88mancheman

does that mean the supply line should have a oring-spacer-oring aswell? When I did my swap I only recall there being 1 oring inside the regulator [emoji848]

I couldn’t tell you exact sizing but I can confirm that the supply side o ring is slightly smaller than the return o rings, when I did the 746 swap a few weeks back I went and bought the below part # from my local parts store as the return side didn’t seem to have anything existing in it still it was kinda held together with magic lol but when I did that I tried out of curiosity to see if the supply side was the same and it appeared it be a tad bit smaller The return line measures 5/16 so I’m assuming the supply side o right was 1/4 hopefully this helped a bit [emoji2369]

Let me start with saying I don’t plan I’m doing a 8.8 swap I actually recently acquired a 8.25 with 4.10 in it :) but a buddy of mine on Instagram asked me for a write up on swapping an 8.8 into his Comanche as his 35 just took a dump and I wrote this up from memory of my last 8.8 swap I did for a friend of mine here locally and here’s what I had come up with, hopefully this can help someone who’s looking todo this swap or just looking for some more info [emoji106] 8.8 Swap: Make sure to use a later model Ford Explorer or Mountier axle it’s rumored 97+ has 31-33spline axles and larger disk brakes Also beware some explores had a majorly offset pinion yoke for some reason not sure why friend told me this when searching for axles in JY Also a great way to switch to disk brakes in the rear Stock axle width: about 60.5” 8.8 axle width: about 59.5” Meaning need to run at least 1” wheel spacer to make truck look “correct” otherwise wheel will be tucked in 1” more into wheel well Items needed: Power washer Degreaser Brass Wire brush Grinder Cuttoff wheel for grinder Handful of flap disks for grinder Some sandpaper around 100-150 grit Welder New spring perches (stock mopar ones are best bang for buck IMO) New shock mount tabs New u bolts and u bolt tab Longer brake lines New proportioning valve setup as I’m not 10000% sure if the MJ’s one will put out enough pressure for the disk brakes, I know an xj one can just barley so maybe good to pull it from the explorer you get the axle from * Start with putting axle on jackstands in a grassy area 1 on each axle tube and 1 on the pinion yoke to support axle off the grass, start with power washing then degrease and use a brass wire brush to clean axle if grime is bad then power wash again and let dry for 24hr * Once it’s dry it’s nice to move it to a comfortable area on the jackstands todo the rest I prefer to set it up on a bench in my garage and set a piece of steel in front of the table so I don’t catch anything on fire (but anywhere is really fine just make sure your comfortable lol) bust out your grinder and some cutoff wheels or a plasma If you have one and hack the old mounts from the explorer off IE: shock mounts, spring perches, (if it’s newer axle coil buckets, Trac bar mount, sway bar end links) make it a bare axle * Once you have a bare axle go ahead and bust out some flap disks and cleanup any welds or bits of mounts that are left (personally I like to flap disk the entire tube to bare metal and some of the pumpkin aswell to make it look as “brand new” as possible as I like to paint the entire axle fresh once I’m done) * Once the axle has been cleaned up go ahead and setup the axle nice and level and measure the top, make sure you draw a line across the centerline of the tube so your spring perches both sit straight then measure the width of your springs it should be around 42” pin to pin ( manual says 42” but I vaguely remember mine being a bit under 42” when I did my last axle swap so that’s why I say double check don’t just go by the book ;) every manche is a lil different) then go ahead and mark your width on your centerline and center your new spring perches on your mark, give em a few tack welds on each side just to keep em in place( at this point I like to stuff the axle under the truck and make sure the spring perches line up with the pins on the springs and that everything looks good before burning them in, if something looks off or doesn’t fit it’s not a huge deal to grind a tac weld or two to reposition it to make it perfect) if your lazy like me this is also a great time to measure up where to put the shock mounts use a shock and put a mount on it and see where it would go on the axle, marks a line of where the shock can sit * Once everything looks good and is lined up good I pull the axle back into my garage and burn the new spring perches in, I give them a bit to cool then I grab the shock mounts and put them on that line you drew for the shock earlier, I like to set them as parallel to the axle as possible so they don’t hang up on rocks so I end up doing em in the back to upper side of the tube most of the time, i would recommend putting a tac weld on each shock mount and putting the axle under before burning in the shock mounts just to make sure they are straight and aren’t binding the shocks when attached( to be honest tho I just eye ball shock mounts and get it right 90% of the time but grinding off new mounts sucks so that’s why I say take your time and put it under before you burn them in) once it’s all good and straight pull it out one last time burn those shock mounts In and then let it cool for a little bit * Once it’s all cool to the touch I lay down a drop cloth or some news paper and paint it, I own a construction company so I have access to industrial strength paints and end up painting all my axles with a heavy duty paint and primer meant for high temp, high abrasion, and high moisture areas but to be 100% honest I’ve used that rustoelm engine paint on a few sets of junkyard axles and it held up surprising well I would defiantly recommend you go that route as regular spray paints don’t hold up to the heat and scratches axles get * Once he paint is dry stuff her under with new u bolts and u bolt plates, hookup some brake lines (I’ll leave that up to you as that’s kinda a write up in itself) stuff some adapters on the ends and bolt up your driveshaft and your good to go

Hahaha this is so true, this lil manche has taught me soo much over the years & has taken me some incredible places, I swear she hates me some days but in the end I get to step back and see how far she has come and all the struggles I’ve overcome!

Thank you [emoji120]

This is very true, it’s always a conversation starter when someone asks what I’ve done to the truck! :) and UCSC is a beautiful campus I can only image what it was like 30 Years ago! My wifey currently takes classes up there & if I wasn’t an auto tech major I’d be trying to take classes at UCSC aswell ;)

Thank you! There is much more of the journey to come :) I’m trying to update this as I have spare time, but spare time seems to be very sparse lately lol

For the 4.10 ratio and rounding up to 27” tires the “correct” Speedo gear would be between a 39-41 tooth Speedo gear There seems to be lots of charts on the old inter webs of Speedo gear charts but these two seem to be the most reputable, also reminder that running a smaller gear will make the Speedo run off by a few miles faster and going larger will make it read a few miles slower so if I where you I’d run the 39 tooth Speedo it should be the more “correct” Speedo gear and if nothing else will read 2-3 mph too fast over actual speed which Ought to keep you outta some trouble with the black and whites ;) Here’s 2 links to verify :) http://www.novak-adapt.com/catalog/transfer-case-parts/np-speedometer-gears https://jeepey.com/media/workspace/files/speedometer-gear_3.pdf

Well when I bought the truck it was 2018 and it had 2018 tags on it....but to my surprise I got pulled over 2 weeks after purchasing the truck and found out the trucks registration was out 16 years and had tons of unpaid tickets and other violations on it, after some negotiations about impounding the truck i some how snaked out of it and drove off in my sweet manche, still slow and loud and dark as hell...... let the fun begin... the following Monday I took the day off work and went to the local DMV, after 3 hours of waiting I finally got around and found out the ole manche had $13,336 in fees and unpaid violations....close to 7X what I paid for the truck in the first place...... after begging and grobbling the nice lady non oped the truck put it into my name and told me to come back in a few days, I did so and I was back there a few days later paying only $500 total for new plates, stickers, reg, and non op fees much much better than 13k!! but there was a catch..... I was not allowed to retrieve the plates and stickers till I was able to prove I could pass this "amazing" this we have here in California called smog [emoji20] welp thats when the 2 month journey of getting registration started.... after many many failed smog attempts and being sent to this smog inspector from the state up north I was able to find a smog shop that would be willing to let me see what was actually going on during the smog and not just making me sit back and fail me, after a few weeks back and forth from this one smog shop I was able to hunt down most of my smog gremlins, it started with the dumb EGR transducer and vacuum lines and I'm sure most of you will notice missing below, at the time i had no idea where to find one of these and non of my local JY had them so I found one from a Toyota pickup truck that seemed to work similar and got the EGR to work during smog conditions so I temporary used that one for $5 from the yard till I found one online for $20 after the whole smog process and replaced it again lol, after that was sorted one late night drinking with some buddies we discovered that #3 & #5 fuel injectors where not connected, once we plugged those suckers in it woke the whole truck up! she went from as slow as a VW to feeling like a jeep again! one of the last things that had stopped me from passing smog was my intake was technically CARB legal but was a stock intake from another type of jeep and the smog techs didn't like that so after more JY searching I couldn't find a reasonably priced stock intake so I bought my first "upgrade" I ended up buying a K&N cold air intake for a 87 Cherokee off of quadratech for $298 on sale! after bolting all that up I headed back to the smog station and passed just barley but passed non the less! Then came the goodies :)

I figured its about time I do a build thread on the ol manche since i'm getting ready todo an axle swap soon, I'm not really sure where to start as I've had this truck for almost 2 years now and she has come along way in those 2 years already! I guess ill start with when I got her....she looked really good and sounded great at first but had no shocks or even shock mounts on the axle for that matter on the rear, she was kind of crudely 4wd swapped with a 8.25 SOA rear and D30 front with an aw4 hacked in place of the blown BA10/5, 2" pucks in the front, super bald 33' supper swampers, radio that cut out every bump, and two odd switches on the dash...

Thank you all for the responses! I’m glad the wrangler Ax15’s can be made to fit now it sounds like I need to save up and find a good donor to pull one out of! :) anyone have any clue if the piolot bushings where different from the wrangler to the Cherokee ones?

Does anyone know if wrangler Ax15’s will bolt into an MJ? I’m aware the clocking of the tranfercase is different but is it possible to redrill the end of trans to fit the MJ/XJ body better? Reason I ask is I’d like to eventually put an Ax15 into my MJ after I do an axle swap & regear to 4.10 but I can’t find an XJ or MJ with an AX.....but I see tons of wrecked wranglers in the yards around me with Ax15’s and I swear I saw somewhere someone said they can be reclocked to fit our trucks but I’ve searched for about an hour and a half and can’t seem To get a definite answer Thank you in advance!

Not the 100% best fix but if it comes down to the connectors in the block being screwed you can splice an inline fuse holder onto the 2 wires for the turn flasher relay and the opposite side of the inline fuse holder connect a male spade connector and then plug the spade side into a open accessory slot on the fuse panel,pop a 20a fuse and it should work, mine is currently setup like this until I get around to completely redoing the fuse panel as the turn signal & radio fuse connectors are long gone from the PO of my truck messing around with them :/

Had the same issues with my MJ for about a year before I finally figured it out, the solid blinker on the dash is a big indicator that there is a ground issue in the system somewhere: First thing are you are using the correct bulbs? Someone once told me the incorrect bulbs would cause similar issues on our MJ before you get too far into diagnosis.. if the bulbs are correct I would then go down this route: I would start with testing that you have power at the fuse box on the turn signal fuse (if there isn’t power it’s possible the wire that is soldiered to the fuse holder pins is broken behind the fuse box, in that case fish the 2 sides out and use an inline fuse holder between the wires to solve that) if there is power at the fuse box I would move to the front of the Jeep and check the ground that is just below the air box screwed on the horizontal sheet metal underneath the air box box up and make sure that’s clean, while you’re down in there pop off that connector behind the driver headlight and clean it up for good measure that tends to be one of the areas of high resistance areas this circuit Then if that doesn’t change anything I would remove the headlight trim piece & the turn signal assembly and then the bulb and inspect the pins inside the bulb connector and see if they are intact (I’ve found the ground pin likes to rust away and break off over time) if those are broken it’s easy to cut the wires to the connector and replace it with a new one, they are readily available at most parts stores and I can supply part numbers if needed From there the only other thing I could think of is the ground cable on the engine block ( but I feel like there would be other issues aswell if that was the culprit) hopefully someone else here will chime in with more knowledge if I missed something :)

Here is a link to the sockets I used, I’ve used these on my 88 MJ, and a buddies 89 XJ https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/dorman-conduct-tite-3-wire-ford-signal-and-parking-lights-socket-84716/5473632-P?utm_source=ET&utm_medium=TRANS&utm_term=TRNSCT&utm_campaign=20181210_A_EC_TX_ORDSHP&utm_content=ITEM Part number for cross reference: Part No. 84716 If you end up replacing the socket send me a pm and I can send you a diagram of which wires go to what to make it work properly

I agree with JMO413 & 13 legion , if the harness seems to check out look at the ground tab in the bulb socket it likes to rust & corrode away & cause issues like these, I had the exact same issue as you for 3 months till I bucked up and changed the socket and now I’ve had blinkers ever since [emoji869]

Thank you all for the responses! I’ve tested the light and believe that y’all are right about the light bulb being the culprit of the heat...what a relief [emoji106]

Awesome! there is no fan current running to the switch which is why I'm a little more concerned about the warmth at the switch, I will have to try disconnecting the switch next time I have some free time and see if the warmth goes away, is it normal for the on indicator light to get warm when being used or does it sound like I do have an issue with the switch after all?

It’s hard to access the switch I have installed without tearing the dash down, but I have a spare switch here the colors are slightly different but I’m sure they are in the same terminals on the switch just different colored wires if this helps anyone picture what I’m Talking about [emoji106][emoji39]

Hey all a few weekends ago I replaced my stock little ac condenser fan with a larger late model XJ fan for more cfm, while Doing that I decided to Install a switch so I could toggle the fan while wheeling, I Followed 2 write ups on Cherokee forums and watched a few videos, I used a relay and 10g for everything as that’s all I had around and I used a stock rocker switch from an XJ fog lamp assembly and it seems to work great! Fan pull 10x more air and having a switch is amazing, my only issue now is that the stock XJ rocker switch is getting a little warm after about 10 minutes of the fan running which is making me nervous, I’m wondering if I possibly wired the switch wrong and am slowly burning it out, does anyone know the proper wiring for the stock XJ fog lamp switches? I currently have it hookup up like this: Solid green to 12v on fuse block Green/black to the spot For the switch on relay Black to a small ground point I found just behind the lower Lower part of the dash Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

I will make sure to check all of those on Friday when I get a chance to tinker with the jeep some more, I asked around to a few guys who have done transmissions in the past and all 3 of them asked if the dowl pins where in good condition and if I had replaced and torqued the two upper torx bolts so I guess I have a few other things to check too

oh well, I saw Chrysler wanted an insane amount for a TC, for the price they are asking I'd throw a few hundred more on top and buy a brand new ax15 Anyone know if Dacco , Transstar , or Oregon performance are any good? those seem to be the only places I've found selling the AW4 TC for a reasonable amount

Thank you for the food for thought! I never truly understood why vents where there other than to keep mud out & water out and oil in but I guess I learn some new knowledge everyday!!! based on your statement would you recommend against installing the outer seals on the axles as the inner ones are more than sufficient for there purpose? I think I've already come to that conclusion but I'm one of those who likes to get opinions from as many as I can and wager the pros and cons on things like this

Any chance you remember who the seller was?

Do one of these dealers happen to be Oregon performance? I can only seem to find them and import alliance who sell AW4 TC or eBay but I'm pretty sure the ebay seller is Oregon performance....maybe I'm not looking hard enough