DracoSedentis

I'll be trying this one, thanks. I'm looking to get the bed sealed up nicely so that my wife and I can take it camping. I spent pretty much my entire childhood just sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag. Did SAR work for 10 years. It'd be nice to have a camper once in awhile. Since we will be traveling to the parks out west a lot this year.

Oh man. LOL Where at in southern Indiana? I just moved out of Indiana last April. I live in Utah now. I'm from the lovely town of Martinsville, little north from IU town Bloomington.

So, as more work goes into this jeep I'm back for more info. I'd like to change out the sunshades, the stock ones keep hitting the rearview mirror when I move them around, any ideas on good swaps for those? Also looking for what you guys think is the best way to re-seal a camper shell, the one it came with leaks around a couple of the edges that contact the edge of the bed. The rear bumper needs replacing before to long as well as its rusted through near the plate holder. Any decent fabricated rear bumpers? or even a good place (outside junk yard since mine has not comanches) that I could get a replacement stock one? Lastly, Good coil springs and shocks for a truck that will be used on light off road conditions and pavement.

I still have them. You want them? If you want them you are welcome to them.

Well, after fighting with one XJ to get its driver door open (without success), I've managed to find another and got the mirrors off of it. They bolted right to the MJ and those ugly, POS trailer mirrors are no more. I can actually see in the rear view to the left and right now. Fantastic. Thanks a million guys.

Well, here at the yard, only jeep with intact mirrors is a '93. Little triangle spot looks the same as the 97 down the way. Would these work?

So just to clarify the ~95-99 mirrors should fit onto my 86 comanche? There is a junk yard nearby, perhaps I'll be visiting today since it'll be really nice out. As for the sweeps/seals you all are talking about is that the weather strip along the bottom edge of the side windows? I've rarely ever worked on the door cosmetics of a jeep, my wrangler never really had doors on it...

Was wandering what options I have in changing these mirrors out. The ones that were originally on it didn't stay up, bought new ones in the hope it'd work better, it didn't. I'm over it. What modifications can I run with?

Indeed, I'll be sure to do that. I used to work at autozone so yeah, they are not always the best...

Thank you! I tried that and was able to get the belt off, now on to the alternator. *UPDATE2* Got the alt out after a lot of fighting, went to install the new alt and realized that both I, and the guys at autozone, failed to catch that they were selling me the V-belt alternator version. Now I have to go get the serp belt version. Grand. LOL

*UPDATE* Been at this for nearly 2 hours. Cannot get the Serp Belt to come loose. Have even tried loosening the power steering to give tension release as I've read but that little bastard won't come loose enough to let go of tension. This shouldn't be this hard from what I've read both here and elsewhere. Any pointers that maybe I'm missing?

Actually I just finished looking it over, I work all day on Saturdays. I'll be digging into this job early tomorrow morning.

Thanks for the tips. I'll be digging into this tomorrow, looks like I'll be using the Jenga Method. And FYI I have 3, the one on the far right. Alt is UNDER the AC compressor. Not V-Belt.

Currently sitting in a taco bell parking lot with the wife waiting for a tow truck. In the mean time, thought I'd gather some info. So I had a sneaking suspicon the Alternator was going bad but couldn't be sure. Turns out, it was. While eating it was in idle and started to smoke. Shut down really quick, popped the hood, had wife try cranking it, Alternator pulley is no go. Toast. This Jeep is the 2.5L TBI, the Alternator is mounted below the AC compressor, can't seem to find any info or videos on this 1986 on how to dig into it to replace the bad alt. Anyone here have any good videos or write ups on this task? The alternators are availible at the Auto zone nearby, (literally next door to where we are sitting), they have one on order for me to be here tomorrow. Will be digging into replacing it sunday. Any information helps.

Just my luck. LOL Looks like I'll be either trying to find a used one or try finding a rebuild kit.

So my understanding is that these are going to be something along the lines of a needle in a haystack? Good thing is that here in Utah there are a plethora of jeeps both old and new on the road and in scrap yards. Maybe I'll be able to find one somewhere. Are there any other manufacturers I should be aware of that are or would be interchangeable as well?

MJ has ~147k miles on it. 5 speed on the floor. In fantastic condition other than this issue and a few expected issues for a 30+yr old vehicle. And I'm in Utah.

So recently I've taken my 86 Comanche to a new shop. The other shop I took it to did a lot of good work but failed to figure out why it has a rough idle that causes it to stall in neutral fairly often. They've had several opportunities to do this at my request and failed at that. I took it to this other shop that has done work on my POS liberty and have always done a good job. They called me back within 2 hours and told me that it failed emissions (utah) and they informed me they found a pretty major vacuum leak in the throttle body shaft. My question: What is the throttle body shaft and where is it located? Am I just miss-identifying it? I've cleaned the throttle body on my other jeep (99 wrangler) and am familiar with most engine work. However, I've never worked with a "throttle body shaft". Some clarification would be great. As well as where I might find one.

I'll be looking into these suggestions, I found some other older threads on here about this same engine and same issue that I'm going to look into as well. On a side note I found out while poking around that this engine, my local parts store lookup system kept telling us that "this vehicle isn't equipped with that part" (IAC). Found a video of a guy working on a similar issue on good ol' youtube and ended up finding out in my parts store system the part is called an "idle flapper motor''. Found this out after spending a couple hours trying to find diagrams of my engine so I can see it all exploded and named. Kept finding ones with IAC but could never find one that looked the same as mine. Corrections and any information is appreciated. Like I said earlier, I'm great with most things, just never had this type of issue before in any of my other jeeps.

Well, upon further inspection with some assistance it turns out this is not the throttle cable, that cable is behind this one and is right where it should be in tightness. The throttle body is pretty clean on the inside as well. No buildup I can see. Guess I'll go back to the idle air control and try that. I had settled on that first a week or 2 ago but decided to take it to the shop that did the work to see if they could find a vacuum leak instead. They didn't find one, so perhaps this IAC is the culprit.

Sorry, double post, but needed to have this picture as well, When the vehicle is just sitting, no manipulation of gas or running engine, the cable sits like this, attached to the throttle body by the long oval shaped bar. To me I would think this needs to be tight with the left side against the peg its attached to. Correct me if I'm wrong, I've done a lot of work on vehicles, but never have I worked on something like this.

Just wondering here, but recently when I was under the hood taking a peak at things trying to figure out why my trucks engine shuts off randomly when I shift into neutral and let off the gas, like when I'm sitting at a stoplight or parking. Sometimes it even does it when I'm rolling into my driveway, essentially any time I shift into neutral. This thing has had around 2600$ worth of repairs, new timing belt, new seals, new plugs, wires, cap and rotor etc etc etc. The only thing that has not been replaced or adjusted is the Accelerator cable. It never crossed my mind, nor it seems my mechanics mind, but last night when I was under the hood tinkering around I noticed that the cable seems looser than it should be. Could it be that the cable is too loose and therefore when I let off the gas it shuts the throttle and kills the engine rather than idle properly? Pics for Reference: Picture is zoomed in, but there is about an inch or more give and the cable is VERY loose and easy to move around.

Just trying to find out information for direct swap steering wheels for the 1986 Comanche XLS. Do I need to swap more out or are there options for direct bolt in swaps? What specs do I need to look for to know the wheel will match?

I've found another set of the 10 spoke wheels online, I'll be grabbing a set of those for the new tires and keeping the originals on the original 10 spokes I have installed already. I'm thinking the new ones I'll have done in black though, the silver is really shiny to my eyes for a red truck. As for tires, what are some not-so-expensive ones that you guys would suggest within that 30"-31" range. They need to be decent for both on and off road. Though the offroad part will be out here in Utah. Mostly desert and rough dirt roads. I won't be rock crawling this truck. Edit: Also, anyone have any ideas why my radio doesn't pick up FM radio? I get AM just fine but its all odd people and crazy religious channels. No music at all. LOL

So my understanding here is that the 15"x7" 5x4.5" factory turbine style wheels already on the Comanche are the size I need for up to 31". If that is the case I will get a second set and use the ones on there now as spares. I happen to really like the turbine look.