Vakarian

Appreciate the information.

Amazing work! For painting, has the truck been in the garage and you just put plastic around the truck or did you roll it outside? Both of mine MJs and the wife's XJ need a paint job but not sure how to go about it but following your build gives me hope to attempt it. Try on the XJ first of course . Keep up the great work.

Thank you flatslug87. It has been a busy time since moving in. Still trying to get the little attach garage cleaned / organized to try and start working on stuff again. Hoping to get back to updating this tread more. Appreciate that compliment. I love the long bed, it has been real handy.

So it has been a good amount of time since I last updated this thread so going to be long one. So where did we leave off.....oh right the rebuilt transmission popped and lost all power. So not sure what the issue was, I just removed the transmission and put the original back in to save for another day. From there been trying to looking at houses and working on the other projects. Well on October of 2021 the wife and I moved into our new to us dream home, that needed a lot of work. The previous owners trashed the place but the potential was there within the 27 acres. From there the projects really slowed down as the place took work priority. However, the Comanche was put to use moving stuff out in the fields. Was handy as I could load tools and crap found in the fields without having to take the big dually. Well one morning on my way to work the driver tire came loose and fell off. Not sure how it happened but a few studs sheared. So it currently sits to have those replace and get the exhaust fixed as it has a few holes that have begun to melt the speedometer wires. Talking with a buddy has sparked some dumb ideas for the truck to help out on the property. Thus leading to the idea of making it a small dually for increased stance width to not flip on the hills with a little service body for tools and the goose neck to park the trailers easier. So many ideas just first one is get the tire to stay on. So that is a quick and brief update on the truck and hope to get back to working / updating the thread more now that the property is started to get moving in the correct direction.

I have not changed the cluster out. Thank you for the info on the grounded out wire to look for. derf, thank you for the insight and a path to start at. I appreciate the help from you both and thanks for all the information.

Okay so reading through this I am still a bit confused with solving my fuel gauge issue. The fuel gauge on my Renix JM doesn't move no matter the level of fuel and sits as shown in the picture below. What does it mean? The fuel pump works but could there be a loose wire or did the previous owner put an incorrect sending unit? Thanks for the help.

This has been a wild and interesting ride for you. Has been fun assisting with the work and I'm immensely excited for it to pull into the driveway at my place to continue our work shenanigans. Keep up the great motivation, you are so close!

Thank you for the information Minuit. Yesterday morning after starting the Comanche up and backing out of the garage I walked out and saw this. Looking of the radiator it turns out the hose clamp had shifted and was not seated correctly. So after that readjustment it stopped leaking and I moved onto the burping of cooling system. I jack the back end up and started her up pouring coolant into the reservoir. Took about 20 minus to stop bubbling and was staying around 190 degrees. Tires all have air and she will be taken out for a little test drive later today so see how she handles. Now to just finish the cosmetic look of her then figure out how to repaint her per the wife's statement. Per her word "It doesn't look as good when you first got it until you paint it but it runs."

Well last night was a busy and successful night! She is not pretty looking and still has a little cosmetic work but she is able to be driven again! Ran a little rough at first from sitting i guess but its nice to have her back on the road. Plus I missed driving a standard transmission.

I was able to get some work done this weekend before having to stop to catch up on homework. The front clip and headlights have been installed after noticing the highlight buckets changed on the later XJ. The second support / adjustment screw changed sides as you can see in the second picture. You have to swap the driver and passenger light bucket to work as they moved the screw from the outside on the Comanche to the inside for the later model XJ. After completing this I took my volt meter to the fuse box under the steering wheel to find a ignition only power source. Not wanting to just plug a spade connector into the front of the fuse box I have been trying to determine what type of connector end are within the fuse box. I would like to install one in the blank slot next to the ignition source to have a fuse there to keep it nice and clean. This would finish up the electric fan upgrade leaving only the power steering pump and coolant. The truck is close to being back on the road and I'm excited. Also what is the process for getting air out of the closed cooling system? Thanks for the visit and have great evening.

Not trying to blame anyone just wanted to make sure I was not being dumb. As with the current situation going on I can understand the delay but just wanted to bring it up as I was curious to browse the different options.

I am curious and interested in buy some apparel but this numbers are not pulling anything up for me on Amazon. Any insight on the problem or how to find them?

That is true Pete M, I didn't think of it that way. Just love all the insight, feedback and support that CC has to offer each other on our awesome trucks!

I keep trying but after my first attempt to teach on a Wrangler where she couldn't reach the pedals it has been hard to get her out. I appreciate the compliment regarding my build threads. They are nothing special but glad to hear that they have been useful / helpful. Hoping to have the truck up and running by the end of this weekend. Stay tuned!

Thanks buxmj! I was going to do what I could to keep it. Nothing major wrong and besides the body damage and it is a fun little truck to drive. My wife said she would enjoy driving it if it was not a manual. (she doesn't know how to drive it and it has been a struggle trying to get her to accept to learn)

Have been spending time in the garage this past month and have finally made some great progress on the repairs. Lots of pictures showing the process. Got the damage panels off, removed the AC condenser and power steering pump. Took the Comanche outside and tired it to a tree. Using the winch on my buddies wrangler slowly bent the vertical corner support back into place. Use blocks of wood and hammers for adjustments while under tension with the winch. After this experience I jive major props to people that do body work for a living. It was so much just trial and error figuring out what was need to be done. From here it was pushed back into the garage to continue the work. After a while was able to get the fender to align up and bolt up. That was a wonderful feeling. Additionally, I get to join the four / five color truck group with the hood being placed on. Just to need to adjust the hood some as the driver side is sitting back a little bit. All that is left now is the radiator open system, electric fan to be wired, installing the new headlight harness since the driver head light connector got smashed and the power steering pump. As i installed the pulley with the press, the pump shaft popped and push out the back some home. Here is the headlight harness to be installed. Seems like a good quality for only $18 dollars. So close to be able to get back on the road and keep me from having to drive the big dually around right now. Well the junkyard gem is slowly getting there and has changed which side of the title it match. That is all for now and everyone have a great day until next time.

Interesting and thank you for the information eaglescout526. During disassembly it through me off as I had never seen or heard of it before. Thank you for the information jdog.

Well Saturday Feb 15 was the day the Junkyard Gem made it into the garage to begin the repair process and now I have a nice deadline goal of April 11th to be completed before. There is a local autocross even that a few buddies of mine want to go check out with their cars (Mazda Speed 3, Integra and imported Skyline) and I want to go check out with the truck. So here goes the process for setting the truck up for the street and autocross because now is the best time to upgrade since it needs repairing First thing first was getting the hood off and pulling all the shattered pieces of the auxiliary fan that was in bedded into the radiator. The air box was shattered, power steering pump is shot as the pulley is bent about 60 degrees, clutch fan is bend and jammed on, condenser is an accordion in parts and the cross member above the radiator ripped out the inserts that are used to bolt into on the fender support. The good news is there seems to be a Comanche of matching color in a local junkyard that was hit on the mirrored side so I might luck out on matching color except for the hood. So the truck had an air flapper in the air box that was connected to a fabric hose that feed into the exhaust manifold. I have no idea why or what it is suppose to do. Anyone have any input of what it was for or what would happen if I don't reconnect?

So the truck has been sitting on the side of my driveway after towing back to the house. Started up the hill on my driveway and hurt two loud pops and all power was lost to the transmission. My initial thought was something inside the transmission broke but it was still shifting smoothly into all the gears. So towing the truck back up the driveway with the wife's 99 Cherokee it has been sitting as we researched what the issue could be. What we could gather is it could possible be that two of the flywheel bolts sheared off allowing the clutch plate to not engage. Tonight the truck should be back in the garage to take it apart again to figure out the issue. The truck had been sitting as the head gasket went on the wife's Cherokee and that was the higher priority.

Been a while but time for an update on all the issues, troubles and skills learns. ►.......... WRENCH STATUS TRANSMISSION INCOMING .......................◄ As stated in my last post, the transmission had to come back out and this would be the first of many removals on this front. With the change to an external slave cylinder the clutch was giving me issue so that was the first thing to check. Found out that the factory transmission has significant changes compared to the plate I had been running with the external system from the Wrangler. The clutch on the left and top in the two pictures are the factory clutch from the Comanche. Once this issue was determined and resolved, back in the transmission went. Once all bolted in we started the truck up and shifted into first quickly followed by the shift handle getting really loose and moving all around. It acted like the internal selector for the shifter was free floating around the levers inside in addition to the clutch still not completely engaging. So back out came the transmission again and stood it on its front to not have to drain it so I could just remove the rear section. With the transmission here and discussing with my buddy we made two immersive discoveries. 1) The shifter length between a Wrangler and Comanche for the same transmission on different. [Wrangler on top, Comanche on bottom] 2) The transmission cover that secures the shifter are different heights. Thus causing the free floating issue as the shifter base was not seated properly. [Comanche on left, Wrangler on right] So with these two discoveries we began buttoning up the transmission. Drilled and tapped the for the breather line on the new cover and reinstalled the shifter rod. Bolted on the transfer case and went about reinstalling it. This past weekend on 11 Jan, started up the truck again testing it out and excited to drive the truck out of the garage. Well no go, transmission worked in 2 gear, 4 gear and reverse but 1,3 & 5 gear were a no go. After some research, we determined and remembered during the moments of our discovery, the shifter shaft was knocked off the saw horses supporting the transmission. This caused its orientation to be changed and I didn't realize that the set bolt was not centered. Thus it was bottoming out on the retention bolt keeping the transmission from going into gear. So with that discovery I spend the following day trying to remove just the transfer case to not have to drop the transmission for another time. Made a mess trying to drain the transmission fluid back into the bottle as it was unused fluid and found out its just easier to drop the entire transmission. So back out the transmission will comes again this evening to make the simple correction. Hopefully this is the only issue and the truck will be back on the road tomorrow.

Yeah it sucked as i never seem to reduce my to-do list. But guess it means the wife can't be to upset on the extra upgrade parts added in to repair it. I lucked out as the buck's body was mostly above the hood so it could have been a lot worse. Hoping the journey gets start soon after the red comahce clutch issue gets resolved. Be sure more pictures to come as she is rebuild.

Well Thursday night my junkyard gem became what one would expect to be found in the junkyard. At 5:45 p.m. a ten point buck decided to dart out and remodel the front end. So now its back into the queue for fixing and upgrading. Got to keep the deer and the rack. Neighbor joking said to mount somewhere outside on the property or on the front of the truck once fixed.

Well the transmission has been reinstalled into the truck but something is not functional correctly. Before the transmission was connected to the truck it locked into place. However now there is an issue with the truck started and shifting into the gear the clutch springs won't disengage. So now I need to drop the transmission again and measure my input shafts. In addition to compare the clutch plate and retainer between the vehicles.

Well that will be put on the to due list to check and repair for use in the Junkyard Gem. Thank you for the information Pete M!

Pete M I am now really confused because the intermediate plate was non-magnetic but there was only four gears.