Dickinson County Comanche

We’ve been using them as movie chairs in my dorm room this week lol.

Most comfortable seats I’ve ever sat in, and I’m not even a fan of leather.

She’s all back together! After gutting the interior and installing some new leather seats I got out of a 93’ Limited and a carpet I got of RockAuto (color is slightly off ), it’s actually comfortable (and probably safe) to be inside it. + a whole slew of new suspension components and tires and she’s back ready for service. Here’s to another 322,000!

Got it home and running. The poor NP231 was worn out and the chain was jumping so I used parts from one I had laying around to get it fixed. Needs a power steering line to be drivable at this point but after that she’s pretty much ready to go! I also got a new carpet for it and a set of Grand Cherokee Limited pillow-top leather seats to replace the torn leather set mine originally came with (couldn’t find a good matching set, and the cloth wasn’t nearly as comfortable as the leather is)

Got it pulled out of the mud today. Hopefully gonna start on it Thursday after we get it moved home tomorrow. She looks pretty damn good for having 330k on her

Managed to find this mint steering wheel at another local yard so I snagged on it. This style of fake-leather steering wheel always seems to be ruined from the ones I see at the parts yards, whether it’s in an XJ or ZJ.

Is leather rare? I guess I though cloth was the rare type of seats because of the Grand Cherokees luxury status over the regular XJ.

Figured I’d share this here. Just went and bought this rough, but clean ZJ Laredo out of a parts yard. My current plan is to fix it up to use as a daily driver. You almost never see these ZJs with the factory manual. I also plan to swap it to Cloth seats and put an ARB bumper on the front since the factory one got damaged in the wind on Saturday night.

I believe the 91+ have a better cam profile, but it’s almost cheaper just to buy an beat up running XJ and gut it for the engine and electrical components. You’ll have to do some modifications to the harness to make it work + add the later gauge clusters and ignition column? (Not entirely sure) If you eventually decide to stay with Renix, a later “HO” block will work just fine with a Renix head/intake. I have a 92 block in my 89 Renix and it runs just fine.

That would make sense if it has the overdrive. It already runs around 3k rpm at 60.

I’m going to have to finish this truck’s history here. With the 2.8s lower-end failure and the sheer amount of rot it would be unviable to bring this truck back. Don’t fret though, it helped 2 Comanches stay on the road with its parts, gave a new lease on life for another Comanche via it’s transmission, and it’ll be a nice wood-hauling trailer and maybe even a nice trail camper trailer in the future. And I might add: these trucks, even when rotted practically in half, are quite stiff. I was shocked by just how strong they are.

It has 4.10s. 4.56s I feel would be too much, it’s already pretty peppy as is, and it’s not too terribly slow (22s 0-60) for what it is.

I suppose that’s what happens when you swap a 2.8 auto to a 2.5.

To make 2 whole months worth of guessing short, it turns out that when I put those bolts in for the CPS, I didn’t put them in enough, causing weak spark and one hell of a misfire. I gave the CPS a bit of persuasion with a hammer and a long extension to push the CPS further in, and it cleared up the misfire. So that brings us to the present. I’m about $1200 into it at the moment. I mainly did it because I had the know how and wanted the challenge, but also because I didn’t want to see it crushed, and I wanted to see just how cheap I could get it done in. I think $1200 for any running and driving vehicle nowadays is pretty good. It still has a few quirks, the oil cap on the valve cover pukes oil, my fuel gauge quit working the instant I put the tank in the truck, the trans leaks fluid out the front, and the transfer case has no low range. But I figure with some time and ~$150 I could get this rig practically sorted. (I’m kinda looking to sell it, so if anyone would be interested, pm me or something and we can work out a deal)

The last (and worst) issue I eventually ran into was with the CPS. The 2.5s seem to have some sort of pressed insert that allows the CPS to be bolted on, however, mine didn’t have that, nor can you get them online, so I improvised with some long bolts, and installed the transmission. After everything was buttoned up, I finally got the engine to start and it ran, but not great.

Since the (86’) 2.5s and the 2.8s used the A904 automatic, they have to have some sort of a kickdown mechanism to allow the trans to… well, kick down. The 2.8 uses a pull cable to actuate the lever, whereas the 2.5 uses a linkage directly from the TB. The 2.8s cable has a ball connection and turns the opposite way that the 2.5s linkage does. Fortunately, the missing kickdown tab on the trans isn’t too complicated, and I just went and got a linkage from a early 2000s Durango and modified it to work. Another thing was a swap from metal cooler lines to rubber lines since the metal lines twisted into oblivion rather than coming loose. Everything else was practically a breeze.

It sat around for a while. I had to finish up some college classes and my senior year of HS so it became yard art for a while, but after it slowed down going into the beginning of summer, I got to work. Given that it’s not my first time doing a transmission swap + I had already done some little things to the truck (including pulling the motor out of the donor truck), I had it all put back together within a week, although I did have some issues adapting the transmission.

Only getting around to posting about this truck after 3 months. I picked the old girl up back in April on the Facebook marketplace to save it from the scrapper (Plus, as a bonus, it was cheap) Its got the 4cyl with the automatic, 4x4, cruise, and A/C! That poor poor 2.5. However, it had no transmission. I did have a good transmission from my 86 with the 2.8, so I decided to swap that over. Not a whole lot of rust, although one of the cab corners was gone and the other is starting to bubble up. (Unfortunately, someone had came before I got there and bought the hitch off the guy so I didn’t get that )

I solved it! It was simply just that the CPS (due to not having the pressed in inserts on the bellhousing) was just a little bit too far from the flex plate. A few light taps with a hammer and a long extension and it runs amazing now! The 2.5 with those 4.10s is pretty peppy, I’m quite surprised.

Tested my O2 sensor and got just over 0 ohms. Like probably .001 of an ohm. Definitely an issue there I’d say.

I have a slight vacuum leak at the EGR itself. The intake side has a slight leak.

EGR solenoid test came back ok. I have 19” at idle according to my vacuum gauge.

Opening this topic back up. I borrowed a snap-on brick from a neighbor and my ST and LT fuel trims are locked at 128. No change if you rev it or anything. O2 voltage reads way too high and it doesn’t alternate between rich and lean mixtures. Barometric pressure reads 29” even,Man. Vac is 19.9”, and the map is at 9.1” Inj is 4.0 it also refuses to go into closed loop. I just changed the 02 not that long ago so I’m not sure what’s going on. TPS is within adjustment and the Temp sensor reads 206°F.

New O2 didn’t change anything. I have a friend with a snap-on brick and I ordered a plug so hopefully I can figure it out and stop trying to diagnose in the dark.

Another update: Both rear brakes have been rebuilt. As I kept driving it the locked up drum adjusters kept coming loose in the drum and caused a ton of noise + soft brakes. I got an old metal tag holder from a 1984 XJ at a parts yard and I just got my new MTS sending unit in so I’m going to put that in soon. Finally after 2 years I’ll have a gauge that reads correct