WranglerMangler

Agreed. They don’t show my ‘91 pioneer decals

$10,500 Firm. One owner, Adult driven all its life. Meticulously maintained, I know what I have. No low ballers.

I wish I would have done this years ago for this truck. There would definitely be a lot more pictures that have been lost on old broken phones documenting progress. This is “Minche”. Mini Manche. Definitely not a wheeler. Lol 1988, 228,xxx miles, SWB, Pioneer, 4wd, Renix 4.0, Peugeot BA10/5, NP231, welded Dana 44 Disc brake conversion, D30 1pc axle conversion WJ Knuckle swap, 3:07s 31” M/T Baja MTZ P3s, Custom fit XJ long arm kit Warn 9.5 CTI winch entire exterior has been “monster lined”, (roll on truck bed liner) Previously owned By a CC member interestingly enough. I was a tow truck driver in Renton, Wa for 5 or 6 years. This Comanche was parked at one of our apartment complexes that we would impound vehicles from, for months not moving. I finally got the call for the “Jeep truck” and knew exactly where to go. I went and impounded the truck and it sat at our yard for 28 days without anyone calling about it or trying to inquire. It went to auction and I was lucky enough to take it home. We had a guy through the tow company that had a mobile key making truck. So lucky I didn’t have to replace the ignition or door lock cylinders. One phone call and $50 I had a working set of keys! I got the truck with a D35 rear and Vacuum disconnect front axle on the stock short arms. I remember my first “wheeling” trip was a trip up to Snoqualmie Pass to see how she did in the snow. Alone with no winch. The truck wasn’t doing very good and had Balding tires on it. It was all I could do in “4wd” to get turned around. Well later come to find out that the snow had bumped and disconnected the vacuum front axle hose. This lead to me immediately welding the D35 and doing the 1pc front axle conversion. The welded D35 lasted into the next summer and decided to back out half of the ring gear bolts while doing 70 down the highway. What a noise that is! Luckily I was able to make it home. While searching Craigslist, I sourced a Factory Comanche Dana 44 that luckily had the atrocious 3:07 gear ratio so no re gearing was needed. Welded up the spider gears in the Ol’ D44 and have been running it since with no issues. As I do with all my Renix Vehicles, I almost immediately did the “open coolant upgrade” with new Napa radiator, upper and lower radiator hoses, heater hoses and a high flow FlowKool water pump. I can’t say that I “notice a difference” with the new high flow water pump but the truck has never overheated. But I’ve also installed $30 Napa pumps on wheelers that have never overheated too. So to each their own. I also received matching front and rear Cast Riddler differential covers for Christmas from my Wife. I definitely suggest them. Great fit and I’ve beat the crap out of them over the years. Looks like the rear cover has definitely had an easier life than the front. JB Weld high power neodymium magnet experiment. This is more than 4 years submerged in gear oil. Seems to be holding up great. Definitely caught some shavings. Will be doing this to future diff covers that don’t come with magnetic fill plugs. This all happened in 2016-2017 and I’m going off memory. I’m sure I’m forgetting lots of stuff but that’s why I’m doing this now. 2017 - Hunting trip was one of my best to date. Did dent the bed by the drivers side tail light but it happens 2018 June My fiancé and I took in our 3 year old niece who had been homeless her whole life, living in tents and motel rooms with her Heroine addicted parents. She wasn’t “house broken” at all. Didn’t know how to use a toilet, toothbrush or fork. It took my wife over 3 hours to fully brush out her hair after multiple baths. We set out to legally adopt her and had our first experiences with DSHS, (Washington state Child protection service) what an absolute joke this agency is. Opened up what turned out to be the most intrusive, 3 year long, can of worms ever. I’m sorry to those of you who know. I married my lovely wife in Long Beach Washington August 3rd 2018, 3 hour drive and 120 miles in Minche while towing my J20 Galdiator truck bed trailer on 38’s. (Gladius) No run ability issues and I even got to recover a Semi truck stuck in the sand! I used to have a video of it but this picture is all that remains. Meanwhile, I had been amassing parts for a free to me, used XJ Long arm kit, along with a WJ knuckle swap, Timing chain, oil pan gasket, exhaust manifold and gasket, RMS, oil pump, freeze plugs, Cap, Rotor, plugs, wires and motor mounts. I needed to get all this work done before our Hunting Trip in Mid October. But after our Late July, week long, annual crabbing trip, followed by our wedding over the first weekend in August and then our week long honeymoon after the wedding to Hawaii. Gave me all of September to get the project done. No problems. In theory. Lol. We went on our Hawaiian Honeymoon, it was awesome, got back and immediately started to tear into Minche. Throughout the week, after work, I got the engine all torn apart, timing chain off, oil pan off, oil pump off, intake and exhaust manifold removed, also tore apart the D30 anticipating a smooth swap. Friday night, August 24th 2018, literally less than a week after we got back from our honeymoon, I got to make the worst phone call of my life. I had to call my sleeping at home new wife and tell her I had been shot twice at work. Something I sure never thought I would have to do. It’s really interesting talking to your most loved one while rapidly gushing blood out of 4 fresh holes in your body. Reassuring her on the phone that I’ll be ok when I honestly had no idea at the time. Holy crap did that really throw a wrench in the gears of my plans. Lol. For being shot twice, I believe I’m just about the luckiest person. I was only in the hospital for 6 hours. The bullets didn’t break any bones or hit any vitals. Still hurt. A lot. But definitely could have been way worse. Suppose I’m here telling the story so yeah. Now I have this pile of parts to be installed on my torn apart truck. A VERY concerned wife, A full bottle of pain killers, a non functional left arm (Bullet entered in 3” above elbow and exited out of bicep.) and two more fresh Bullet holes in my torso. (Entered in my lower right back and exited underneath my right arm pit.) And no patients for sitting around healing. Unfortunately It took probably 2 weeks for me to be able to get up and get back to moving around “comfortably” as possible. “Luckily” the idiot who shot me had loaded full metal jacket 9mm rounds that just kinda passed through. 2 bullets, 4 holes. Shot in the back for asking someone to pickup their McDonalds garbage I watched them throw out of their car in our work parking lot. Shot at 4 times. Only hit twice. Exit would under my right arm pit. entrance wound, lower back, above my butt crack and right an inch or two Entrance into my left tricep. exit out of bicep. So back to my Mid October deadline for going hunting. Now only 2-3 weeks away. Determined, One handed, and, um, on some pain killers, and weak “good sided” I managed to replace the rear main seal, oil pump, timing chain, reinstalled the oil pan with a new blue fel-pro gasket, freeze plugs were fun, I definitely remember smashing my fingers. Some how got the intake and exhaust manifold reinstalled with a new gasket. And motor mounts. Now on to the D30 WJ knuckle swap. And custom made to fit long arm kit install. Lol. Ever try to fit 15” rims over a caliper made for 16” rims? The majority of time went into grinding calipers to make fit into the 15” rim. Lol. I could only hold the grinder so long before I started to get sore. New ball joints were easy enough, I have a press tool. I had already welded the needed unit bearing spacer onto the knuckles and the unit bearings fit right in. Installed and moved forward a new Rubicon Express track bar mount, I had all the appropriate tube and tube adapters along with heim joints to complete the steering. I also used WJ front rotors and drilled in my 5x4.5” bolt pattern. Didn’t go with the sporttrac rotors. It was all going surprisingly smoothly until I got to reinstalling the wheels. Those Abonko calipers are huge compared to stock. I ground and ground and ground on the calipers until I was getting uncomfortable with how much material had been removed. I ended up having to make 1/4” front wheel spacers to make the calipers fit. And they juuuust barely don’t rub. Picture really doesn’t do it justice of how tight it is but it works and doesn’t rub or make noise unless I get into some really fine soupy mud. Really didn’t care at this point because I was going hunting in this truck regardless of what needed to be done. Here you can see the 1/4” spacer I had to make. Not bad with a 4.5” grinder and a drill. They’re almost press on around the center “hub”. I would color all of the contact surfaces with the orange paint crayon, re install wheel, spin and see where it was hitting, then grind some more. This gives you an idea of just how much material needs to be removed. Paint that sucker black, bled it out and wow. What a difference in braking power. So somehow I actually managed to get most everything done enough for a test drive with like 3 or 4 days to spare. Or to get packed up. Finally the test drive! This thing is going to run better than it ever has! Started right up for the first start, got it warmed up, and went to take off, could immediately tell something was wrong. The feel of the gas pedal was different with how it would rev up. Just wasn’t quite there. Pull out of my driveway and accelerate, it hesitates badly through the RPM range until about 2000RPM then “clears” up and will accelerate past. I was pretty upset to say the least. Not exactly sure where to even start looking because I changed so much stuff, I drove it around a little bit, determined that it runs “good enough” to make the close to 2000 mile, week long hunting trip and I was going to send it regardless of what happened and figure it out when I got back. Went on the hunting trip, suffered through the run ability issue, no problems with any of the other modifications or new parts. WJ steering and brake upgrade is most definitely worth it. At any speed, it drives like a dream as far as steering and braking. Amazing difference especially with the D44 disc conversion. Didn’t get a deer but definitely enjoyed the Camping trip. Horse Creek hot springs Shoup Idaho This was about it for 2018, pretty sure I got home from the hunting trip unpacked and continued on with my physical rehab and the truck sat for the remainder of the year. 2019- Looking back through some photos in my phone, We went on a couple of wheeling trips throughout 2019. Liberty Wa “Lions rock” I also started on installing rock sliders. I’m not a fan of welding or bolting rock sliders to our paper thin “frames” so I decided I was going to make frame plates, bolt the plates to the frame then weld the rock sliders to the frame plates. Probably the most labor intensive pathway but it was the one I chose. Lol. Figured it would be the strongest Inside frame plate. Then I made and bent a piece to link both inside and outside plates together. This is for the gas tank strap, inside frame plate. By far the most difficult plate to have mounted because of the fuel tank. Real fabricator guys are probably laughing at my crude methods but hey, gotta do what ya gotta do. Lol. Made it work with what I got. Can’t remember what happened but I lost motivation on the rock slider project, left it alone for like a year, then decided to finish it up the next summer. The two middle Rock slider mounts get welded to this plate, again made an inside and outside frame plate to sandwich the frame then a bottom “skid plate” connector piece. This small plate is for the forward mount, right behind the front tire. I was kinda skeptical about how strong it will be because it’s not very big, and only has 2 bolts, but she holds the weight of the truck without flexing no problem. Inside plate behind front tire Actually got the sliders mounted! I'm pretty sure I hold the world record for most time spent and most weight added for a rock slider job. Lol. 12, 1/4” thick frame plates, 34, grade 8, Nylock nuts, lock washers and 5”-6”-7” long 1/2” bolts, 68 fender washers and god only knows how many cut off wheels later. (4.5” grinder was my main cutting tool) They are on. Lol. And totally removable too! We also went on our 2000 mile Idaho hunting trip in 2019 with Minche. My wife got her first deer. I was so proud. Cool sign you don’t see every day.(well maybe you do, I don’t) 45th parallel, 1/2 way between the equator and North Pole. Horse Creek Hot springs Shoup, Idaho. We take a day just to go here on every trip, well worth the drive it’s amazingly beautiful in person.

I’ve had some 1/0 awg cables sitting around for quite a while now, decided to finally put them to use. A trip to Napa for cable ends and luckily the awesome mechanic at work had some cable end crimpers that he let me borrow for the project. The “home brew Jeep cables kit”. Heat shrink is expensive these days!!! This cable end for the fuse box, I just un crimped the factory cable end and re installed the 1/0 awg cable on the factory cable end since it’s a weird one here Got some decent crimps from the tool. Pretty significant difference for power to starter cable. Alternator output upgrade. The tool: Titan 5-Ton Hydraulic Cable Crimpers 11980 Highly suggest. Under $60 on summit racing. I’ll be getting one soon. Found some decent battery terminals at west marine. Easily replaceable. Battery terminal covers came from Cabelas/ Bass Pro. Was able to squeeze them over the thicker cables with the help of a little dialectric grease Also completed all of Cruiser54s ground upgrades. The cluster ground upgrade made the biggest difference of all. Or maybe it just tied it all together because it was the last one I completed. Incredible how much better it starts after. Fuel pump ground upgrade cut the noise of the fuel pump in half. Found a steering wheel horn button upgrade How often do you see that mileage? Up next? 234,567.8 miles! See you then! Lol. Couple of different Comanche sunrises Just because she’s 2wd doesn’t mean she has to stay on the pavement right? This was by far the heaviest load. Haven’t stacked her up like this since. She didn’t like it too much. Power was there but steering was sketchy. Poor little truck. Lol. She identifies as a Metric Ton with a D44 rear.

Made the trip in “Minche” as well. It’s 400 miles to this sign from my house For the Diesel fans… Ruby Creek road, where Ruby Ridge happened. Look it up if your not familiar with the incident. And my personal favorite… ‘Murica!! Guns n Jeeps n $#!&.

They are secured, Very well with rivets on top. The bottom attachment is buried. And I wasn’t parked there more than 30 seconds before the neighbors started popping out wondering WTF I was doing. ALMOST like they’re on to us.

Believe that I found the best Crossroads sign ever?

Haven’t updated in a while. CommuteChe has been running strong as my daily driver for a couple months now. I’ve already put on 10,000 miles. It’s just a pleasure to drive around in a Jeep Comanche. I got some new tires for it and they made a huge difference in how it drives. This last weekend, we went on the first big road trip to Bonners Ferry, Idaho. She ran flawlessly as expected and was getting approximately 15.6 mpg doing 80mph on I-90 when possible across Washington state. Found the best crossroads ever Unintentionally made our way into Montana for the first time in this truck! Big Sky Comanche. Right at the Mountain time zone line Budwieser Loop road. (Hops fields)

I’ve been using that same coolant overflow bottle for over 15 years now. It outlasted the first Comanche. No signs of cracks or wear yet. Glad to get the part #s. Wrote those down in the Jeep notebook. Would definitely suggest for open cooling system swap.

Awesome. Thank you.

Do you have a part number for the resistor? I tried my local Napa but apparently got the wrong one because the truck will start and immediately die, went back to a junkyard resistor for now.

I live probably 20 minutes from Tukwila. Believe it or not, there is a pretty high concentration of Comanches in the area if your paying attention and looking.

Monday was the first day of commuting the CommuteChe. She performs flawlessly on the road and drives great. 51 miles each way, all week, she will have a fresh 500 miles on her by tomorrow. Tuesday the radiator decided to spring a leak. Luckily some super glue and a piece of CornDog stick helped me get it to Napa then Home without failing me. Installed new radiator that night and drove her to work the next day. Terrible picture of my CornDog stick fix. Can kinda see it in there. Pretty sure the Radiator was Factory original. Going over the Tacoma Narrows bridge. Kinda cool picture at work.

Funny how a set of wheels can start an entire project. Good luck. I’ve always loved that color of Green and it will look great with the tan interior.

Just a quick update: Took off the Canopy. Still need to find a new rear window. Slider is broken. (If anyone has any suggestions where to get one in the Seattle area?) The Junkyard find, under hood light hooked right up, new bulb and it was good to go. Spent some time and cleaned up the ground wires behind the dipstick. Unfortunately a battery had leaked out at some point and rusted under the battery tray pretty badly. First out of 5 Comanches to actually have a factory battery hold down

Excuse my ignorance but I’ve never dealt with the cruise control on the MJs. Is there a schematic or write up of parts you could supply me with? I’ll be more than happy to grab you the parts. Just don’t want to leave anything behind

Exactly what do you need? I was going to go back down there this weekend.

Went down to the junkyard this weekend and found some good stuff. The fan and AC pump dummy pulley bracket is cracked on my MJ Found an un cracked one on an XJ down at the junkyard. Grabbed it for replacement. Also grabbed this factory under hood light that I found on a different XJ. Turns out my hood was ready for the light Easy enough install. Two screws and a plug. Still need to go get a new bulb to test for function. Also found a decent Bumper cover that is not cracked and not too mangled up. Also grabbed some Rear ZJ springs.

Budget Truck Wrecking Auburn Wa

Budget Truck Wrecking Auburn, WA V6, Red interior, fairly straight Long bed, D35, Mostly gone through. Not much left.

Thank you EagleScout526. Always appreciate any information.

Thanks, they support the weight of the light and it bolted in perfectly. Old dirt bike trick. Trying to make cracked and broken plastics look better on a budget.

Yeah, so much anymore, the nature aspect of WA state is the only good thing left. Plus most of the Unibody stuff doesn’t get rusted and eaten away by rough winters. I see pictures on here of MJ “frames” and wonder what body of salt water they were recovered from.

Spent some time this last weekend beating on the rear bumper and bumper brackets with a hammer. Turned out better than it was. Need to get new bumper covers. Mine are trashed. Before pictures. Pretty hammered on. Not perfect but better anyway

Thank you big66440, I have completed a 4wd WJ knuckle swap and am aware of the hassle of getting the bigger caliper into a 15” wheel. I am also aware of the benefits of the bigger brakes too. I think I’ll go snag the entire front end out of this 2wd WJ while I have the opportunity to do so. Did you do custom steering or make the WJ stuff fit? Should I grab the pitman arm while I’m there too?