ThreeComanches

1992 Jeep Comanche 4.0L HO / AW4 Auto / Dana 35 / 2WD / SWB Build date: 8/91 Location: North Miss. Status: Not running, Off the road since around 2020. Owner: myself

Hi all, I hate to be making this post but life circumstances have become more demanding and I'm having to cut some of my toys loose. Up for sale is a 1987 Comanche Laredo Turbo Diesel. It is a factory diesel, I have the documentation to prove it. Clean title in hand. As far as I can gather, only 4 1987 Comanches with a factory diesel exist. This is the only known Laredo. This truck will start and run but doesn't drive. It is missing the driveshaft and has 0 brakes. My plan was to do an original spec restoration. Can provide videos of it running and more info via PM. Asking $6,000 but will consider reasonable offers. No trades. History: Truck was sold new in Salem, OR and was in OR until 2025 when I towed it to AL. Original owning family had it until 2024. It has been off the road since 2016. In that time, it was swapped to a 2.5 gas sometime in the late 90's/early 2000's. The next guy that had it (a kid) took the bed off and chopped the fenders. I bought it in July 2025 and towed it to Alabama myself. On the trip, the hood flew open because the last guy removed the hood latches and never told me. What’s been done: 2.1 Diesel engine installed (65k miles, documented) AX5 manual installed (83k miles, documented) 2WD front axle and stock front suspension reinstalled (it had a sketchy lift when I first got it) Bed installed Firewall repaired from hood incident (cowl still needs attention) Whats left: Button up steering arm Install new clutch cylinders Install new brake hardware Needs a driveshaft (original one was cut for the gas engine) Bolt down bed Fuel hoses need to be finished (one leaks and one is missing, hard lines are good.) Oil pan gasket (it leaks)

It sounds like there might be air in the system.

Yep it is the same one. He had it painted.

1992 Jeep Comanche Sport 4.0L High Output / AW4 Auto trans / 231 TCase / Dana 30 front axle / Dana 35 rear axle Build date: 12/91 Current Location: North AL Status: Not running, Transfer case blew out. Current owner: Gentleman in North AL. Notes: Was originally red but had some ugly camo paint job painted over it.

Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time since September of 1995... the Mississippi Turbo Diesel rides again! After looking in the registry, I also found out this is the latest built factory diesel Comanche. It might even potentially be the last one. This one took about a year and a half to get back on the road and I still got plenty more to do to it cosmetically. Even then. it's a thrill to have another one of these rarities back on the road. I also included a picture of the last inspection sticker. Funny enough, Mississippi doesn't have vehicle inspections anymore! Haha

So a lot of progress has been made... I finally installed the transmission, got the brakes working with a new master cylinder, installed new clutch master and slave cylinders, and bled the cooling system. However, the water pump had a huge leak so that needed attention asap. I was lucky enough to get the last one available off of rock auto. Once I got it in and installed it, the leak finally went away.

Hauling off weeds and grass with the ole '86 Turbo Diesel.

So the first order of business was to remove the old 2.5 engine and its associates hardware. A lot of it had been done already so I mainly just had to unbolt the engine and trans. Once that was finished, I prepared and installed a 2.1 from a Winnebago LeSharo. The main items that needed to be swapped were the motor mount brackets and oil sending unit blockoff bolt. I also had to adjust the turbo inlet so it could connect to the factory intercooler. Speaking of which, all of the parts in the engine bay I installed were just spares I dug out of one of my bins. Since the truck had been gas swapped, the glowplug harness and hardware had been removed by whoever did the swap. With that said, I had a spare timer, a couple of relays, and some scrap wire laying around. Once I found the diagram in my eletrical manual, I got to work on building a new glowplug harness for the truck. Once completed, I installed it and it worked perfectly. I also had to build the main harness for the engine bay which consisted of the fuel shutoff, water sending unit, alternator, and the cold start solenoid.

Hi all, I got a treat for ya'll. As far as I can tell, this Jeep is the only one of it's kind left. She's a 1987 Comanche Laredo with the factory 2.1 Turbo Diesel. It spent its whole life in Western Oregon until this year. At some point, the diesel was removed and a 2.5 gas was installed. It was driven like that until it stopped around 166k miles. Last registration was in 2022. I got word that the owner tried to convert it to run on natural gas and blew up his shop trying to make said natural gas. The guy that got ahold of it after sold the tailgate off of it (NOS pulloff) and sold the truck to a kid that put a sketchy lift on it, sold the body, and chopped the fenders. After getting in contact with the kid, I managed to put together a deal and drove from Alabama to Oregon to get it. On July 7th, she was on the trailer and I started home. (pictures taken of it before it was mutilated) (when I picked it up) As I was heading home, I had a mishap in Nevada. It was windy and as I was hauling down US-95, the hood flew open and messed up the cowl and firewall. It then occurred to me the kid had removed the hood latches and didn't mention it. After I strapped the hood down, the rest of the trip was smooth sailing afterwards and I arrived back home on July 11th. My main goal on this truck it to get it back to as original condition as I can.

I have some 1987 Tan parts. Shoot me a PM.

Hi everyone! I'm pleased to announce that another Turbo Diesel Comanche has been saved! Drove all the way to Oregon to get this one. This one is a 1987 Laredo. It's pretty rough at the moment. The guy I got it from tore it up pretty bad. Cut fenders, sold the bed, rattle canned it with primer, and put a sketchy lift on it. It will be getting a full factory spec restoration when time permits.

1987 Jeep Comanche Laredo Turbo Diesel Original specs: 2.1L Turbo Diesel / AX5 5 Speed / Dana 35 rear axle / 2WD Current specs: 2.5 I4 Gas / Unknown trans (AX5 I believe) / NP207 Transfer Case / Dana 35 rear axle / Still has the 2WD front axle Build Date: Unknown Current Location: Oregon Status: It has been off the road for years, I'm in the process of buying it. It's currently missing the bed and the fenders have been chopped by the current owner.

I see, I wasn't aware if @carolinajeepman had a diesel badge yet or not. Thanks for the pointer on the Dodge badges!

That's wild, where did you find that?

Any luck finding a turbo diesel emblem?

Tell me about it. It wasn't ever the same after the first engine swap. Dare I say it drove better before it was done.

So today I finally went out to the shop to get some work done. Finally managed to get the driveline out and it looked worse than I thought. The shop that replaced the engine in 2019 did a horrid job. That probably explains why said shop closed a month after they did my swap LOL. Bellhousing bolts were missing, the transmission bellhousing was cracked, and the engine block had a crack.

Hi all, this will be the third build I've documented on here. However, this is one of the original 3 Comanches that my dad and I worked on together (hence my username). This Comanche is a 1988 Laredo. It's a 4.0 with a 2wd BA10 Trans and Dana 44 axle. The backstory on this Comanche is as follows: It started life in Jasper, GA at the old Jasper Jeep Sales dealership. The original owner purchased it in November of 1987 and brought it back to Alabama and registered it not even 30 minutes from me. It was ran into a ditch sometime in 1994 which tore the front end up and twisted the frame slightly. The repair job that had been done was pretty sloppy. However, it would continue to be driven for many more miles. The original owner passed in 2013 and the registration wasn't ever renewed. I'm not quite sure what happened to it after that. I vaguely remember seeing a Comanche in the local junkyard that looked the exact same as this one sometime between 2015-2017. Part of me thinks it was this one. But, I have no way of confirming it right now. Sometime in February of 2018 when I started helping my dad work on his 1987 Comanche, I found this one on Craigslist about an hour away from me. I told dad about it and we went to look at it. It was pretty rough; the paint was peeling, it burned oil, one of the lifters were collapsed, and the odometer showed 198k miles. It also still had the tag from the previous owner. Despite all of that, we ended up getting it for $800 and picked it up a week later. I named it Mitsuka, the name of my favorite game character during that time. In the time we've had it, we resprayed the header panel, replaced shocks, had the replaced the engine, and did many other things to it. We finally got the papers for it and registered it in 2019. I would end up daily driving it for about 16k miles before the transmission let go in February of 2022. Since then, I parked it while searching for another BA10 that was worthwhile of installing. In November last year, I found a deal I couldn't pass up. I found a complete 1987 Cherokee with a 4.0, AW4, and 231 Tcase for 300 bucks. I figured this made more sense than spending over a grand on an AX15 swap. And since I have an extra driveshaft for this configuration, I decided to take this route with Automatic and 4WD swapping it. Everything else will be left original. What I've done so far: Removed the driveshaft, wiring, and fuel lines Stripped the donor Cherokee What needs doing: Old driveline removed Install new driveline install new wiring harness for the automatic transmission install vacuum lines for the transfer case find and install front axle with the same gear ratio as rear What I'd like to do in the future: Complete respray with correct pinstripes and decals When dad and I went to see it for the first time: How it looked the last time It was on the road (Early 2022):

So does anyone know where this one actually ended up?

Hey everybody! About time for an update isn't it? So a good bit has went on with this ole truck since the last update. First of all, the engine I ended up choosing for this truck in November was a factory 2.1 out of an '86 Cherokee Diesel with 99k miles. Initially, I wasn't sure of the condition as it had been sitting since 2006. Everything looked to be in good condition and it wasn't locked up so I went ahead and installed it. I tried to spin it over and see if it would fire but had no luck. I ended up putting it aside as I had other matters on my plate at that time. In January, I finally got back on to diagnosing it and decided to swap the injection pump. Upon doing that, the engine finally came to life. It was cold so it had a hard time starting. It also ran rough and wouldn't respond to the throttle. I also flushed out the fuel tank since the fuel in it had been there since 1995. So what's left? I need to install the transmission, have the injection pump rebuilt, redo the cooling system, and potentially fix the AC.

Hi all! It's been a while since my last update. Not much has went on since then. I managed to find the matching door cards and install them. The cold start solenoid was acting strange so I disabled it. I decided to remove the crusty looking camper shell. The pan has already developed an oil leak so I'll have to install a new pan gasket. I'm also trying to hunt down a headliner board.

@devotee Thank you very much! Apologies for taking a bit to reply. I had my pump rebuilt at a small shop about an hour from me.

1986 Jeep Comanche Custom Metric Ton 2.1L Renault J8S TD / AX5 5 Speed Manual / NP 207 / (rear axle is unknown) Build date: Unknown Current Location: Unknown, Was last seen in Iowa. Status: Unknown, was last seen on Craigslist about 7-9 years ago. Notes: Was previously owned by a member on CC. To my knowledge, it was last registered in WI.

I added the VIN to the registry. Super clean example