pizzaman09

I went with Ranchos on the front, they had lots of gas pressure right out of the box and work great. If have to dig to find the part number but they are the 5000 series and for stock ride height. I'd have preferred KYB if I could have found them, I have KYB in the back and they ride very well, the Ranchos are a bit stiff for my liking.

Added some 3d printed center caps thanks to @Dzimm putting in the effort to reverse engineer and 3d print them. Additionaly I've finally found a Renix coolant bottle combo that doesn't leak, the Dorman 603-300 bottle from Amazon with the stock original cap from the factory bottle.

Excellent fit! I'm excited for when I cen get the center stickers for them. As of right now, at least they are protecting my hubs

That's awesome! Classic vehicle road trips are the most fun.

No one has mentioned manifold bolts yet. Have you checked if they are tight?

I had no issue fishing the wire for cruise control down the column without any disassembly. Just kinda shoved it in under everything and it went right down the column. I do have a factory tilt column and appreciate it significantly over the non tilt one in the sport truck used to have.

It's certainly not a Chevy. Looks like a Honda Acty based on the headlight design. One can find automatic ones, though they are much less common and usually only have three speeds. I wouldn't recommend one for a daily driver unless you don't typically drive over 45mph. Typically the top speed is around 60.

Better yet, take the belt off and run the engine, if the noise is gone, it's an accessory.

I've generally found people incorrectly identify my Comanche as a "Jeep Eliminator," they don't even see the Comanche name. Very few people know what the truck is. That said, anyone that ever connected the dots on the Comanche Eliminator name usually has a good chuckle and agrees that the name would never fly today.

I get the sound of a ticking lifter like that upon startup if I've recently changed my oil. Usually a couple good revs gets the lifter to re-pressurize and work perfectly for me. I likely need fresh lifters. The fact that yours starts to tick again over 1800rpm is odd to me.

Cleaned up the cad vacuum shifter and got the gunk out of the rubber connector that was blocking the engage side. It still only engages at high vacuum. After playing with the shift collar on the axel, it appears to get jambed onto the start of the splines in the disengaged position. Almost as if the spline isn't cut quite far enough towards the passenger side. I think I'm going to make a limiting clamp for the sifter so it can't pull it over quite that far.

Thanks for making these, I just purchased four!

So, I ordered a National bearing throw out bearing, and it looked just like the one above. So after some research, apparently this is what it's supposed to look like, it actually is spherically mounted and will center itself once it engages with the clutch. In any case, I'm happy to have a national brand bearing and will utilize it.

There is indeed a thin white plastic liner between the rod end the pin it sits on. I'm not sure of where one can purchase that part but it's not too challenging to replace.

I will say mine did come with the seal in the front housing.

Great trip. Reminds me of purchasing my first Comanche. Bought it in Los Angeles and drove it all through the southwest in the trip back home to Pennsylvania. Just completely winging it the whole way.

I'd hazzard a guess that those scratch marks are machining marks from cleaning up the casting flash.

You were not kidding about the low quality of the throughout bearing. The one I got with the kit is 0.066 inches eccentric. That would make a racket and probably wear out the clutch springs due to the wobble. I shall be purchasing a higher quality one.

When I money shifted a 99 BMW 3 series, put it back in first gear at about 60mph, the only noticable issue was a very mad throw out bearing. Over the next 3000 miles or so it slowly came around and stopped making noise and was just fine. I had that engine up around 9000 rpm, and it had a factory 6500 rpm redline. If it makes you feel better, do an oil and filter change when the engine is hot to drain the oil the best you can, maybe even flush it some. With these engines being non interference, there is not too much to worry about as it it more or less impossible to crash the valves into the pistons.

Thanks for writing this thread up. I have the advance adapters kit sitting in my garage awaiting to go in. I'm to the point that I'm bleeding my LUK throw out bearing with about 10k miles on it every three days as it manages to draw in air. I'm so excited to have a perfectly functioning and good shifting system.

Agreed, it sounds like you didn't run any bits into each other that shouldn't have. Are the 2.5L and 4.0L engines even interference engines in stock form?

If you can imagine what a stock under bed tire carrier looks like, that is what mine look like. 😉

You are welcome. Several months later the visors and electrical connections are still working perfectly. I did have to pull my headliner and glue it a second time as all of the fabric dropped. I'm guessing I didn't use enough spray adhesive. The second time I used the 3M headliner adhesive instead of 3M super 77. Additionally I did it on a warmer day within the temperature range listed on the adhesive can.

Lucky find. I have a D44 with LSD as well, it works wonderfully, can easily spin both rear tires or cause nasty axle hop depending on load and tires I have on it.

I'm a big DeWalt fan. I have their smaller string trimmer which is awesomely powerful, smooth and light. I also have the big bad 60V leaf blower which clean eat battery power but it's also quite good. I have also used the small DeWalt electric chainsaw, it is phenomenal and am thinking of purchasing one. I have way way more grass to mow than any current electric could conceivably mow, I'm running a 1986 Gravely promaster 50 zero turn for that. I'm waiting for the day that a robo mower could mow up to 5 acres, or a robo brush hog.