tj21

FINALLY SOLVED! My comanche has been running very rich for a looooong time... I replaced the fuel pump a couple days ago, and she now runs great and easily passed emissions!

I have an '86 2.5L manual Comanche, and just bought an '84 2.5L manual Cherokee parts car for the 4x4 and A/C. I assume this will work even though the '84 has differences (carb vs TBI), but if anyone knows if either of these swaps are not straight forward between these trucks, please let me know before I get too deep into it.

I drove to Bend yesterday and bought an '86 Cherokee with 2.5L engine. I'm using it to get the 4x4 out of. The engine runs really well, let me know if you need it.

Somebody save this before it goes to the junkyard! http://oregoncoast.craigslist.org/cto/4332331160.html

If you give up on this, let me know, I'm looking for a Comanche with blown engine so I can get parts from it, including 4wd for my '86 2.5L. I'm in Portland area. You might have a hard time finding a 2.5L engine, almost all of them around here are 4.0L; I was surprised to see your 2.5L post from Corvallis. I went to OSU, so I don't mind making a trip down there. EDIT: Right after I said you would have a hard time finding a 2.5L, I saw this on Craigslist, no price though: http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/pts/4321803477.html I'm going to see if he has 4x4 parts for me, he's parting out the truck.

I was popping clutch in reverse to start because I'm having starter problems. When I popped it, the truck came to an immediate stop without starting, and I can't get it out of gear. I think I had it in 4th instead of Reverse (oops). Now I can't get it out of whatever gear its in, and starting with the starter (it does work, just not well), the truck won't move. Even if its jammed in 4th, I would think I could get a little movement by slowly engaging clutch. I'm not sure if I broke/bent linkages, or if I screwed up the transmission. Anyone have easier suggestions than dropping the transmission to see what's wrong?

I ended up taking the fuse box and wiring harness from this truck yesterday. Now I'm wondering if I should go back for all the 4wd parts except for the tranny since it has such low miles. Will the 2.8L stuff work on my 2.5L?

Just realized its an automatic, so tranny won't work.

I have an '86 2.5L 4x2. At the junkyard I'm looking at an '86 2.8L 4x4 with only 95k miles. Is this a direct swap for 4wd?

Bringing my own dead thread back to life. I dealt with the clutch not disengaging intermittently for over a year (I don't drive her much), but it finally permanently seized while I was on the other side of the mountain, several hours away. I made it home, and replaced both the master and slave cylinders. Its was the master that was seized. I should have fixed this a long time ago, it wasn't hard at all. She's shifting smooth now, thanks for the help.

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/cto/3313213594.html $900 obo 2.8 liter v6 Not my truck, just poking around craigslist and saw it.

Did you have any luck finding a new release fork and throw out bearing? I also have an '86, also in Oregon, and my clutch also stopped disengaging. I'm replacing the master and slave cylinders hoping it was one of those, but will probably have to check out the clutch. This started while deer hunting last weekend in Sisters, the drive home over the mountain range was an adventure. Desperately trying to fix it before heading back this weekend, but work is getting in the way of things.

Did the 1986 Comanche only come as a Long Bed?

That is the case with mine, heat only from the defrost. Just need to figure out where to plug the vacuum line in. I can't find any open ports in the firewall.

Does the 2.5L have oil filter rings?

My Blue 88 MJ has that "Football" canister. its a 5 speed with no cruse control. Do you have vacuum lines only going into one side of the canister?

I should have reread that post before asking. "The football in the bumper is your vacuum resevoir,it has a check valve in it,when you accelerate your engine vacuum goes to o,the check valve will keep you from loosing vacuum to your climate controller and cruise control,without it you would loose airflow to your vents,heater,etc everytime you step on the gas. And it will effect your 4wheel drive the same way." I still need to figure out how to get it to the climate controller. No cruise, No 4wd.

I started this thread many months ago, picked up a new canister from the junkyard, but still can't figure out what it is for. Sounds like from the above post that one side is used for cruise control, which I do not have. What is the other side used for? What do I plug it into? I have the larger rubber vacuum line plugged in, but where does the smaller plastic line (seen in the picture) coming out of it go to?

Did you have any luck finding a new mat sensor? I've been struggling with this same issue.

Shouldn't there be infinite resistance between the negative and positive terminals when unplugged from the battery? Any tips on tracking this down? Comanche has been running super rich forever, and I think I have it narrowed down to the wiring. Sensors test ok, but I don't think the computer is receiving the correct signal from them.

Looking for an intake manifold for my '86 MJ 2.5L. Will probably pull one from the junkyard this weekend, but thought I'd check on here first.

Thanks Geonovast, that will help me figure out my problem. My searches on here and google didn't give me a clear answer to how electronic timing worked.

But what advances? Just the timing of the spark? Or does the rotor spin at a different rate than the splines at the camshaft?

My understanding is that all timing advance is done by the ECU on my 2.5L, referring to this thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24018&view=next What mechanical part is advancing? It appears to me the entire distributor shaft from where it's splines meet the camshaft up to where the rotor sits is one fixed piece with no rotating parts (relative to each other... it all spins together). What am I missing?

Still looking for help here. What causes the distributor to advance/retard? I have a FSM for my '86, and it says the rotor is supposed to be at 6 o'clock while at TDC (not at the #1 wire with most engines). You can see the above picture it is more at the 5:30 position. I removed the distributor and reinstalled rotating it one tooth clockwise. This puts the rotor more at the 7 o'clock position. It was hard to start, sounded like some backfiring, but once it went, it ran great. Definitely a leaner condition (probably too lean). Tried shutting it off and restarting, with same result, except it was harder to start. My third attempt it wouldn't start. I moved it back to the 5:30 position, and starts same as before, but runs rich. Then I found a 2.5L MJ at the junkyard. Set it at TDC, and the rotor was at exactly 6 o'clock. Here's the picture: I thought maybe my distributor was bad, so I bought the junkyard one. Installed it, and again could only install at 5:30 or 7:00. So appears the camshaft teeth are out of position. How do I fix this? Does the computer advance / retard the camshaft gear? That sounds odd, but I can't think of anything else. I did replace the timing chain, but had the same result before and after. I counted the 20 nails between crank & cam marks several times, and I'm confident I did not screw up the timing.