Garvin

The last one I did it would slip to the seal fairly easily then stop. You can pull the one end past the seal but you might ruin the seal in the process. Is there a reason you have to separate the two halfs apart?

Be careful with XJ shackles if you plan on flexing out the rear of the Jeep as they have a tendency to invert and can ruin the springs. If you don't flex the Jeep out then you should be fine and 87jeepmj is correct, they will lower between 1/2-1".

A longer drive shaft will be needed either way so it comes down to how much you want to spend. Around here it's about $150 to lengthen and balance a drive shaft locally. I chose to just buy a whole new drive shaft when I blew the yoke on mine apart from A1 Drive Shafts (forget what their eBay name is offhand) and that was $197 shipped with all Spicer parts.

Vehicles this old are very simple to work on. I started my build with very little knowledge about what I was doing and did as much research as I could and just dove in. You'd be amazed at what you can do with even the simplest of tools. On that note, $1700 for an engine is expensive as hell. When I worked at a shop, we could get 4.0's from junkyards for $400 and charged around $600 to put her in with parts (this includes gaskets and tune up parts). These engines are not hard to remove and install. I do know the feeling of not wanting to part with a vehicle also. My '92 is rusted to all hell yet I don't want to get rid of it since it's a '92 ('91 model year :( ). Ask many questions as there are many on this forum that are more than happy to help out. If you do a little searching and a little research and ask specific questions then you will see the full wealth of information that is really on this forum.

I'm having a hard time seeing a built 4 door JK weighing that much on stock axles. 4dr JK's weigh in at 4550 and Comanches weigh in around 3090 so say a 1500 lb difference. My Comanche on one tons, 38.5x15 tires, and a cast iron V8 weighs in a little under 5000, that's with a spare, full tank of gas, and tool box filled to the brim (atleast a few hundred pounds there).

There are a bunch of pictures in my build thread of mine. If I remember when I get home, I'll post them up over in this thread. When wheeling hard, it's not uncommong to break the plug welds and spin the tubes. I've only personally ever seen that happen on competition rigs though. It's added insurance though since you won't be able to get back into that area once you weld all the brackets on and it does strengthen up that area some. I welded the cut portion of mine for the added insurance and because the unheard of things always happen to me it seems. I used to be pretty hard on axles in my Cherokee (destroyed two Dana 44 rears and bent two Dana 30HP housings) so I figured it couldn't hurt.

I got my matched 60hp/10.25 from the local Jeep shop for $600 out of an '89. The brakes were in great condition as well as diff fluid was clean. I still replaced the front calipers and pads because they were dirt cheap. I sold the tires off of it for $200 so only really had $400 in the axle starting out so I couldn't turn down that deal (and I was sick of breaking the 44 that was in the rear of my Cherokee and I planned on running larger tires on the Comanche). As said before, the 10.25 has the same ground clearance as a shaved 14 bolt plus has cast in trusses on the pumpkin. You can swap in a gen2 10.25 carrier into any 10.25 and 10.50 as long as you swap the bearings and races also to gen2. I went with a true 3-link front since they flex a whole lot better than 4-links and radius arm setups. I'm running a small custom truss for the UCA mount since I ran it on the drivers side and and cut out a section of the tube. I have the combo Ballistic Fab mounts (LCA/shock/spring), Poly Performance generic control arm mount for the upper, Poly Performance axle side panhard mount (not a big fan of this one), and I believe Ballistic Fab frame side panhard mount (going to be swapping to a Barnes4wd one when I go high steer). I don't run a sway bar and the Jeep is stable enough to take 90 degree turns at 30 so I have no real motivation to run one right now. I would stay away from welding to the cast section if you can avoid it. You will never get as strong as a weld to the cast as you will to the axle tubes and it's a royal pain to actually weld to it. You should be able to trim the cast back without taking off any of the plug welds and then you can lay a bead along the cast and tube just for good measure. I did this and bridged mainly just the pumpkin with my truss and laid a small bead on the top of the cast and the truss just for good measure (and they were resting on each others so figured I might as well) and plan on building a plate that ties into 3 or 4 of the differential cover bolts as a front support (probably don't need it but it'll make me feel better. And since this hasn't been mentioned...You can run Cherokee/Comanche extended brake hoses with only very minor clearancing at the caliper side. I currently have the 6" over stock Crown ones on and had to remove about 1/16" from one side of the bottom mounting bracket.

The '86 2.8 uses a Wrangler style radiator and I can almost guarantee that that brace is going to hit the radiator.

When I picked up my '92, the window was popped out in the same exact spot. I used a tube of the black windshield adhesive and she's still water tight 2 years later. I used the whole tube of it but I went massive overkill and went around the window like 4 times since I didn't want to do it again any time soon.

Bunch of guys swap them in to Cherokee's, which is essentially the same exact thing since the front ends are the same. I'd stay away from the 6bt as that engine is heavy as all hell and will be a very tight fit. The 4bt puts out plenty of power for the weight of a Comanche. From what I remember, 4bt's don't weigh that much more than a 4.0L while 6bt's weigh in at nearly twice.

Nice find, I paid $700 for mine initially before the mods started coming along. Sounds like you have the same combo I originally had for the drive train. 2.8L V6/AX5, maybe even the NP207 also if you have the 2H/4H/N/4L setup. You have a lot less floor rot than I started with though. The 4.0 swap is an idea but you will have some fitment issues as the whole engine bay is different from '87. You might be better off swapping in the 3400 Camaro engine, or even the 3800. There should be a bunch of write-up's on that swap somewhere and some of these other guys should be able to help you with that. Btw, Comanche has one M for your photobucket. :)

I ended up cutting up past the lower layer of the outer wheel well for the rear. Just cut the metal off at the pinch seam and kept the inner part (did stretch my wheel well rearward since the rear axle is stretched about 5" back). The rear and front are both cut up to the body lines. Right now my rear is sitting around 4" of lift on 38.5's and still have 2" of space at full stuff so I can run 42's barely.

Make sure you find all of the rot and knock it out and then cover it up with something, I've had good luck with POR-15. That rust isn't the worst and the Jeep won't snap in half if that's what you're worried about. 1/4" is also way overkill on something like that. If it's just a daily driven kind of vehicle, 1/8" is plenty if you want to cover it up.

Mine had the Rochester 2SE 2bbl carb on it which looked stock. I don't believe the Jeeps got the E2SE but I could be wrong. There are a TON of vacuum lines that plug into it that gets annoying real fast. Below is a picture of what mine looked like if it helps any.

Bumper looks pretty good, love the tail gate though. That's along the same lines as what I want to do with the tail gate but can't find one in any kind of good shape around here for a reasonable price.

I didn't have too much of a choice with mine since mine started as a carb'd 2.8L V6 and I just wasn't having it anymore with the carb. Had the choice of swapping in a fuel cell and external pump or rerouting all the fuel lines for a 3rd time (the 2nd time involved the carb'd 350). I'm currently running a JAZ 22 gal fuel cell with foam and gauge sender. Their stock senders for the GM setup are almost dead on Jeeps (0-88 ohm for Jeeps and 0-90 ohm for Chevy) in case you were looking at a sender for it. The foam is garbage though. I've had the fuel cell in for something like 6 months and it's disintegrating pretty bad already, went through 3 fuel filters already because they keep getting clogged up. It sounds like you have it pretty well set but if you need any help or advice on the external setup, feel free to post up. I prefer florescent lime myself. You can't beat the roar of giant mud tires and a brick of glowing lime polka dots coming your way! Btw, you're giving me ideas now with the turbine...Weld a bracket here, weld a bracket there, I'm sure I can make it fit!

On Summit it costs more. I purchased mine through Advance and got it for $78 and they had it in stock. This was also for the Airtex brand and not a home brand (I have no issues with SummiT Racing brand, just throwing that out there). Going external pump is not wrong, it's just a different way of doing it. I didn't really have a choice but I wouldn't hesitate to do it to a vehicle that I did. I can carry a spare and swap it out in a matter of minutes on the trail or on the road and can keep gas spillage to a very minimum (clamp both rubber hoses and swap it). Yes, the external pump is louder when comparing them but I only hear mine when it first turns on when nothing else is running, and this is on top of the fuel cell, in the bed, right behind the cab, so within 3 feet of my head on the other side of one layer of sheet metal and glass. Just because it isn't the norm doesn't mean that it's stupid. You could go as far as saying throwing a 3800 into a Jeep is stupid and you should have just went with the gen I/II 350, LS or LQ engine. It's all in the person to what they want to do with their truck.

As long as you have a return line and regulator on there already from the factory (been a while since I really looked close at the Jeeps fuel system) then you should be fine. I'm running an external pump on my Comanche and have it mounted on top of the fuel cell in the bed without an issue. You might also want to look into the E2000 pump as you can get that pump from any auto parts place (it's actually cheaper at the auto stores near me than what Summit has it listed for).

What we did to my buddy's J20 is we built a whole new rear half of the frame and fishplated it to the factory front half. What I would do in your case is see if you can slip a piece of box steel inside where the two halves mate and plug weld that. Then plate the outside as far as you can in both directions, both inner, outer, bottom and top (where you can) with 1/8" or 3/16" and rosette weld that. 1/4" is a lot of weight to be adding to the frame and welding 1/4" to sheet metal is a royal pain. I wouldn't hesitate to flex out a frame with it having box welded inside and plated on the outside.

You can actually modify the front and still use the stock hood. The top bolt on core support is wide enough where you can still get both of the outside bolts to bolt into the welded nuts. You will have to drop the frame rails slightly though to get the radiator under the hood or lean the radiator back, assuming you have the space to lean it back. It does require a good deal of cutting into the sides to get her to fit. There's a bunch of pictures on how I did it in my build thread and still retained the stock hood. I did go to hood pins after that though since I like the assurance that both corners of the hood are held down.

Sorry mnkyboy, didn't mean to really aim that at you but wanted to add onto your post. Just wanted to point out that the rear will not flex nearly as well as the front. I'd throw a few older pictures of mine up but not sure it would help in this case. The issues I ran into is that the front shocks maxed out and the rear flexed until it hit the bed. I have fixed both issues but haven't flexed her out since. Only reason I'm putting that up is don't forget to look at the front also. Also keep in mind that massive flex isn't always the best. You will have progressively less weight on one tire as you flex more. With stock axles and lighter tires (33's and below), you will have barely any weight on the tire. The less weight on the tire, the less traction you will have.

I used to have that issue all the time with my Jeep in the main parts of the build. It got annoying real fast when I ask for a part and they look up the Jeep. Hell, I tell half of them that I'm looking for a part for an '86 Comanche and they flip through the makes confused trying to figure it out until I have to tell them it's a Jeep... What I've found was the easiest way to check on interchange years is to just search Ebay for it. The majority of the postings will have the correct interchange years, just need to be careful as some will truncate the interchange years to just a specific generation.

The issue is from looking at your avatar is that the front is doing all the work, leaf springs will never be able to flex as well as a properly set up coil suspension. Unloading is essentially when all the weight is taken off the corner. In an off camber situation, when the high side unloads (which is common in radius arm setups and revolver shackles), the Jeep will become very tipsy. I've seen many Jeeps flip because of the unloading effects of revolver shackles, I've also seen some pretty scary situations that came close to flipping. I would never run revolver shackles on any of my Jeeps or any of the Jeeps I build because of those characteristics.

Stay FAR away from revolving shackles, they cause way too many adverse and unsafe conditions then they help. You can do leaf sliders that I've heard good things about to replace the shackles.You In order to get leafs to flex better, you're giving up other stuff. You can remove a leaf that will give the spring an overall lower spring rate but that will reduce your payload and could cause the springs to go bad faster. Keep in mind that flex is great but if you have no weight on the tire then it's as good as being up in the air.

The 2wd section looks like it's all in tact so my guess would be something was binding and caused the 4wd section to rip off. What you say it only has 5k miles on it, was it a rebuilt? A bearing not being fully seated could cause something like this to happen. I've seen a case that blew up like that once before in person. The issue with that case was that something in the front drive shaft let loose and snapped the end off of the transfer case.