rtyler8140

So with a control arm drop bracket kit, can I run stock control arms?

I ended up taping the edges for the herculiner and then had to cut the tape with a razor blade. It turned out pretty well. As far as prep, I had just primered it so I didnt see much sense in "roughing" primer. Its holding up pretty well (hauled some mulch and a bunch of busted up concrete and its not tearing up anywhere). It's not as thick of coverage as I was hoping and its rough as hell. Other than that, not bad at all.

So I have a 2" bb on the manche and would like 4.5". I'm debating going with some V8 Grand coils for the front which I think should bump me up another 2" or so. Either that or just putting in some 4.5" lift coils. For the rear I'm thinking spring over. I measured and a spring over should give me 5.5" and then I was going to use an XJ shackle to drop it down 3/4". Theoretically that will give me 4.5" in the front and 4.75" in the rear. My question is, what all will I need to do to the front end to keep everything kosher? Will stock control arms be okay until I can get the control arm drop brackets? Will I need a drop pitman arm? New trackbar, or can I relocate the mounting point? I don't have a ton of money so I'm trying to keep this as low budget as possible, but I am well aware that cheap and lift don't exactly go hand in hand. If I can't do it in a safe manner I will wait it out. Thanks in advance for your input.

So it's been a little while since my last update. Not a whole lot has changed. I finished the paint job and herculiner. Didn't turn out perfect, but good enough for me. I ended up buying a 2" budget boost kit and some 31's. Me being the swift thinker I am, I bought a XJ kit not realizing that the XJ shackles are about 3/4" shorter. Anywho it doesn't look too bad and I'm planning on going bigger pretty soon anyway. Here are some pics of the progress. Doorless Doors in the apartment (hahaha) I just cut the bottom part of the hinge off and trimmed the pin so that they just pop on and off I took the speakers out of the doors and mounted them in the kick pannels I suppose that's pretty much it for now. Thanks for looking.

Hey I ran the BFG MT's on my Cherokee and they were pretty good. I didn't do any heavy duty mud cause I hate washing it off. lol I did a bunch of trails at Oak Ridge (including CJ-5) with no tire trouble. As for on-road, they are decently quiet, but they have to be rotated often. If I did more wheeling and less on-road driving I would buy them again.

Yeah I've dropped 2 or 3 tanks on comanches and its not my favorite job in the world. If it is a wiring issue, I'll fix it. If it's the sending unit I'm not that motivated to fix it. hahaha. Thanks for the input guys.

The needle just sits on empty the whole time. I'll crawl under it tomorrow and see what I can see.

So my fuel gauge doesn't work in the manche. It's a 87 with the 4.0l and the standard gauge cluster (not the dummy gauges). All of my other gauges work just fine. Anything in particular I should look for to get the fuel gauge working again? Thanks in advance for your help.

So I googled that and luckily I didn't encounter that problem. :rotfl2: You missed the door locks and antenna mount as well. :banana: Don't worry, I'm spraying them back black. I figure I have to tape them off to paint a fresh coat of black, so why tape them twice if I don't have too. I'm almost done. Still need to do some finishing touches stuff. I'll post some pics in the next few days.

So I got some time today to do the Herculiner. I guess it turned out pretty good, but I think some of it leaked under my masking tape. Oh well, live and learn. Anywho in terms of the painting process, I planned on shooting Rustoleum through a HPLV gun, but I couldn't get it thin enough to spray without cutting it by more than 50% with acetone and I wasn't sure how the paint would hold up. I ended up just going to Lowes and buying some Rustoleum rattle can paint. Took about 10 cans to do it all. I'm still working on the trim. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have it back together and on the road. I'm getting tired of not being able to drive it. Here are some pics.

So this whole painting thing isn't going as smooth as anticipated. I've finally started shooting some paint on the thing and will try and finish up all the trim tomorrow. Also bought some herculiner today and will hopefully do that tomorrow. Sorry I only have this picture, didn't have the camera at the barn with me.

Hahaha I'll have to show that to Steve (the owner of that crewmanche). He's actually gonna have it up at the Wheel In at Oak Ridge next weekend on display. He is a really cool guy and is a vault of information when it comes to Jeeps.

That is a nice rig, only problem with it is the decals :D . I'm getting mine all taped off tonight and hopefully going to shoot some primer in the morning and if all goes well paint on sunday :banana:

Saw this in a build thread the other day. Definitely not a stock roof rack from a cherokee b/c it mounts on the rain gutters. I'm sure a stock roof rack from a cherokee could be modified and put up there and look pretty good. Or you can do like my mechanic and do this:

Yeah those decals were a huge pain. Went to Harbor Freight and got a heat gun to speed up the process, but still had the glue to deal with after that. :fs1: Yeah I did all the underhood cleaning by hand. I know some people use pressure washers, but I'm always nervous I'll get water in the electronics and cause trouble I don't want. haha The interior is pretty much flawless. The seats have a rip or two, but other than that the Black interior with Bucket Seats is in great condition.

So I sold my XJ due to self inflicted financial woes :wall: and took the leftover money and bought an 87 Comanche Chief from my mechanic. Apparently he bought it from a local steel company that used it to haul steel. They took the factory roll bar out and threw it away. :fool: Anyway stats are as follows: 1987 Comanche Chief 4x4 4.0L I6 with 145,000 miles Automatic Trans Short Bed Dana 30 up front Dana 44 in the rear with 3.54's Here is what it looked like when I got it. The plans I have at this point are to: -Paint it -Herculine the Bed and Lower portion of body -Lift it (4.5" springs in the front, SOA with custom leaf pack in rear to match the front) -32" BFG A/T's on soft 8's -Re-gear 4.10's or 4.56's not sure yet The lift and re-gear plans are contingent on the finishing and selling of this: Anyway the first order of business was to clean the engine bay out some Before: During: After: oops..still need to take that picture While cleaning I put a new valve cover gasket on, new plugs, wires, cap and rotor button. Then I decided it would be a nice time to start on the paint job: I'm sanding off all of the surface rust and treating it with a special primer. That is the stage I am stuck at now due to the 10" freak snowstorm we just got hit with the other day. More pics to ensue in the following weeks. Thanks for looking folks.

I'm not a fan of rear discs. Just personal preference I guess. Well that and the fact that if you go through mud and muck, drums will do a little better job keeping the crap off of your brakes. Also depending on what you are going to be doing wheeling wise and what size tires you are going to run, the Dana 35 might not be beefy enough. The Chrysler 8.25 out of a cherokee is a good axle you could pick up decently cheap and is beefier than a 35. Just food for thought. But if your looking for discs, the 35 will be your cheapest option. GL with the install.

Yeah I'm gonna be running 15x8's.......so I guess I'll keep my eyes peeled for some Soft 8's. :cheers: Thanks for the replies.

To run 33x12.50's will 4" of backspacing be enough to keep the tires from rubbing? I know it will be enough for the front, but I'm concerned about the rear. Thanks in advance. Ryan

Wow I didn't know they were going for soooo much money. I replaced mine with the ones from Advance Auto and threw my stock ones in the trash. Too bad the trash has already been hauled to the dump. :doh:

I have an 87 Comanche 4.0L automatic with dana 44 rear and dana 30 in the front. Based on this set-up I believe I have 3.55's in it. If this is the case, I could go up to 4.10's without having to swap the carrier correct? Also I'm guessing that 4.10s would be suitable for 33's. I'm planning on running 4.5" of lift and doing some trimming on the fenders. My XJ had about 4" of lift with trimming and I had pleanty of room for 32's so I'm guessing 33's would be okay (may rub a little at full flex). Does this sound right? Thanks in advance.

The 3 bolts for the gas tank are 15mm. Ratcheting wrench and box end wrench will be your best friend for this. Like someone else said, you won't be able to get a deep enough socket to get on it. You will need a flathead screwdriver to get all the hose clamps off. Also a pair of wire snips to cut the zip tie that holds the wiring harness to the gas lines. If you don't have any "PB Bolt Blaster" go get a can from your local auto parts store. Spray all your bolts with that first to soak them real well and the bolts should come off pretty easy. Also bring some rags to put over the fuel line hoses when you pull them off so the fuel in the lines doesn't spew on you. Some of the MJ's had factory gas tank skids, so you will need to remove that as well if there is one. Take some cardboard of a blanket to lay on too. lol Have fun.

I'm in the process of painting my MJ right now. I had a compressor, so I bought a gravity feed gun from Harbor Freight. I'm using rustoleum for the paint, so that will keep costs down. I'm sure I will get flamed for using rustoleum, but to each his own. The body work is the biggest pain so far seeing as how my MJ had so many pinstripe decals on it. I'm not expecting a show quality paint job, I just wanted to get rid of the surface rust and have a fresh coat of paint on it. Honestly if you are looking to do it yourself and to keep it cheap, google "rustoleum paint job" You can actually roll the stuff on and get good results if you take the time.

I've been doing a lot of searching for lift kits as well, and haven't come across an 8" lift kit. If I were in your shoes I would do a SOA conversion (5-6.5" lift) in the rear with either some lift springs or an AAL to obtain the extra few inches. In the front you could do 6" springs and 2" spacers or I guess if they make 8" springs, use those. Your comanche front end is identical to a cherokee so for lifting the front you can look at some options in the XJ world. With that much lift you are gonna need an adjustable track bar, upper and lower control arms (preferably a long arm kit). I'm not sure if you will need a SYE or even longer drive shafts, hopefully someone else will chime in. If money is a factor, you'd probably be better off doing a 6.5" kit and trimming your fenders to run 35's. Anywho hope this helps a little.

Well I picked up my Comanche today. I love this thing. It's a 1987 Comanche Chief. I believe it is the metric package based on the Dana 44 in the rear. It has 147k miles on the 4.0l with an automatic transmission. Bought it from my mechanic and its in pretty good shape. It could use a little TLC cosmetically and it will get it when I have the money. Anywho enjoy some pics.