Liketosmash

I ended up making a custom cross member from my AX4 / Peugot cross member. I had both and they are the same it seems. I paired this with a Daystar KJ01010BK poly mount which seems to be about an inch shorter than a normal mount. To make the cross member I cut off the top of the cross member and then welded a flat plate on to make it about the height of the ax15 cross member pictured earlier in this thread. If you don't care about clearance I think you could space down the cross member instead of cutting it. Likely you will still need to drill new holes.

I had been reading up on the liberty 8.25 as an option and that's sounding like a good option. I could use a little wider rear axle since the Wildpeaks sidewalls are pretty aggressive and tend to rub on the rear frame. I'll do some reading on the Explorer 8.8. Thanks!

Thanks for this write up. Been thinking about a Rodeo Dana 44 or XJ 8.25 upgrade and this gives me a good idea of what is involved.

Very nice. I have one good one and one bad so I greatly appreciate the DIY idea.

I lived in Phoenix for a few years and although I wasn't into jeeps back then I did visit a junkyard or 2 and I'm willing to trade my rusted out mud covered, snow covered, wasp ridden yard for one of yours any day. LOL But yeah I can see your point things seems to last forever out there and on second thought not sure I want to be pulling parts in 126 degrees of heat.

You two are really trying to get me to go back to the junkyard aren't you I got the first oil change in last night and drained the front and rear diffs. Gonna try a gasket on the back to try and solve that problem and need to pull the front axles to put in a new passenger inner axle seal. Not looking forward to that part. Also got newish speakers in the rear speaker locations and it sounds so much better now.

Yeah it was an XJ Wagoneer. I almost grabbed the grill and whole front panel but the more I looked the more I found was broken. It could have been repaired I think but the actual grill was broken in several places. If I wasn't already rocking a 10 slot with LED headlights I might have gone for it just for those weird quad headlights. I gently put the grill in the back a couple of weeks ago hoping maybe the next guy would save it. It and the mirrors where also purple in a lot of places and I still can't decide if that was due to the chrome coming off or if someone really did that intentionally.

If only I knew this before I took them all apart to see what was wrong with them. Flip them one way they are always on, flip them the other way and they come on with the doors. In the middle they are always off.

Assuming it is a 4.0 inline 6 and if so I just did this swap with a 1987 and 1988. Everything should go right into the Comanche from the Cherokee. You will need the Engine, alternator, AC (if equipped), airbox, exhaust header, intake, computer, accelerator cable, speedometer cable, radiator, fan, ignition module (they seem the same though), engine mounts and brackets from the Cherokee. It is a pretty straight forward swap and I may have forgotten additional pieces but those should be the big ones. Other things I can think of that you may want to swap are the gauge cluster and the heater/ac box if it has A/C in one and not the other. The inside fuse panel and wiring harness behind the dash should be mostly the same between the 2 but there may be a couple of surprises.

No just got really lucky and found a Wagoneer at the salvage yard with this wheel and column. The wheel was covered in black and looked terrible. Almost didn't grab it because it looked totally ruined. Cleaned up really nice. All the people at the yard didn't realize the Wagoneer was even in the yard as we all just ask for a list of Cherokees (which are always stripped). We forget about the Wagoneer.

Thanks for the encouragement and tips. Got the auto column and new dash in and they seem to be working great once I figured out how to wire up the column disconnect. Love the new/used dash as the old one was trashed. It's not perfect either but much much better. What a pain to pull and install though. While on this adventure, got a new radio in and blew some fuses in the process. What do you know I replaced the blown fuses (trans and instrument light fuses) and now I have gauge lights and reverse lights. Can't explain why that fixed things because I already tested the fuses for continuity and the were good before hand. I'll take the win though cause I really was not looking forward to tracing either of those down. I did run into a new issue with the headlight switch. The dash I got as a replacement I pulled from a much newer jeep and it had a switch with more pins. Seemed backwards compatible so I went with it. Then I noticed when the car was running my led headlights were on all the time just super dim. I had already ordered a new headlight harness (thanks to Pete M's signature) because the headlights would dim badly when the brights were on and I hit the brakes. Putting the new harness in was super easy and took care of both problems. I mounted the relays to the passenger side of the engine bay and used the front clip brace bolts for the grounds at each light. Pulled the front grill and ran the wire right next to the stock harness. Of course now I have a few new problems I discovered: Rear Differential is leaking again. I've already re-sealed it 2x but maybe 3rd time will be the charm Front passenger axle seal is leaking. I replaced the 2 piece axle with a one piece and I added an axle seal at the diff. Guess it failed and I may need to find a larger seal and try again. Radiator is still very slowly leaking fluid Steering wheel is not centered with the new column. It was perfect before the column swap, maybe I can just adjust the steering wheel? And then there is still the list of things to do: Interior is still all torn apart Need to get visors recovered Need to fabricate some sort of back panel Need to get the bench seat recovered Fix rust on floor boards and rockers Hood replacement needs to be prepped and put on Door replacements need to get prepped and put on Need to decide if I want to keep my manual windows and locks or go electric (electric is what is in the new doors) Paint or wrap it? And the best part... the pictures

My 1987 2WD Peugeot Manual MJ had a 3.55 rear. The 1988 Manual Cherokee I used to turn the MJ into 4WD was 3.07 so I ended up re-gearing the front after the front axle swap from the Cherokee.

Just went through this swapping in a tilt column with intermittent wipers and cruise control. The intermittent wipers need a black box that is velcro'd under the lower dash trim and the switch inside the column is different somehow. As for the wiper stalks, the wires on the stock are for the cruise control and have nothing to do with the intermittent wipers. In my scouring of the junkyard I found about 20 stalks with cruise control and intermittent wipers but only found 1 stalk with intermittent wipers and no cruise control. So it seems to be a more rare option to not have cruise control with the intermittent wipers. This type of stalk was used on a huge number of American vehicles including Buick, Cadillac, Dodge, Chevy. As far as the cruise control goes, I found there are at least 2 types and ultimately decided not to go through the trouble of adding it.. One type has a long wire that runs down to the middle of the steering column and has a flat card like connector. The other has a more typical connector that is under a cover right where the stalk plugs in. The steering column I pulled was from an older Wagoneer and had the flat card type.

Put a few hundred more mile's on and of course I can't leave it alone. So on to the next phase. The dash was terrible so I pulled a donor from the salvage yard. While I'm at it I'm swapping steering wheels, putting in a tilt column from an automatic, fixing the radio and maybe switching over to power windows and locks. Also changing up the interior to some newer panels. If only I can find the one broken one... Driver above the door. Seems these are broken on all the Cherokees. Updates to come... Still have some mystery items too. No reverse lights, interior dash lights went out and my passenger front axle seal is leaking probably from when I switched to a one piece axle.

I went with a thrush turbo style muffler. Sounds very similar to JMO413 setup above. I used 2 1/4 piping and I'm pretty happy with the sound.

Parts interchange with the XJ Cherokees so it should not be hard to find a transfer case. The current one likely could be rebuilt too. Typically you will have a NP 231 which is a very common transfer case. These tend to have a lot of rust on the rockers and the floor pans so I would look closely at those areas. Also be aware that there are several parts like the taillights that are no longer manufactured so they require some searching and can demand a premium. As for the price, hard to say without seeing it. The state of the engine and the transmission would be big questions for me if you are not too concerned with the aesthetics.

Assuming it is in as good of shape as presented, I'm sure I could put 8k into the body work and paint on my truck and it might look that nice. So from that perspective it may be an ok deal.

I just did my front and rear brakes so I don't think that is the problem. I pulled the carpet out of the MJ But left the sound deadening rubber backed foam on the firewall. I then added some rubber rugged ridge tray mats. I think that is part of the problem as the foam + mats push your foot over from the tunnel quite a bit making it a tight fit getting your foot in between the gas and brake pedal. Still though, seems like overall the pedal spacing just could have been better. I'm just enjoying driving the Comanche so much right now though that I am finding it hard to do more work on it :)

I used a modified BA-10 cross member mounted to the same holes when I did my AX-15 swap. This is also the same as the AX-5 Cross member I have. In my experience, I had to notch out the cross member to the weld seam and then weld a plate on top. I then used a Daystar KJ01006BK poly mount connected directly to the transmission and cross member. That polymount seems to be shorter than the comparable rubber mount but the rubber one would compress more. So maybe there is no real difference. It was a pain to be honest but part of that was my transfer case was also being clocked too high as the ax-15 I have was off a wrangler and I used the transfer case from the MJ. I am sure there is a better way. I believe you could space the cross member down just as easily and that might be the better option. I was just too stubborn as I had already hammered up a portion of the floor to clear the corner of the transfer case.

Thanks for the replies and the idea from Pete. I'm sure you get used to it over time but that doesn't make it right in my book. Now to find my torch that's the next problem. I guess worse case I have to steal the pedals from my donor XJ when I really mess this up. I just love working under that steering wheel.

Quick status update. Wrestled the rebuilt ax-15 in place with the upgraded 231. Changed the shifter stick back to the original vs the too tall wrangler stick, added lights to the rear bumper for the license plate and fixed the door stops on both doors. Finally back in a drive-able state and the newly built transmission is wonderful. It also got a quick bath with the pressure washer since it hasn't been cleaned for many many years. Still need to diagnose the reverse lights, interior lights, brake light, put the shift console back together and lots of other body work and interior work. But its running and driving great. Here it is next to the old CJ

Before I attempt this I thought I would check here. I have noticed that the gas, brake and clutch pedal are awful close to each and pushed too far to the right for my liking. I often find that I can brake and gas at the same time. My thought is to put some heat to the brake pedal and maybe the clutch pedal to bend them to the left a bit more. Just seems that there is a lot of wasted space under the e-brake pedal that could be reclaimed.

Couple more gauge light panels just for fun. I think the one I have in the truck is slightly different than the one already posted. So be aware there are some differences. Also note the gauge clusters are often not wired for all those lights. Low washer fluid on mine doesn't even have contacts for the bulb so even with the right sensors it will never light up. I had 3 gauge clusters and what is or is not wired seemed to vary year to year and model by model. I also will say the mix of metric and sae drives me crazy and I own another Jeep where the only metric items are those that have been replaced over the years.

Well the other rear brake cylinder blew out so now they are both replaced with new. I have about 150 miles on the new engine now and decided since we are all quarantined to our homes its time to do the transmission and a few other things. I picked up a 241 C transfer case for next to nothing and took a look at swapping it in for the 231 that is in there now. This transfer case is larger and much stronger than the 231. The 2 big benefits are that has a stronger 6 gear planetary and larger chain/gears. After tearing it down, the 241 case is essentially the same as the 242 but it is very different than the 231 case. The 241 Chevy case is also clocked differently. I decided I would have to buy parts and deal with clearing the transfer case all over again and it just wasn't worth the upgraded strength that isn't really needed for this build. I did take the stronger 6 gear planetary from the 241 and put it into the 231 as that was a direct drop in and is the majority of the strength from the 241. After buttoning the transfer cases back up it was time to move on to the Transmission. It's torn down and on the bench and I should be able to start working on the rebuild tonight. Based on the gold glitter and chunks of syncro in the oil it was in desperate need of the rebuild. Well the other rear brake cylinder blew out so now they are both replaced with new. I have about 150 miles on the new engine now and decided since we are all quarantined to our homes its time to do the transmission and a few other things. I picked up a 241 C transfer case for next to nothing and took a look at swapping it in for the 231 that is in there now. This transfer case is larger and much stronger than the 231. The 2 big benefits are that has a stronger 6 gear planetary and larger chain/gears. After tearing it down, the 241 case is essentially the same as the 242 but it is very different than the 231 case. The 241 Chevy case is also clocked differently. I decided I would have to buy parts and deal with clearing the transfer case all over again and it just wasn't worth the upgraded strength that isn't really needed for this build. I did take the stronger 6 gear planetary from the 241 and put it into the 231 as that was a direct drop in and is the majority of the strength from the 241. After buttoning the transfer cases back up it was time to move on to the Transmission. It's torn down and on the bench and I should be able to start working on the rebuild tonight. Based on the gold glitter and chunks of syncro in the oil it was in desperate need of the rebuild. Also working on getting the rear bumper painted, rear plate lights working, gas tank seal leak fixed, and a bunch of other small issues taken care of.

Things have been slow going and frustrating so I just haven't been motivated to post lately. After many days I finally got the AX-15 installed. As the transmission was clocked for a wrangler it too much more work then I thought it would. I ended up banging out some sheet metal, getting a poly mount that was a 1/2" shorter and cutting and welding the center of the BA-10 cross member to get the clearances I needed. The result is that it's tucked up real nicely under the truck but if I had to do it again... I would have re-clocked the transmission. It was just a lot more work than I expected. The 4x4 linkage also didn't work as I was missing the plate on the transmission so I ended up getting a copy of 'Azzy's Design Works' linkage. Still haven't gotten that adjusted right yet. Put it all back together only to find that the syncro is gone on 3 and 5 is a bit rough so out it comes again for a rebuild. The other special treat is that the fuel sender is not working again so I guess that needs to come out again and see If I broke a wire or something putting it back in. Also lost brakes and discovered one of the rear cylinders blew so got that replaced. Changed out battery terminals as well. The good new is I was able to put another 50+ miles on the truck and the motor is very strong and I much prefer the gearing of the ax-15 over the BA-10. Next up .. transmission rebuild