500 MJ

Chapter 2: Well, when a Friday afternoon wheeling trip wasn't enough for the weekend, I ended up going all the way to the tip of the Peninsula to hit some fresh powder with some friends on Sunday. We spent the whole day tooling around on State and Private land and put a total of 70 trail miles on the Jeep. This weekend we were blessed with about 7-8 inches of fresh powder at the far north end of the Peninsula and it made for a great day wheeling. My roomate rode along and I went with a couple other guys and their Durago. Needless to say, his old fat lady couldn't make it up the hill. My T-case popped out of 4 wheel half way up it so I eventually had to stop and put it back in. I tried to take off 2nd then and didn't have the momentum anymore... It is amazing to me just what a little downshift from 2nd to 1st will do for ya. We've all been here. It was my only stuck of the day and it would have never happened if it wouldn't have been for the snow. This branch decided it would like to wedge itself under the frontend while I was backing down a hill. Thankfully nothing got hurt but it was all the way up to the sway bar on the drivers side... glad I had my saw!

Paint came out good, it looks like a dang military vehicle. Looking at your tailgate pic I noticed your handle. You had better get some grease inside that thing cause thats what mine looked like just before it rusted through and broke off on me.

When you turn the key forward, do you have ANY power? Try and eliminate your options and look for things you might have disconnected. It's a duh kinda thing but I am guilty of it just as much as any other person.

In the northern most part of Michigan lies the Keweenaw Peninsula, God's Country. I attend Michigan Tech University in Houghton, just south of the Keweenaw and live in Hancock just across Portage Lake (Canal) which separates the Keweenaw from mainland. The Keweenaw is rich in Copper. This area used to thrive on the stuff but now there is no mining due to the Copper being uneconomical to mine anymore. Back before the Copper had stopped being mined and it was becoming harder for the mining companies to extract the Copper they looked for other sources of recaliming Copper from tailings left behind. One of these ways was to crush the rock already extracted from underground and melt the Copper out from the crushed material. The leftover material is known as Stampsand. One of the larger operations of this type happened in ghey, Mi (I know the name is a little homo, but no one could foresee the meaning it would eventually get when the town was formed way back when). The stampsand mining operations here were so vast that they created a stampsand beach on Lake Superior from the crushed material. The beach is roughly 1/4 mile wide by 1/2 mile long ( these are my guesses, I didn't measure) If anyone here has been to Silver Lake, it resembles it extremely. The only difference is that it is a lot colder here and there is no "dune" as large as "Test" to climb. Also there is no sand, stamp"sand" is finely crushed rock instead. My G/F and I took a trip there yesterday and had a blast. Each time I have been there I was the only one or we were the only group there. You can cruise around on "ghey Beach" for a bit and then go check out the ruins of the mine. Its a great place for bonfires and cookouts. Here are some pics, Enjoy: Here is a good shot at just how much of this stuff is still here and hasn't been washed away. I took this pic just after I drove along the shoreline between a "pond" and the lake, not 10 sec after I drove across the stampsand "Bridge" I went back to look at how far down I sunk in it and found this: The lake had already lapped up and covered my tracks, I wondered why it was so soft driving over this spot :hmm:

I mounted mine below the center of the dash in the spot where the ashtray should be. The whole bottom panel of the dash in my truck was missing when I bought it (what the ashtray mounts into). So I have plenty of room to mount the CB up at an angle toward the roof of the truck. It is a really nice location and it stays out of the sun and such down low on the dash. I can grab a pic if you want...

Definately not a Michigan plate though

http://www.comancheclub.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=22282&highlight=#22282 This link goes to a spot where I have already posted pics and explained things. Basically I used an XJ/MJ main linkage component and welded a bracketry around it that will mount to the two places the bracket mounted to the AX-15 before. I am assuming that it mounted in these places because when I got the tranny the bolt and nut were missing from these locations, one being a tapped hole on the tranny and the other being a stud that joins the T-case to the tranny. I made it out of 1/4" steel so it will be stronger than I'll ever need and the nice thing about it is that I have a factory looking setup in the cab by using the XJ/MJ handle. I can get more pics if you want...

On each side, I used the top two points that mount the bumper brackets and then drilled a hole in the frame rail to accept a half inch bolt farther back in. The key factor to all this and the reason why I can get away with just these holes is that there is virtually no slop in the entire setup, including the bolt mounting holes. When things can move, they will break alot easier. Also, I have the spanner pipe which helps distribute the load on both sides of the truck.

I had time over Thanksgiving break and decided to throw some tow points on the front of the MJ. I did something similar to what I did on the XJ I owned and they pulled me out many times. For some of you out there these might come across as sufficient enough to be ripped on and yanked all over the place, but for me and the places I go for now they are more than sufficient. I usually have good friends to latch onto, if not my Dad. We take it easy on each others rides... Anyway, here are a few pics I took. I have a few more if anyone wants some... pretty basic but I figured I would post em. I bolted the bracket to the front end once I welded the pipe to both pieces of strap steel. I DO plan on taking this off next year when I fab my new VERY CAPABLE bumpers. This is just something to get me through the winter wheeling season.

Had some fun over Thanksgiving Break:

This is the only pic I have on file that kinda shows it. I had some pipe spacers in between the tranny and mount but took them out to help my pinion angle... If you want more I can take more pics, it is just a lil dirtier under there now... ;)

If you are looking to change out the grille/front bezels it is exactly the set up I am interested in. Maybe we can work something out to trade with my complete black front end setup if you are interested....

Yah, I used the same cross member that I used with the BA-10. There is a multitude of holes in the crossmember and I used the ones that fit. I can get picks if you want me to...

The crossmember from the BA-10 will work and shouldnt have to be moved. I didnt move mine and I just drove the truck 450 miles yesterday. You will need the AX-15 trans mount. My AX-15 came from a YJ so I had clocking issues on my t-case and the shifter looked like it belonged in a mack truck in the MJ interior. I simply popped the shifter arms off of their gear selectors that bolt onto the trannys and swapped the arms. It is a square mount and they are very much interchangable.

Cheapest find will be at a yard if they will let you have the keys as well with the locks. They have a little steel clip on the inside of the door that holds them in and then there is linkage connceting them to the latches. Check this linkage cause it might have just come off and needs to be rehooked to your latch. They are kinda hard for me to replace, but I have big hands...

How do you like your K&N on the MJ? Does it help your gas mileage? I've got one on my S-10 and it helped in power and mileage...just wondering

Is it your MJ that has a V8 in it or am I thinking of someone else?

I'll take one please

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Other-Makes-COMANCHE-4-0-JEEP-PRO-RALLY-RACE-TRUCK_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ6472QQihZ001QQitemZ110051570101QQrdZ1 An '89 with a 10 slot grille?... Still a sweet ride.

That rocks, how do you go about getting one of those?

Here is the one I made for mine. It uses the stock bolt on XJ/MJ shift lever and parts of an XJ/MJ linkage. The bracket bolts to the tranny/t-case in two places and has no association to the body other than the shift linkage lever. These are all the pics I have as of now and I am at college so I won't be able to get more for a few weeks. This thing works great and is stronger than I should ever need it to be. Bigger pics here: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2460890/1 [/url]

speedo is simple, just undo the dash and get to the back of the guages and unclip it. it should just unscrew from the tranny...

Me Likey

My dad bought one for his TJ and we took a trailer to go get it, we put it backwards on the trailer otherwise it will catch wind and bulge it. You can't put it sideways either or it will act like a wing in the bed of your pickup...

When I took the bed off of my MJ, I didnt have a fuel pump becuse it needed to be grounded to the rear harness... maybe this helps?