without the glass roof.

Wow. How many miles were on the PT's timing belt? I replace the timing belt every 100k miles in my Cruiser (the Mr. T Land variety) as a precaution. Sheering off the trackbar/upper control arm mount on my TJ's rear axle in Colorado was fun. Luckily I had a trailer waiting... The issue was the trailer was 30 miles away. Driving a TJ on curvy mountain roads with a ratchet strap keeping the axle under the rear end was nerve-racking

Awesome! It's been a long time coming.

Using airbags as big bags is genius!

It's a nice truck, but....

$50 for a rollbar is worth a no sleep road trip!

It will keep my very non NOS service manual company

I grabbed some "still in the wrapper" new 86 wiring diagrams! I had planned to actually use them, but now I'm not so sure...

When my wife and I first test drove a Subaru with the lane departure warning system, the dealer cracked up laughing when she was driving and asked what that beeping was.... She was crossing the lines 😂 I may or may not have enjoyed poking fun of her over the next few years everytime that lane departure alert went off...

In my experience, the radar cruise function starts slowing you down when you are about 10 seconds behind a vehicle. The slow down is so gradual you might not even notice the radar has taken over as you are starting to plan your pass. Then you are about 4 seconds behind the slower car and notice you are not catching up to them any more. The radar cruise has slowed you down to maintain an extremely conservative following distance from the car in front of you. This is less frustrating on an empty 4 lane interstate, but is infuriating on a 2 lane highway. Here in Kansas we are taught to maintain a 2 second following distance, but the radar cruise systems I have used will stay 3-4 seconds behind on the closest setting. Turning off the radar cruise does not deactivate any collision avoidance/automatic braking systems, at least in a Subaru and Toyota, that is another button. Those systems do work. I tested the obstacle avoidance on the Subaru by having a buddy toss a large pool raft in front of the car as I was driving down the road at 30 mph. The car did lock up the brakes to avoid the obstacle on its own. I was impressed and terrified all at the same time. I have used radar cruise once with good luck in a 15 mile section of single land road construction on the interstate. Traffic was slow and traffic speed varied between 40 and 60mph. I had set cruise to the work zone 65mph limit and the radar cruise maintained that 4 second following distance from the car in front of me all the way through the work zone.

@Pete M Do you have any dealer pics to share?!?! My wife's Subaru Outback was awful. It took several button presses to turn off radar cruise. Her new Toyota is nice, you just have to hold the 'cruise on' button for 1 second to turn on regular cruise. I hate radar cruise, ugh.

I lost brakes, again, in the truck when a car pulled out in front of me and I had to stand on the pedal. The original Ford line on the 8.8 sprung a leak on a rusty part of the tube. Ordered a replacement from Inline Tube versus bending my own. I also reset my toe-in to 1/16". After lowering the truck it toe-ed out by about 1/2". It always boggles my mind knowing how much the toe changes when the ride height changes. You can see the rusty pile of goo that was in the adjuster sleeve. It look a lot of PB Blaster and heat to break free. After being home for 5 days with the covid, I decided to take the truck to the family farm and harvest some firewood. I am not sure which one of us was more excited to leave the house I've also replace the headlight switch and installed a headlight harness. Since the coolant overflow tank cap was cracked I replaced it with a Dorman 82594. She also got some new tires! I opted to try the Hankook DYNAPRO AT2 in 235/75R15. These have the 3 peak snow rating and seem to ride on the snow without an issue.

Does your truck have a support bracket running from above the drivers side kick panel to one of the clutch master cylinder mounting bolts? This bracket helps prevent the firewall from moving around when the pedal is pressed.

You have built a beautiful truck! I just read through your build. Nice work. ...and yes, tires have gotten very expensive

Awesome! I remember the first drive I had in my '86 after saving it from an almost guaranteed scrapping. What a great feeling!

My 2.5L always cools down in the winter time. I replace the thermostat when the heater isn't able to produce enough heat to heat the cab. Within the past couple of weeks I ordered a Mopar t-stat from the dealer and received a MotoRad t-stat (without a Mopar part number stamped on it). Did the dealer pull something sneaky or is a genuine Mopar tstat now only labeled as MotoRad?

This old truck has probably been the most reliable vehicle I own! It has been so reliable I have taken it for granted and some basic upkeep has been neglected over the years. The alternator has been squealing for years, the tires have dry rot, the ride is bouncy, it generally handled like crap on the road and during the latest cold snap the engine never warmed up. The first order of business was replacing the thermostat. I also chose to replace the water pump at the same time since I have never touched it. The water pump bearings were rough so it was time. Based on the grime on the timing chain cover, I suspect a front main seal replacement might need done in the future. I installed a new (remanufactured) alternator and belts (Gates/Bando). This truck is still sporting a 4.0 HO thermostat housing. I replaced the retrofitted HO IAT with a good used Renix IAT from @eaglescout526 and I replaced the Oxygen sensor with a new Denso unit. It idles a whole lot smoother now! I then turned my attention to the suspension, which involved lowering the truck back down to near stock height. Don't get me wrong, I loved the way this truck sat! The problem was that some of the lift components needed replaced and since it needed new tires I made the choice to go with smaller tires so the 2.5 is more happy on the highway. I removed the poor fitting 2" Chevy drop shackles I had been running since 2012. I attribute some of the poor handling this truck had these tall shackles with a worn out bushing. A bitter sweet moment was removing the Bilstein rear shocks I bought from Don @HOrnbrod years ago... but I know he would agree these shocks needed replaced! I replaced the shackles with a set of used JKS shackles and I replaced the shocks with parts store KYB 'gas-a-just' shocks. It started to look like the MJ was trying out that new "squat" fad. Up front I replaced the old RE TJ lift springs with new Moog CC782 XJ Upcountry springs I bought from @Billabob. I also replaced the worn YJ Monroe shocks with another set of KYB "gas-a-just" shocks. I finished up the front end with a new Moog trackbar to replace the RE1600 and new Moog swaybar links since the bushings in JKS disconnects I had been running simply disintegrated. The 'grandpafication' of this truck is almost complete with steel wheels. I still have a lot of work to do to this old truck. I am planning a DIY replacement windshield (used glass from a 93 XJ) replacement, install a 231 transfer case, replace the steering gearbox and power steering pump (again; I lost the power steering return hose and suspect it cooked the pump), install a new speedometer cable and of course, new tires to replace the worn out tires on these replacement steel wheels.

GO BIGGER! Seriously. I filled a 30x40 pretty quick.

Today marks my 13 year anniversary of joining Comanche Club. Over the years I have been everything from a daily poster, a CC T-Shirt seller, a casual browser, and even a MIA member. This is one of the few grass-roots forums I have been a part of that hasn't been sold out to a large company and still maintains the integrity it had when I joined. Thank you for staying true to your roots Comanche Club... All Jeep Comanche, All The Time @Pete M and the moderation crew deserve a huge round of applause for keeping this place on track! Thank you for the dedication to CC!

Nice finds!

This is the dealer emblem that used to be on the tailgate of my 86. I suspect this was the original selling dealership in Des Moines, IA: Since that tailgate has rusted in 1/2, here is the dealer decal on the replacement tailgate:

I have a Duralast (autozone brand) AGM in my TJ. The battery is now 4 years old and the Jeep sits way more than it gets driven. It will sometime go 2 months without being started or with a maintainer on it. Just this week was the first time I experienced a slow start with the battery.

I am having a hard time locating that product. Is it a Canada only thing? Do you happen to have a link?