sureshot007

I live in the rust belt too, but it will generally only be driven for rallies, and washed every time it sees snow.

So I ran my first stage rally this past weekend. It was a learning experience. The comanche is a stock 86 2.5L rwd with a 7' bed. We need to do something about power and suspension. Since this is my first comanche, I am looking to you guys for guidance on the best bang for the buck stuff, as racing gets expensive quickly. First, let me introduce you to "The Chief" (we are at about 7:00 into the vid) What I am looking for is a suspension setup that would work like a baja trophy truck, but made from as many off the shelf parts as possible. And the rear drums have to go. So we were thinking of swapping a cherokee rear end, maybe an air locker?, stiffer springs front and rear, and good shocks. And a 5 speed, because this 4 speed is brutal on transits. We are also looking at a 4.0L swap as well. Plus we need to chop the bed behind the wheels. So if you were building an offroad race truck (not rock crawler), and you were on a tight budget, what would you do?

We leave in the morning for STPR (http://www.stpr.org) and the parking brake cables are all seized. No one in town has comanche cables. Any ideas on what other cable would be a close enough length to work? It doesn't have to be perfect or pretty, just functional for a few days to pass the tech inspection.

That's the plan, but I am just trying to get an idea of what some people use, and where/how they are mounted.

The whole thing :) Think Baja Trophy Truck...

You have to forgive me as I am a little new to jeeps - were does it attach to? It's nothing like my subarus, that's for sure.

So what do you guys use for skid plates and how do you mount them?

Swapped the radiator and it seems to be ok now. Hopefully, it won't be an issue. Thanks for the help!

2.5L Who knows how old the radiator is...

Correct. No pressurized bottle.

I forgot to mention that when I ran with the cap on, it boiled over into the puke tank.

Run the truck for 10 minutes and the coolant starts to boil off. There is no thermostat. It happens with the radiator cap off as well. Water pump is dead? Is there any other possibility? No smoke from the tail pipe, and the oil looks clean as well. Thanks for any input you can give me.

So I found this thing on the rear brakes, and I'm pretty sure its the load sensing brake distribution thingy. Well, it's not hooked to the rear diff likes its supposed to be. I am trying to install a hydraulic hand brake in line with the rear brakes, and the return line for the load sensing thing is really interfering with the operation. So here's the question: How do I remove it and plumb the lines back together to make it function properly without a return line back to the master cylinder?

The cage isn't as pretty as I would like it to be...I bought it that way, and it's just enough to be legal to get into stage rally. I'll get some pics as soon as we square away a few more things, like the hydraulic hand brake...

It has the 2.5L. It's nothing special, because it's going to be my first Stage Rally, and I am more concerned with finishing than going fast. Maybe next season there might be a 4.0L swap in the cards...

Hi, my name is Jim and I recently acquired my first MJ - its an 86 Comanche Custom, or so the title says. It's currently logbooks for Rally America Group 2 and SCCA ITE, but I plan on rallying it primarily. You may see me asking questions such as "what the hell wire is this?" and "how do I get his out?" I have owned an 85 Cherokee in the past, but my expertise does not lie in jeeps. This is what it looked like when I bought it. We have had to do some work to it, so I'll take some newer pics once I get the updated sponsor vinyl on it. The plan is to run STPR in June.