gaucho919

It’s been almost a decade but the Comanche still lives! Use it almost everyday. 136k miles on it now. Have just done regular maintenance. Now has 35x10.50-17s

Here is a picture of one of the bolts, you can see the two nuts to keep the skidplate in place, and they give you vertical adjustment.

It was actually easy, I used some rubber stripping between the tank and the frame and the tank and skidplate. Then hard mounted the skidplate to the frame, welding two 1/2" bolts on each side with a nut on the top and bottom side so the tank won't get squished.

The truck has undergone some other modifications, added an XJ 20 gal auxiliary fuel tank with a factory steel skid plate, modified the exhaust to go around the fuel tank and installed a used and rebuilt by me Warn M8000 sporting Viking Offroad 3/8" x 80' Winchline.

I am in the process of building a MB turbo diesel '86 MJ. The engine swap is done and it fits like it belongs in there. The main hurdles are the motor mounts, oil pan/steering bars clearance and oil cooler mounting. I used hydraulic Ford F150 motor mounts for the 300 six. 6" lift and an extreme drop pitman arm and I still had to notch the pan. Used the AX-15 transmission with the adapter from mercedesdiesel4x4.com.

I set the engine as far up as possible, even clearancing the hood support braces. The top front of the valve cover is about a 1/2" from the hood. Then we fabbed a trackbar drop bracket and installed an extreme drop pitman arm. The draglink comes about 1/4" from the oil pan when turned fully left, so I will be notching the pan just a bit. I also will be limited on up-travel but I'd rather have that limitation than a hole in the oil pan. Oh and it's got a 5.5" lift

The OM617 actually fits great in a Comanche, I am building an '86 MJ with a '78 turbo OM617 using the Koch adapter kit and a '98 AX-15. The engine is all in and running, I just need to finish the flatbed and get the driveshafts back from being shortened. Here are a couple pics during the build. Good luck with the Comanche hunt!

I would imagine it is original to the truck, it definitely came in a '91 model truck because it is a high output motor(91 was the first year) made in really late 1990. I don't know if there is a way to tell if the motor is original to the truck, hopefully if someone knows they'll read this.

Thanks Exxon, that's the look I was going for bc that's what I use it for. If you're ever in Montana you're welcome to stop by our shop, I haven't learned about all the good trails around here yet but I'm getting there. Thanks BMX I searched and searched for these wheels for a while and didn't find any. One day I decided to post a "wanted" ad on CL for them and someone called me that same day with a set for sale. You should try it, I was in NC then too.

If those numbers are right it would indicate that the motor is a High Output(the MX) and it was built on Dec 19, 1990.

Really nice comanche! I like the Speedometer in KM, you can tell the year of the motor by looking at the stamped number on the passenger side of the block, It's a smooth surface just forward of the distributor, if you can tell me that number I can tell you when the block was made.

Some pics of the trip from Florida to Northwestern Montana in the ol' Comanche. The truck made it without a glitch, at near max tow capacity and payload. Towing a loaded 6x12 enclosed trailer, going uphill in CO was troublesome sometimes down to 3rd gear and the pedal to the metal. The disk brake 8.8 helped a ton going down hill. Averaged 13.5 mpg going 60-65 over 3200 miles going through Yellowstone. I've had a set of different tires/wheels on for a few weeks, Dodge Charger 17" steelies and stock rubicon BFG's. I found the tires used with ~15k miles on them and they are really quiet on the road. Here are some pics of the trip. Looking for a job too if anyone has an opening.

Hi, I've been searching for a way to extend the range in my comanche, planning on making a trip to Alaska. I have seen some 97+ conversions put an XJ tank in place of the stock spare. Does anyone have experience with this? I have a '92 shortbed MJ, and I'm looking for maybe adding an XJ tank, or wrangler tank where the spare tire is. Any tips or advice would be great. Cheers

Thanks Exxon Valdez, Alexia it does have the front driveshaft in it, it is completely 4wd. I will take some more pics soon and try to remember and post some of the other stuff I've done to it. I put 4WD emblems on it off a honda passport, I just like the way they look on the tan paint. Had to get rid of the old crown vic rims bc they were too narrow at 6" and they were making my tires bulge in the center of the tread. other than that I'm just enjoying driving the truck around, it drives like new and gets lots of looks haha Latest thing I'm working on is a new to me 8.8 with 4.10's and LSD, putting a 02+ explorer cast aluminum diff cover with cooling fins on it.

Really nice comanches man, Thats gotta be a lot of work, It's taking me forever to do just one, I'm in Jacksonville just north of you

Hello gents, sorry for taking so long to update, I've been busy at work getting ready to get out of the Corps. I've done a lot of stuff to the comanche, I replaced the bed with a rust free one I found locally, rattle canned it Sand rustoleum, and built a MJ bed trailer out of my old rusty bed. Here's some pics, let me know what you think

The caster angle may be off, I have had death wobble and wiggles and the proper caster angle was always the culprit

it really depends on the transmission you have, I have 33x10.50s with 4.10s with a nv3550 and its just about perfect. acceleration is good on all gears and it pulls really good in 5th gear, even while towing my boat up hills on highway speeds

haven't gotten a winch yet but here's my bumper

Pete, what did you do about t-case linkage? I'm trying to figure it out with stock parts and can't find any brackets that fit, did u use a custom linkage?

Thanks a lot for the pictures Kernel, that looks like a great and sturdy solution to my problem with those rockers. I'm gonna have to look around here for some 2x6 metal, and see what I can fab up on there. Right now I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do about shifter linkage bc I have a TJ nv3550 on there, and the clocking of the t-case is a bit higher. So XJ linkage brackets don't work, I'm thinking of getting Novak's cable shifter

Nice to see another clayton set-up. I still need the longer brakelines too, which ones did you get?

I like it, I'm running a similar drivetrain on mine and the same bumper. can't wait to see it going

Thanks Kernel, I have looked at the one canvas top I think it's called the softopper, I really like it. And the rockers thats a really good idea, I was thinking of trying to add some thicker metal on there, I gotta do the floor boards and the rockers real soon bc they're getting bad quick

Alright I've done some work to the truck, it's taking forever to update bc I broke my laptop so I gotta use my friends computer.. I installed the ARB snorkel the airbox, kindda hard to see the connection, here you can also see the new HD 3 row radiator All new exhaust, head pipe, oxygen sensor, catalytic converter, 40 series flowmaster. my old cat and muffler were so clogged, the new exhaust combined with the cold air from the snorkel opened it up and the truck had a significant power increase I still have to work on those nasty rockers here's another pic.. Thanks a lot for the comments, helps lift the motivation levels