Jargon

On the factory bottles, there's two lines - one on top for the overflowing coolant and one on bottom to return it.

Excellent choice of paint. Really can't wait to see it all finished! :popcorn:

This is an awesome build thread! Thank you for taking the time to post all these pictures. Beautiful MJ too :thumbsup: .

:popcorn: Turbo kit you say?

Beautiful paint job. That thing sits real nice!

Are you going to check it out because you're interested in buying it? If so, I'd be curious to get an update. Very cool MJ for sure. :thumbsup: :drool:

Very nice! Love the clean interior! Seems like the consensus in both the XJ and MJ community is that Rough Country lifts are only a decent product, but maybe good for the money, especially if you're not going to be doing much off-roading. I can't really speak from experience though. http://comancheclub.com/topic/46152-what-lift-to-get/

:drool: :drool: :drool: ... love the bench

According to AutoZone, the OE Recommended Thermostat Temperature is 195 degrees. http://www.autozone.com/cooling-heating-and-climate-control/thermostat/jeep/comanche-4wd/1990/4-cylinders-e-2-5l-tbi

Picked up another Comanche the other day. She's a 1988 4.0L manual. Got a little bit of lift (exact height not sure yet) on 31x10.5 tires. Couple rust spots here and there but all-in-all a straight body and very clean inside and out. Only problems I'm aware of so far are the wipers not working. Also got some of death wobble at 55MPH so I'll be starting a Fixing Death Wobble thread shortly :crossfingers:. Stand by!

One of the cleanest Comanches I've seen in a long time. It's not mine. But it is impressively clean so I thought I'd share. Wish I had $8700 that I didn't know how to spend. Image Not Found Image Not Found Image Not Found Image Not Found Image Not Found Image Not Found http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/cto/4887678173.html

Just wanted to say that this might be the best post of the year, so far. :clapping:

I'm in. There's gotta be other Oregon folks here... come on guys!

This is a lot of really useful information :thumbsup: And I'm really surprised someone knows the details of this build so well. Thanks mnkyboy. You say "were going to do a bunch more work to it" so I assume the owner just sort of dropped the project. Maybe it became a money pit. I hope to get in touch with him this weekend. I don't know, it seems really sketchy to me that someone would take such a clean, low-mile truck and jack it up 10 inches like that, and so poorly too (not blaming the owner). Kind of a shame. But to each his own. So that's why I asked the question about this leaf conversion in the first place. I don't know about axles seals on the MJ, but I think on the Grand Cherokee they are a pain to replace. Thanks for the helpful info guys.

Ahh, see - the fact that you consider it a downgrade makes me curious about these sort of modifications. I hope to talk with the guy in the next 10 hours or so. Thanks for input.

I see. Thank you for the explanation. Supposedly over $5k was invested in the suspension (parts and labor), so I was just surprised on such a huge investment on such an old vehicle and wondered why so much!

That stray wire may have pulled out of the end of the cable or something. Try to connect it to the positive battery cable/terminal and see what happens. Maybe put the keys in the ignition to and touch that cable to the positive and see if the lights/beeping come on inside the cabin. Risk seems minimal to me :D

Yeah, pretty much that's what I meant to ask. To me it just seems so over-kill to convert the front to leaf springs with all the modification that would be needed, as opposed to just doing the standard lift with keeping the coil springs like most people do. I guess I was wondering why people do that and if it's good/bad? Or is this case just an anomaly?

EDIT: I guess the title should be more specific to the question about converting the front to leaf springs. Pardon my inaccurate problem description. I am kind of new to the off-roading modification scene. I am wondering what the deal is with people doing leaf conversions on the front end (SOA conversion, is that the term?) I've done a little bit of reading on the forums but cannot get a clear understanding. I don't understand the benefits or why someone would do it to their Comanche. I see it sometimes on Wranglers, and honestly with Wranglers the benefits seems more intuitive. But I'm curious about the Comanche. To me, it seems like it would drastically reduce articulation and turning radius (unless your wheels are sticking out a ton). I guess, specifically, I'm hesitant to buy a local Comanche that is for sale because it's got this SOA conversion on the front and I know nothing about. Seems like a ton of welding and whatnot, although it looks like it was done well. Says it's got Dana 44 and 60 and then 4" YJ leafs on the front. Is this front-end leaf conversion a normal thing? Just looking for some last-minute insight. Thanks much! These are the pics on the ad (you post it on the internet it becomes fair game, right B)). Image Not Found

The symptoms you are explaining are very, very similar to the symptoms I experienced with my Jeep last year. Almost exactly the same, actually. This may sound strange... but you should replace the battery. History: For months, I suffered from intermittent (yet chronic) instances where the voltmeter on the dash would surge to 19 volts while I was driving. The check engine light would come up with a code having something to do with the alternator. It didn't seem to affect anything until I turned the Jeep off. If I turned it off and tried to turn it back on... nothing. I'd get no headlights, dash lights, or the beep-beep-beep you get when you insert the key into the ignition. I would check everything... fuse box, battery terminals, cables, battery voltage, etc. Everything looked fine. Battery would read about 12.2 volts. It still wouldn't start. I could occasionally jump-start it; most of the time it would turn over but then shut off if I took my foot of the gas. The only thing I could do, seemingly, was wait a few hours. After a few hours (days in some cases), I would go to start it and it would fire right up. I put up with this for a long time. One day, after it had been running well for a few weeks, the voltmeter again surged to 19 volts. I stopped by Battery Exchange and they tested the alternator and said it was okay. They also said the battery was charged properly and didn't see any reason to suspect it was an issue. Finally, the issue returned full-force. I drove home from work; everything was okay. I went to start it the next morning and... nothing. No dash lights or anything. She sat there for a few days while I messed with it, again checking all the basics and trying everything I could find on the interwebs. The battery still read slightly above 12 volts. I decided to start 'shotgunning' parts at it and installed a new battery. Just like that, she started right up. Haven't had any issue for a year now. I don't have a good theory as to why this fixed it, but it did.

I'm totally diggin' the vinyl wrap. Did it come in sheets, or in a large roll? And how simple was it to install by yourself? I would imagine it would be difficult to keep air bubbles out. I'd be worried about the hot summer temperatures. Anyway, looks clean. I'm very interested in trying this myself.

Literally. There is NO wiring necessary -- it's already there. The speedometers in both of your photos are the "old" style, which probably uses a metal clip and a screw to hold the cable to the speedometer head. The tachometers in that style don't have any way to calibrate between 4-cylinder and 6-cylinder, so if you buy one, be sure it came from a vehicle with the sae number of cylinders as yours. That's great news. I assumed it would be difficult so I didn't even bother looking into it. Okay, so I'll get a cluster with a tach instead; luckily there are a few on Craigslist right now. I did see in another thread (just now) detailing that some tachs can be calibrated to fit either 4-cylinder or 6-cylinder, but I'll stick with getting a cluster that came from a 2.5L to make the swap more idiot-proof. Thanks guys :) .

I would definitely rather have the one with the tach as well, but I assumed it would be a more complicated swap, and I'm not sure how deep I want to get involved in this right now. Since there currently isn't a tach, I was assuming it would be extras wiring/parts to get it set up to run a tach. If that is straigtforward as well, I would for sure do that instead. My MJ is a 1990 and the cluster I am getting is from a 1989. I don't yet know what the colors on the back are, but I'll make sure they're the same. Thanks. Thanks. I will check it out and see what you did.

This can probably be answered with a "yes" or "no." My MJ has the light-only-style gauge cluster and I don't like it. I have the chance to pick up the 'preferred' style gauge cluster, but I don't know if the swap is straightforward or not. Can I simply pull out the old style and install the new one without any special modifications? This is the one I have: Image Not Found And this is the one I want: Image Not Found I only ask because I don't want to start this swap and get half-way through and realize I've goofed. Any input is really appreciated. Thanks.