WranglerMangler

Are you bringing your MJ to Elbe? I would warn you not to if you haven’t been there. Or at least stay off the Busywild. Suppose it’s possible to run without body damage. It’s not as gnarly as it used to be. I’ll follow you and see how your truck does. Lol. Are you replacing your Cam as well? Be sure to inspect for damaged or flattened lobes!

That’s my feeling too! Or Evans Creek. I drive around with half an MJ in parts in the back for just an occasion.

I’ve been dealing with interior electrical issues since getting Minche. Would have to jiggle fuses to get the gauges to work. Recently found out why. Lol. Had a little rot in the fuse box where the actual fuses plug into the connectors. Sourced some “new” connectors out of the XJ fuse box I recently parted out. Cleaned out all the disgusting black tar crap that is in the connector. This is what I found when I first cracked it open Soaked it down with WD-40 Hit it with the old wire brush, small pick and Q-tip treatment for about an hour. Cleaned up pretty well. That black tar crap is terrible. Covered in Dielectric grease, then went to the inside for some scrubbing, cleaned it up, then covered in grease as well.

Found a decent Transmission cooler on FBMP for half price. Picked that up and got it installed last night. Was going to make a fancy little bracket to mount the cooler but just ended up using the push through mounts supplied with the cooler. They actually hold the cooler really well. Would rather slightly damage a replaceable radiator than drill holes into the unibody. All of my 4wd MJs have greatly benefited from installing a power steering cooler. So I’ll get one here shortly for CommuteChe too.

Also, as far as an endurance test for the JB welded magnets, I recently changed my transfer case oil, believe this will be going on 5 years submerged in ATF, holding up great. Changed the transmission oil as well. I’ve always ran whatever gear oil the Napa guy says it takes, but recently read through an old post here on CC and a guy was saying the manufacturer suggested 30w oil so I acquired some 30w oil at work. Seems to run cooler and shift smoother with the 30w over gear oil. This is what I used. Also ended up cutting down 2, 3/8” extensions and welded them to the Peugeot drain plugs. No more custom extensions. Lol.

Lol. That was long ago sir. I’m at 6 right now. Tried to make it 7 recently too but got stood up by the guy after a 3hr one way drive.

My stock 2wd shaft and its backup is sleeved like that too. I’ve ran across other MJ shafts that are sleeved as well. Can’t say they all came like that but it seems like most stock ones are. Keep up the good work. Keep that girl wrenching too. I just had my 9yr old daughter out scrubbing rust off a flywheel for me. We’re pulling the transmission tomorrow.

My Wife and I Just watched both videos. Awesome job you guys do. Makes me want to do that drive. Subscribed too!

I missed the June 20th anniversary of one year driving to work. Almost put 30,000 miles on her this year. Started driving her at 117K miles, as of last Monday she was probably around 145,5xx. (Despite the fact I posted a picture on June 20th of a picture saying 144,444.4 miles, never mind that. Lol) No major problems, one break down, lots of upkeep, couple of upgrades, good memories, friends made, pure enjoyment to drive. I need more Comanches.

This is by far one of my all time favorite 2wd Comanches. A worthy MJOTM candidate. Congratulations. I hope my truck can look as good as yours one day.

Another Washington MJ!! Welcome to the addiction my friend. Beautiful truck. I have an MJ that a kid in Walla Walla had at one time.

Let’s go wheeling!!!! Looking great. Can’t wait to see her on the trail!

The rear main seal has been leaking on CommuteChe since I started driving her. After going through tip 15, Rear main seal diagnostics on Cruiser54s website, (everything was leaking too) I was still leaking badly. My oil pan has been dented in badly as well like somebody had jacked the truck up off the pan. I have wanted to get a new pan for the RMS job and harvested the pan off of the XJ I recently parted out. It was in much better condition than the dented MJ pan. I cleaned the crud out the inside and painted the pan. I’ve removed oil pans off of probably 10 different 4.0 engines and this one was by far the most difficult one to remove in my experience. Luckily I wasn’t planning on reusing it. Both sides of the rear main seal were rock hard. Not surprised at how badly it was leaking. Once I got the upper half of the seal removed, I noticed there was still some of the seal stuck to the inside of the block. I used a .22 caliber Hoppies Boresnake to remove all the debris out of the channel. It actually worked better than I anticipated. While the pan was off, I checked the timing chain, it was much looser than I was hoping to see. Appears a Cloyes double roller is in her near future. 146,175mi

Wow. That’s quite the move. Good thing you kept the Comanche. Would have been a shame to sell after all the work you have done to her. Good luck getting settled in. Hopefully you find another cool boss. Or even better a house with a shop to work on the MJ!

Thank you. How is your Dana 44 swap going?

This drooping upper radiator hose has bothered me since I put it on. I know it’s the wrong one. I know. But I didn’t realize until I got home that it was the A/C hose and said screw it. More coolant capacity is how I justified to myself leaving it on. Plus I’ve had a few non A/C hoses in the past that are “tight” and ride dangerously close to the fan. This is how I solved my little OCD problem. Found this old shock sitting around: Cut off the piece I wanted: Split it in “half”: Found an old piece of flat stock that was powder coated and had a hole in one end already. Ground the end until it fit the hole on the dummy A/C pulley bracket, put a 90 degree bend in it right below the hose then welded the piece of shock to the flat stock. Now that it’s not going to be rubbing on everything, I took off the 2 side protector looms. Think it cleaned up pretty well.

I’ve had a clunking for a while now, seemed to be coming from the back, have been under the back of the truck grabbing onto things trying to replicate the sound but have not been able to find it. This upcoming weekend I’m planning on doing the rear main seal so I started to remove some things to try to make the job go quicker on Saturday. While laying under the front, I noticed the passenger side sway bar end link bolt was loose. It’s a T55 torx bolt which I hate to deal with, I removed the bolt and end link, replaced the old cracked bushings with used but still good bushings. Replaced the Torx bolt with an actual hex head bolt. Also noticed my front bump stops were rotted away too. Decided I was going to replace them with used but good, “new” bump stops off the XJ I’ve had WJ and ZJ springs sitting around for a while now. Decided I was going to play around with the ride height a little bit. Ended up going with the WJ springs for now. They are STIFF!! MJ coil springs WJ coil springs Drove her to work today, no rubbing or bottoming out with the new lower stance.

Recently installed rear driveline U joints. Luckily went smoothly enough. The stock exhaust has been broken right where the exhaust pipe enters the muffler for a while now. The muffler rattles around on the pipe. I’ve been planning on getting a full new, stainless, cat delete exhaust installed so haven’t addressed it. Tonight I finally welded it together because I’m tired of listening to it. We’ll see how soon a new exhaust happens

Awesome. Sure does feel nice to have a D44 under the rear! Should have been standard equipment IMO. I feel sorry for the guy like me with his beat up MJ at the show who saw your beautiful truck roll in and knew he wasn’t taking first place in nicest Jeep category. She sure looks great going down the track. Racehorse as well!!

Yes sir. Thank you. I’ll check it out

Saw these 2 in Beaverton Oregon yesterday while hunting a 3rd to try and buy. Guy stood me up on a 3hr one way drive.

Guess I need new bulbs. Those make mine look dim turned all the way up. Thanks.

Recently found this Ad on Facebook Marketplace: Pretty clean little truck beside the obvious front end damage, definitely worth the $400 asking price, especially with only 85k miles at most. Hit the guy up, he responded fairly quickly then once I started asking for details about meeting up, he went silent, for like a week. Finally got him to respond and agreed we would meet up the following morning. Drove down to Portland from Seattle area, (3hrs one way) Dude straight ghosted me. Honestly I was kinda expecting it to happen but it was worth a shot I guess. Hoped for the best and expected the worst. I got the worst unfortunately. Even got a flat tire on the trailer too. Wasn’t a total loss tho, found these 2 beauties while driving around looking for the truck in the ad. Stopped and knocked at each one, ended up leaving notes with my number. Hopefully hear from one of them one day. If anybody is looking into this one, just expect to have your time wasted I guess is the point.

BadDadFab, He does seem to make some pretty cool stuff. Seems like there could possibly be a long wait time. Was just checking out his FB. Nice find! Some of the best looking XJ bumpers I’ve seen. I believe that rubicon express Track bar bracket is technically a “drop bracket”. Your heim joint would be close but most likely have to adjust it slightly. Shouldn’t have to realign? Just support the front of the truck and leave the tires on the ground. Then adjust track bar until your bolt hole lines up. That’s how I’ve always done it and have never had to realign before. Could have just gotten lucky a few times tho?

So your saying to start the abuse test at 33” tires because we know they are able to handle 32”s?