Salvagedcircuit

Thanks everyone for the responses. So far I've put 4 months of work into this comanche and it seems that I'm building a vehicle from a parts catalog. I apologize that I've been late to respond here, the drivers CV joint on my folks grand cherokee failed and I've been consumed by that all week. The good news is they now have a new front end suspension with new shocks, stabilizer arms and CVs, but I am left with a golden radioflyer without a handle. I'm leaning toward using the longer arm dual diaphragm booster and bracket. I just have to determine which one and if its worthwhile to spend the premium on finding a new old stock mopar setup. During the failed install, I did notice that the paint around the entire brake booster+master region of the engine bay is bubbling and peeling off. I realize it's 34 years old, but who knows maybe the master or booster has been leaking for a while. Along the way, it turns out my exhaust manifold has a nice crack in it to compliment my repair efforts. My plan was to document the dual-diaphram + wilwood prop valve upgrade in complete and post it to comancheclub. It is something missing from the project guides and would be useful to have. The wilwood prop valve is currently being returned to wilwood for analysis, there were distinct burrs on the brake fitting orifices. I am beginning to think this will be nothing more than a sunday vehicle and not a daily driver at this rate. I just don't see how this is going to be working, reliable and undercoated before winter.

That does sound normal to me. I would do these two cruiser54 tips: Cruiser tip #11 (Throttle Body and IAC Cleaning) http://cruiser54.com/?p=60 Cruiser tip #4 (Renix ICU/Coil Contact Refreshing) http://cruiser54.com/?p=41 My Idler Air control Valve and throttle body cavity were completely coated in carbon. The main 3 pin plug on my ignition coil needed replacement after a very bodged together twisted wire repair from the PO. No solder, crimp, wirenut... just twisted wire wrapped in electrical tape. My 4.0 is a lot more stable at idle after these fixes.

You sir are awesome. Is this the stock XJ 97+ spacer that came with the booster? Still trying to decide what to do. Thanks

Thanks for all of the replies. There was no spacer included in the cardone kit. At this point I believe my options are either widen the firewall hole or use a longer arm booster and spacer. I CADed up a spacer myself. I will attach the dxf for others to use. I plan on having spacers waterjet out of 1/8 and 1/4 in aluminum. This way if I need to stack them, I can. However, If I use a spacer, I need a longer booster arm to the pedal. Which Jeep had a dual diaphragm booster but a longer pedal? I forgot. Was it the ZJ? or a late model 97+ XJ? I very much prefer buying a new booster and master. I will not be pulling used parts from a junkyard that may have problems that I am unaware of. Thanks for any input guys!

My brakes have been exceptionally soft since I purchased my MJ. I bled the brakes several times and nothing improved. I tried bleeding the prop valve as well, and the dash light never engaged. There was a considerable amount of crud in my master cylinder and being this vehicle is 34 years old, I opted to just go with a WJ Booster+Master and a wilwood prop valve. I purchased a Cardone 5C-473163 booster, a Raybestos MC390511 Master Cylinder and a wilwood 260-13190. The removal of the old equipment went smoothly, but the new WJ booster is physically incompatible. The hole for the booster in the firewall is 2.17in. The diameter of the cardone booster is 2.30in. The booster never sat flush with the firewall. I bent up the firewall seam as well, and nothing I did was able to make the booster sit flush with the firewall. The brake pedal bracket obstructs the booster hole in the firewall, but that is normal with the MJs and I've seen it in other MJ firewall photos. I tried moving that bracket over as far towards the passenger side as possible, but alas, the booster would not fit. I used a large pry bar as well, but it was not enough. For the people who succeeded with this conversion, what method did you guys use to make this work? There are several factors that could be causing my fitment issue: -Cardone used the wrong OD on the booster diameter -There is a lot of variance in build of the MJ -People who did the conversion and documented it forgot to describe the amount of modification needed to make this work (enlarging the firewall hole). Let me know what you guys think! Thanks!

Thank you greatly! I just grabbed some 5/32 line to replace the rotting vacuum line.

I'm in the process of replacing all the rubber hoses and tubes that pull vacuum around the engine bay. I installed the Dorman 46003 & 46004 vacuum harnesses and I noticed two strangely shaped items hanging off the drivers side of my engine block. The Item circled in orange is supposed to connect to the item circled in purple. On close inspection, the item circled in purple is clogged full of crud and has likely died. What do these two items do? Thanks a ton!

Yeah, I need new sway bar bushings, stabilizer linkages, springs... The whole front suspension is shot and needs replacement. I have never changed the power steering fluid. I will have to look into foaming. I'm just curious if anyone's battery tray area looked as poorly welded as mine. It seems very strange. The body is otherwise straight and there are no records of accidents or collisions on my comanche. It has been in the 90s (farenheit), so maybe heat is causing the power steering fluid to expand?

Hi. I was wondering if it is normal for the caps on the comanche steering pumps to always have power steering fluid on top of them. The cap is brand new. Every time I open the hood, I always see a small amount of fluid on the cap nipple and lid edge. Also, are the welds that join the sheet metal below the battery tray to the passenger fender well normally tack welds? Mine look incredibly poorly made, like the welder was 1/2 drunk. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

Oh man, there's one of these ceiling consoles in a junkyard I found. I want to do this sooo bad. Excellent.

If you do and you are willing to ship, you sir have payment Thanks!

I have no stock spare tire carrier on my longbed. The entire assembly is physically missing.

Interesting. I Just saw a parts for sale post by Kody Kilmer on some fb group and he has a "Distributor harness hold down clip." If I rotated my ignition coil down, that hold down clip looks like its the perfect fit. I think I have found my answer. Dang. Time to make one

...moving to North Carolina, back in a bit

Looking for a set of turbines and a longbed spare tire holder. I'm fighting my way towards a stock setup and my oversized mud tires will find a new home. NH, MA and maybe even NY area. Thanks!

This is an unbelievable deal if it's real. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1080699319532978/ I am firmly in the no-bedliner camp, as I plan on coating my bed instead. But dang, this is tempting.

That seems fishy for how cheap it is. Dang.

Wow, so theres a chance these rear bumpers were original options. Dang. I thought mine was slapped on and shipped Maybe I should try to bend mine back lol

Thanks for this info. I double checked and the bleed screw is at the top of the caliper. It is not that uncommon for parts to be mislabeled in boxes from autozone and parts stores.

Thanks for the input! Strangely, I hooked up my vacuum gauge to where the brake booster was connected and I believe I read somewhere in the low 10s. I have to check my photos. Considering the terrible shape my vacuum lines are in, I was surprised. Currently, I am leaning toward installing a WJ booster + master setup and a wilwood prop valve. It just bugs me that I don't quite know whats troubling my brake system.

I'm in the process of bringing my Comanche back to road worthiness and started servicing the braking system. The brakes worked beforehand but were not that great. For some reason, after all my work I have no brakes at all. Even after trying to properly bleed everything including the prop valve, I have extremely soft brakes. Initial Condition: Front rubber hoses rotted and chipped, the rear rubber brake line is in similar shape. Hard brake line looks stock and has the armored metal appearance. The hard line looks in great shape somehow even after 34 years. Rear brake drums are within dimensional specification and do not have much wear Rear drum shoes were warn but usable. passenger side asymmetrically warn Rear passenger side parking brake miniature cable snapped. Front brake pads were about 50% life, front discs not that warn Master cylinder lid very rusty On first opening of lid, inside fluid looked brown and muddy. The smaller compartment was bone dry and had a lot of brown residue. Rubber gasket had fine particles and mud like residue on it. rubber gasket was pulled out. Some rust flakes from the lid fell into the fluid on first opening even though I tried to avoid that. Brake booster very rusted externally Procedure: Replaced all rear drum brake cylinders and shoes Replaced all drum brake springs and hardware Brake drum cylinder forks not included in new brake cylinder kits. Original ones were bent but I could not find replacements. Tried to replace rear rubber brake line with the block end that mounts to the rear. Rear axle hard line that threads into the rubber cable block was stuck and started to feel like it was going to shear so I stopped before damage. Re-attached rear cable as it was previously. Replaced front disc rotors and pads, front passenger & driver rubber cable, and driver caliper. Driver caliper bolts were completely wrong and previous owner used plastic spacers! Cleaned out master cylinder compartments with paper towel and simple green. Added new DOT3 brake fluid At this point, some fluid was already lost from replacing rubber brake lines. Bled brake lines from passenger back, then driver back, then passenger and driver front. Repeated process for prop valve and put key in ignition to turn on dash light. Light never illuminated. I tried several times. Bled brakes with 2 people. The stop-start method. I repeated the entire process a second time to try to get the dash light to illuminate. It never illuminated. During the bleeding process, when pumping the brake, I only seldomly was able to push the pedal all the way to the floor for that second stage engagement. A few times It was hard to pump the pedal, but it would not stay that way. At this point I don't know what has failed in my brake system. I am under the impression that there is most definitely fine particulate in my brake lines and my master cylinder or brake booster may be clogged or has been for a long time. My plan right now is to disconnect all the components in the braking system, use a large air compressor to blow out the hardline and just start over. I will be replacing the hardline on the rear axle that would not loosen from the prop valve. I bet the prop valve needs a rebuild too, but I don't know if those components are still available anymore. What could be causing my problems? Clogged prop valve? Damaged brake booster? I read something about a leaky booster / check valve. Is that possible? I don't mind replacing the brake booster and master cylinder now as they are likely 34 years old, but I'd like to use new mopar parts. I have been jaded enough by the dorman / crown / clone part quality of the coolant tanks. I don't want a life-saving critical part made to such poor quality standards. Thanks for any input!

You guys are the best. Thanks!

Close, but not quite. Mine and the one in the listing has 2 ridges on the back face of the bumper. The one you linked has 3 ridges. It looks pretty darn close though.

I have that exact same bumper, but the PO must have either pulled out a stump or had one too many drunk nights with a sledgehammer I'm just thankful my tailgate is straight!

Hi. I've been slowly resolving issues with my comanche and I've come across some oddities. Was there ever a retaining clip on the ignition coil? I notice there's dedicated plastic tabs on the main spark plug wire from the coil and it leads me to believe there was some plastic or metal clip over the main wire from the ignition coil. Was that stock? should I make one? I noticed that my distributor sender has a 4 wire connector, but only 3 wires enter the sender housing. There are no cut wires at the body of the sender either. I'm thinking the previous owner replaced the sender electrical connector for some reason. I looked online and of the images I saw, some senders are 3 wire and some are 4 wire. What's going on? Why the disparity? Should I replace my sender? When comparing engine bays to other cherokees and comanches of the same era, I noticed mine is missing an air vent hose that connects to the side of the air box intake. There is a circular port on the side circled in the attached image. My comanche is missing that entire hose. What does that hose do? Where does it connect? Is it the direct cabin air input? I have a power trans and comfort switch on my dash. My switch is completely toast and I can feel it not engage anything. Does anyone know is there's a replacement switch made or is it a junkyard only part? Should I just solder it to power mode? Does anyone know if the rubber linkage bushings for the tailgate are available anywhere? Are there any 3rd party ones? I'm tempted to make my own out of a block of rubber and just laser cut some. Thanks for any input!