Cheapamanche

What is the bar attached to the tie rod end coming off of the steering gear box? This post reminded me that I need to replace mine. I can grab it and rotate it about 1/4" I should probably get on that. It's on a 1988 comanche 2wd. Sorry asking a question in the middle of your post.

Well it turns out the bogging ended up being 2 vacuum leaks that I missed. Doh! The first one was the underside of a vacuum hose attached to the egr valve. The second was my throttle body gasket. Apparently I had ripped the gasket when removing it to clean. It never showed up in my smoke test. I guess I don't have enough lung power with the cigars anymore. Thanks everyone for all the suggestions.

Could this issue be caused by the fuel pump? Maybe it's not flowing enough fuel so its starving once put in gear. Did you replace the fuel filter?

That's awesome, thank you!

I feel I got really lucky. I would say to the OP to try your best to enjoy the hunt for your Comanche. It will be that much sweeter. Plus you know how it goes, the second you stop looking for it, it will pop up. Story of my life I swear.

Once in a blue moon they do come up cheap. I was out on a walk with my daughter and we happened to walk down a little road I never bothered to go down before. In the back of a neighbors yard there was a beautiful 1988 comanche eliminator. It was parked in the back corner with a bunch of car parts in the bed. The owner happened to be outside so I asked him if he would ever consider selling. He said he would for $1,200. I told him I would be back in a couple of months for it. Well 2 months later I went back with $500 cash and a harbor freight generator and he took the trade. Plus he they in 3 instrument clusters and all are the full setup with tachometer. He said that the young man who owned it almost 15 years ago had passed and it was parked in his grandmother's garage the whole time. Its actually really a sad story, but it's in good hands now I guess. The point I'm trying to make is that sometimes the old school way of looking like going out for a drive, or walk in my case, to hunt for your prize is a good option. If you see a house with a bunch of old jeeps out front, try knocking and asking if they know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy if they have a comanche. Both XJ's I have had in the past and my MJ had blinker issues that needed attention. I wouldn't let minor wiring be a deterent at all. Pics of the comanche I traded for it.

I was in autozone a couple of days ago and they had a huge selection of touch up paints. There were a couple of touch up paints that looked pretty close. Chrysler something rather. Also rustoleum makes a farm implement spray paint that from memory looked like a decent match. I remember thinking it looked close when I was looking for red for another project.

I will admit that in the past, I have been an "oil- nazi" but experimenting with the Cheapamanche has got me to open up a little bit to new ideas. There really are only two engine oils I will use though and that's Valvoline and Amsoil.

I'm curious why you decided to run it in your diff as well?

x2 on this. I would start by swapping. If it starts then you can quit wasting time hunting down other electrical gremlins. Then clean the other one while it's off.

Thanks for your feedback.

How often do you change the oil in your trans and diff? Do you use synthetics or conventional?

I wanted to share me experience with dreaded puke goat transmission and some success I have had with it. I have a 1988 Eliminator with the 4.0 and the BA10/5 transmission. My 3rd and 4th gear synchro is toast. So when I first got it I replaced the fluid with Redline mt-90 and it didn't help at all.... After watching a youtube video by Thunderhead289 about Lucas stop slip helping his Ford Ranger shift with bad synchros I decided to give it a shot. I drained out half a quart of the Redline and added the Lucas. This was a bad idea. Previously after about 5 minutes of driving I could get it to slip into gear without grinding but after add the super thick lucus it was nearly impossible. So I got to thinking that I would try a lighter weight oil in it. I scoured the internet for a couple of days and found some posts where people were using 10w-30 engine oil with success. Initially this sounded like a terrible idea. Upon further investigation I found where someone had gotten a reply from Peugeot about the new oil weight recommendation being 10w-30 and they posted the email response. Well I figured what the hell, why not? My transmission is already on its last leg and I will be replacing it soon anyways so I gave it a shot. All I can say is WOW!!! It shifts so much better. Everything is way smoother. It's night and day. I know this is probably going to throw up red flags for a ton of people but I should remind you the engine oil weight and gear oil weights are not measured the same. I do think that I will replace the transmission oil at the same interval as the engine though. Has anyone else found this information before? If Peugeot has recalled the weight and changed it to 10w-30 then why not run it? With frequent changing I don't see how this can really hurt anything. Also there is no yellow metal in the ba10. All the synchros are aluminum.

Hey guys, I was doing some digging around and the topic of the egr valve came up and it remi ded me that I forgot to mention that I had capped the vacuum lines running to the egr valve a while back. I read somewhere that you don't have to use a block off plate by just blocking the vacuum lines to the egr. Is this true or do I need to block it off with a plate? I did complete steps 1-4 so far. Also while inspecting I noticed the both hoses to my canister look very rough. I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of the canister is. Is that just venting for the gas tank or can I be a source of vacuum leak? I hope that some day I can be as helpful as everyone on here is.

I replaced the plugs, cap and rotor but not the wires yet. I'll do that this evening. I went through and snugged the intake bolts down a couple of days ago. I'll try unplugging it and let everyone know what it does. I have seen some YouTube videos of nickinthetimes and I saw his scan tool. That's pretty sweet. I will definitely lately check it out. I just wasnt sure about it but if people here have tried it with success I will give it a whirl. I'll check out the 1-5 tips and re post after I start digging into it.

I have since flipped the grill right side up. The grill was my first guess too hehe. I didnt think to check the o2 sensor. Interesting. I'll have to check how to test them if possible. Thanks for your suggestion. So you think it sounds like an engine related symptom? It does look new from outward appearance. I'll check it this weekend.

Hello everyone, first post. Happy to join! I recently acquired a 1988 comanche eliminator with the ba10/5 transmission, dana 35. As far as I can tell, everything is stock except the wheels. I have been scouring the internet for a couple of weeks now trying to figure out why I am having this slight bucking directly related to my speed. It is most noticable at slow speeds. For example rolling through parking lots or taking off from stops. The only way I can describe it is it feels like when someone releases the clutch too quickly. When it's happening my rpm stays steady and I will plant my foot on the floor just incase and it will continue to happen. It also happens when rolling without any gas being applied but seems to smooth out as I build speed or rpm. A little more info on the transmission, the 3rd and 4th synchro is nearly gone and sometimes clunky when shifting into first at a stop. Reverse is also hard to get into SOMETIMES. I can put it in 2 and then it will go into reverse normally. I have a brand new clutch, slave, master and flywheel. All LUK brand. Could this be a symptom of the transmission? The mount is good as are my engine mounts. New fluid in tranny and rear differential and the engine has no vacuum leaks. TPS was set and I cleaned my IAC and throttle body. Any suggestions would be very appreciated. I plan on keeping this truck for the next 200 years so I want to get everything buttoned up on it.