Garvin

The only full pan they make is the one for a Cherokee. You will need to cut it down to the size of the Comanches to put it in. OMIX makes the full OEM floor pan for the Cherokee and I was extremely pleased with it. I ended up cutting and piecing that into mine (you can see it in my build page). Not sure if that's along the lines of yours but I wasn't able to find anything and that was my buddies solution to the problem.

I'm assuming you're talking about the piece that bolts to the trans and the top of the rubber mount. Unless you plan on using like 6061 aluminum (or equivalent), I would stick to steel. There isn't enough room to add the ribs needed to make an aluminum mount able to support the stresses on that piece. Plus, steel is cheaper and easier to mold.

I just used my factory springs. They could be sagging a bit (I didn't measure before, only measured from the ground to the flare) or it could be the 8.25 swap but normally you get 5.5" lift from a SOA.

As long as the angles aren't too extreme, you won't notice too much of a difference in on road ride characteristics between long arm and short arm (assuming you did upgrade to aftermarket ones to fix the caster). A lot of the arguments should be aimed more towards ride characteristics offroad. I haven't driven on a lift and short arms on the street (always had long arms since my first lift) so other will have to chime in more on that. The main characteristic is when rock climbing and hill climbing (mud to a MUCH lesser extent). The flatter the arm in those instances, the better the front end grips and the less wheel hop you will get. As for the rear, I did a SOA with IronMan4x4 adjustable shackles. I also swapped to a Chrysler 8.25 at the same time when I did mine. I netted 4.5" with the stock perches (just cut, moved and rewelded the perches). There is 2" rake on these trucks also (assuming your springs aren't sagging all that bad). Right now I have a 6.5" lift in the rear (4.5" from SOA and 2" from shackles) and an 8.5" in the front and the Jeep sits level. I know you said you don't want to go that high but I have also taken measurements as I want to go down to around 4.5" later on. With my old 4dr Cherokee (I know it's not exactly the same but you should be able to trim a lot more than I could on the Comanche), I was running the 8" Rusty's lift with 36x13.5R15 IROK's. At full flex (sway bar disaconnected), I still had a good 4 or so inches of space in the front before the tire touches the fender. I was planning on dropping down to a 4.5" lift on that Jeep with the 36's and maybe slight bumpstop extensions (wouldn't need anymore than an inch over stock) just to keep a little clearance between the fenders and tires. This was with Wrangler flares mounted at the body lines in the front (and trimmed up to them) and the rear was trimmed to the pinch weld. Sorry, it's a long post, but that was my experiences so far. I can provide pictures of either if you're interested.

Transfer cases are extremely easy to rebuild, I've done quite a few of them and can do them in my sleep at this point. The AX15's aren't too bad to rebuild, you might need a press to get to some of the stuff (I haven't had an AX15 apart but have had many other manual transmissions apart. The key to it all is to just take your time and lay out everything as you go. It's best if you can do it in one or two sittings (I know I have issues if I walk away from something for a week, I'll forget how it goes together). Swapping to external slave is extremely easy with everything apart. All you would need is the external slave bell housing, clutch fork and master/slave setup (someone else would need to chime in if the clutches are different as I only have internal slave ones kicking around here to look at). As far as doing it yourself or buying low mileage ones, that part is up to you. I prefer to rebuild them as I know the parts are good and new, you never know how the person before you treated the parts.

The older style is actually a bit better as it gives support to the yoke with the longer tail shaft housing. If you plan on lifting the Jeep later on, it will also let you lift it higher without any vibes. Another advantage is that you can get a stock drive shaft to fit your Jeep, assuming you can find one in the junkyard.

The mount in the above pic is factory. I know any year Cherokee or Comanche with the manual from late '89 to '95 will fit, not sure beyond that year though.

There are a ton of choices with building control arms. You have short, mid and long arms. Every setup is going to be different depending on where you mount the arms to. For my setup, I did a true 3-link long arm system. I made a new cross member and set it back slightly more than stock, I also stretched the front axle ~1.5". With that, my lowers are a 34 1/8" and uppers are 36 3/4", give or take 1/2". The arms are made from 2" OD by 1/4" wall DOM tubing. Mine are also built with Ballistic Fabrication joints at all 6 ends with adjustment only on the frame end. The y-setup is a lot easier to build as you only have one frame mounting point. Just make sure the mounting points are at the same exact point on each side and all the arms are the same exact length. Unless you have experience with doing something like this, it might be easier to buy a set than build them. You really won't be saving much building them yourself vs buying a set (for comparison, I spent around $700 on mine but I built it big with the separations and lengths that I wanted).

The second fork in the above pictures is shot, I'd be hesitant to even use the first since it is beat up some. If the Jeep is just a daily driver and isn't lifted or anything, he can just swap in a new one from a '96+. If you plan on lifting it later on then think about what eagle said with the swaps as this will prevent you from having issues with the smaller to mid sized lifts.

Swapping to a 4.0L rad is a lot of work (I did it in mine because I wanted the extra clearance and raised rad for a winch). When I was looking around for a swap, a CJ radiator is really close in core dimensions as well as a FSJ (the FSJ is taller but about the same width). There is no simple plug and play radiator besides the stock one for the '86's unfortunately.

The lightbar came off a Liberty but, from what I read, takes a good bit of work to get it to sit flush to a Comanches roof. For the regulator, any one up to '95 should fit. If you're adding power mirrors, you will need to get the wiring harness inside the door for them. You will need to get that wiring from a '91-'95 as the part that connects behind the kick panel has a different connector (the regular has the same connector between '87-'95).

The vacuum canister you're talking about controls the HVAC system (heater and a/c controls plus the vent doors). If you remove the canister, you will only have defrost, no floor or vents option. Your best bet is to relocate it to an empty spot under the hood. If the plastic line breaks (as it does on most due to the age) then you can just put a piece of rubber hose on it where it broke and that should reseal it (I had luck just sliding one on, but make sure you get one that is a tight fit on the plastic line).

Was looking to find a metal supplier of some larger slugs, found one after a few calls around.

I've been extremely busy the last month or two and only got a little time during then to work on these. Right now I'm trying to overcome the issue of trying to make it the easiest bolt on add-on while keeping the seat around stock height. I do have a rough prototype but having the issue of seat height (with the seat fully up and sitting as straight as I can, I have about 3" of head room being 6'2"). I will be finishing up a lot of the projects this weekend and will be going full bore at trying to figure out a solution to this with the plan on having the bracket and jigs done by the end of this month. I also have another item that just need to find a metal supplier to finish it up. If anyone is interested in a tool to help reclock the transfer case, please PM me so I can see how many are in the market for something along those lines.

Not sure on the brackets but on Ballistic Fab. I ordered their joints earlier this year (6 total for my 3-link setup) and did not have an issue. I called up though, not sure if ordering on the website is a different guy or gets lost in the infinite black hole of the interwebs but I had a good experience with them. I even caught them right before KoH and still got them within a week and a half (ordered beginning/mid of one week and got them the following weeks Friday but it's going cross country for me). I have heard a lot of bad things about their service but I'm just putting my experience in here.

Articulation depends on a lot more than the control arms. The spring rates make a HUGE impact in how much the Jeep will flex. With a long arm kit (vs drop bracket short arm), you get a better pinion angle on articulation plus more clearance. If you build the suspension right, the 3-link will out flex the 4-link (due to binding). I chose the 3-link due to many factors, one being better articulation. If you're looking on a off the shelf kit, go with the RK 4-link. As Motion Offroad said, if you get into binding issues, you can just remove one of the uppers and then have your 3-link.

When I picked up my '86, it had 31x9.5R15's on it with no lift on stock rims. The tires cleared the fenders and bed fine, it just rubbed on the lower control arms at full lock.

Under the hoods are completely different wiring wise between '86, '88, and '91. '86 had the 2.8L V6 instead of the 4.0L I6 for starters and was carbureted. Chrysler did buy Jeep in '88 but didn't really touch them till '91 when they swapped to their own fuel injection system and the I6 got designed the HO. The wiring harnesses are completely different as well as a lot of the plugs for the sensors, the computer was moved from under the dash to under the hood, and it was essentially swapped to an OBDI system. There were many other little changes also.

They swapped to electric in '91. Any cluster from '84-'90 Cherokee and '86-'90 Comanche will work. If you do find one from an '84-'86, you will need the speedometer cable also as that mount is a bit different in back. '87-'90 will be a direct bolt in with only changing out those two sensors (oil and coolant). For the quick snap rings, the only way I know of is to make a different line with AN fittings. The little plastic clips are cheap if you need to replace them, as well as the little rubber o-ring inside. Those clips and o-rings tend to last for a long time (I usually have issues with the hoses going bad before the clips and o-rings).

Are you looking for new or just something that works with tow points? If it doesn't have to be brand new, look on craigslist. I see bumpers from home made ones to ARB bumpers for $500 and less that are in great condition (not sure how far you are from central Jersey but I've seen a lot for sale on the PA side of the river also).

From what I've seen (and personal experience), the CAD axle is weaker. I've managed to bend a CAD axle around the cast on part but was never able to bend the non-CAD one. Truss is a lot easier for the non-CAD design and a lot stronger. You can't weld to that cast part on the axle tube all that well and that limits the length and strength bonus on the passenger side tube, compared to the non-CAD where you can bring the truss all the way to the UCA.

The J series was back in the '70's. A regular 4.0L cannot be bored out that far due to piston wall thickness. The farthest you can bore and stroke them out is to 5.0L but that would need to get checked to make sure there is enough wall thickness to hold together. The 4.2L is essentially the same way with boring and stroking. For what it's from, maybe he meant Commando? Still, that only came with the 4.2L in the '70's. AMC did have a 4.6L I6 but that appeared in their Mexican cars from what I can find. That's a great find if it is actually a 5.7L, but who the hell knows where it came from and all those custom parts would be a pain to try to replace later on.

Mid '94 was the change in pitch. I used an early '94 NP242 input in my '90 NP231 transfer case without an issue.

If you want the actual harness, you should be able to find one at a junkyard pretty easily. The AX15 and AX5 plugs are the same, maybe even the AX4 also. I ripped out an '86 AX5 from my MJ and put in a '92 AX15 and the harness plugs right into the AX15 switch. I can run out and get colors tomorrow if you want to just run your own wires up.

The one on the pass side is the reverse switch. There should be a harness that connects to that connector, goes up the pass side bell housing and fire wall and connects to a (i believe) 7 wire flat connector. The other side is the clutch bleeder. There's no line that goes into it, it just gives a spot to bleed the internal clutch as there's no other way to bleed it.