mgbeatlefan

I used the IRO Style B shock mounts on my rear swap. I had them come straight out the back of my tubes. https://flic.kr/p/DBVVh4 Another option you could look at is the Style C mounts. They sit 1.75" off the axle tube. The single shear scares some people but they hold up really well.

Added.

Got some work done this morning. Got the 1.5" lines done and most of the 1.75" lines done. I was short a 90° bend. Also ran out of hose clamps. I am going to build a shield covering the lines to protect the passenger and the possibility of getting sprayed with hot coolant. Here you can see where I ran out of bends/hose clamps. I also tacked the ends of the pipes since I don't have a bead roller and didn't feel like making one. Clamped a hose on one and tried pulling it off and it wasn't going to happen. I think it'll work for what I'm doing.

Here comes another progress update. I've got the truck sitting on it's own again. Dana 44 front axle is trussed and all new mounts were made. Rear Dana 60 had new leaf spring perches and shock mounts welded on. (Thinking about trussing it later on down the road) Built a new transmission/long arm crossmember. Built a front 3 link. Test fit the 96 XJ brake booster/M.C. and pedal assembly. Built a transmission tunnel to clear the transfer case. Started work on a dash template. Got the preliminary engine wiring done. Built a mount for the rear radiator. Started to run some cooling lines to the rear radiator. Modified the power steering bracket to move the pump above the steering gearbox. (Also the Dodge Ram Power steering hoses fit the Jeep steering gearbox without any modifications :thumbsup: ) Pictures to accompany the list above: I'm hoping to have the coolant lines run by the end of the weekend so I can pull the engine and transmission to do some final work to them before they are put in for hopefully the last time :banana: Not going to make my goal for Winterfest this year but money is tight and you gotta get a few parts when you can. New goal is to have it running and moving under it's own power by the end of March at the latest.

Progress update will be posted later tonight.

So, since I keep forgetting I have actual build threads started, there will basically be a giant photo dump to try and catch up to current progress. Ready... ... ... ... GO! Test fit #1 Test fit #2 Started the frame plating using 1/8"steel: In again on it's own mounts! Trying to figure out where the front axle is going to sit: Patched some floor rust so my feet don't fall off from the cold :) And that's where she is sitting right now. I'll be tackling a new transmission crossmember since the one I was planning on using won't work with my transfer case. Followed by the front axle truss and link mounts.

Will do man. Life got in the way so I ended up starting on it a lot later than I was hoping to.

Oh man! Totally forgot about this thread! I'll get an update when I get home. :doh:

I'm running boomerang shackles in my MJ. If you want any specific pictures I can grab some tonight when I get home. They are not as necessary on a Comanche as they are on a Cherokee. The Cherokees have a different shackle mount on the "frame" side. I had a straight shackles in the back of my Cherokee for a while and it would hit the back of the mount when the rear end dropped off rocks. With the boomerang shackles the leafs could flatten out more and the shackle didn't hit the mount anymore. That is just my personal experience with those. Anyone else have stuff to add?

I apologize for the lack of progress. Been pretty busy lately and haven't had any time to work on the truck. I did manage to get the engine and the axles pulled. I was really happy to get the stock exhaust manifolds pulled off the engine since the bolts were very rusty. The new headers should be here by the end of the day Tuesday so I should have everything I need engine wise for mock-up purposes. The axles are pretty much prepped. the rear axle will be a pretty straightforward affair and I'm not too worried about it. The front axle is another story. I will probably be building a truss to mount my coil spring mounts and upper control arm mount to. The lower control arm mounts might get a little tricky but I will have to see how things line up under the truck. I will be pulling the truck in for tear down after we get the drywall up on the ceiling in the garage. Hopefully we can get that done on Saturday. Once the truck is in the garage it isn't coming out until it is swapped over :) I will try and get current pics up tomorrow when I have some time.

You sir are correct.

I hear a lot of people are skeptical on the IRO LAs. To each their own though. There are a lot of ways to accomplish the same thing, just throwing out another option that I have experience with. I also agree with the lift height. I've got about 8-9" of lift on my MJ and there is a whole lot of room even for 35's. Are you planning on running tires bigger than that?

I may be a little biased but I really enjoy my Iron Rock Off Road long arms. Had them in my old XJ and then swapped them to my MJ. No complaints whatsoever. But as I said before, I may be a little biased.

Been making a little more progress lately. Almost have the Dodge stripped all the way down. Hoping to have it all pulled apart tomorrow night then I can pull in the 'manche and start tearing into it. Beware the upcoming picture dump with little text. Gotta make up time! So much less wiring than the other Jeep :) Something is about to happen.... Yep. Sometimes you've gotta come up with redneck solutions :) And that brings us up to tonight's progress. Planning on getting the engine pulled tomorrow night once I dig the rest of my engine stand out of the shed. Hoping to be able to get the axle pulled Thursday night and get the Comanche into the garage for teardown over the long weekend.

Yeah the good ones are hard to come by. I don't think I know Duane. Always good to know of some parts laying around :) I am not on MN-Jeep yet. Will probably join in the next day or so. Just been super busy lately.

Sweet! Yeah I jumped on this after finding it on CL. Always been a fan of Comanches but they don't pop up very often.

Hey everyone! New guy here. Name is Patrick and I've been lurkin' around the forum since I got my MJ back in February. Picked it up to replace my XJ which rotted away. She's got a 4.0 with the BA/10 trans for now. Plans were to swap over my IRO 6.5 Long Arm lift and run it as is for a while. Which worked for a little while. But on to the pics. How she was the day I brought her home next to my XJ. Old company decals off and fresh paint. After I had the front diff explode on me on my way to work. I spent that weekend swapping over the axles and suspension from the XJ under the MJ. Wound up being a little taller than I had planned. WIth the factory springs in the back and a spring over conversion, it had about 8.5-9" of lift in the back so I had to throw some 8" lift springs in the front. All sitting on used 34x10.5 Super Swamper TSLs. Just to mention that all this was done 4 days before heading out to NAXJA Winterfest in Attica, Indiana. Get everything finished up in time and had a blast out at Winterfest. Always a good time with some really cool dudes. After the trip I tried to drive it into work and one of the front control arms sheared a bolt and dropped the arm while I was doing 70 down the highway. Talk about a fun ride! Got it towed back home and immediately decided it was never going to see road duty like this again! That's when my mind really started turning. I have an old 87 Dodge pickup that I was going to use as a cheap truck challenge rig for a little contest we were going to have at work( I work at Iron Rock Off Road if I hadn't mentioned that yet). After doing some measuring, I decided to swap over the entire drivetrain from the Dodge into the MJ. So i got to work stripping down the Dodge. That's about as far as I have gotten on it so far. Overall plans for mods are as follows: 8" Lift grown to like it :) Front Dana 44 Rear Dana 60 Dodge 360 V8 727 Torqueflite NP208 ~119" Wheelbase 3 Link front 4 Link rear Tube bed I'll be updating this with more progress as I get time to work on it. Been doing some housework and the garage is just full of stuff so there isn't any room to work. If anyone has questions or suggestions, feel free to throw em out.

Hi there. I was wondering if you got the bracket figured out. I have one of our double shear track bars on my 87 MJ and I didn't have any issues with the bracket fitting. Just curious as to what you end up doing to make it fit. My name is Patrick and I'm one of the designers at Iron Rock.