Eagle_SX4

Sep 2021. Got the cracked exhaust header replaced with a high output one and cut out the bung for the EGR out of the old one and welded it in to the new one. I also extended the EGR tube to make it all work. The top rail of the bench seat broke so I cut all the foam off the back and and welded it up with some angle to fix it.

Aug 2021. After driving it for about a month I realized that the truck didn't have a front cross member. It looks like the truck had gotten stuck and a roped was rapped around the cross member and it was ripped out of the truck. Here is a picture of what was left and the replacement I put in.Got it all welded in and got a front skid plate installed. A 97+ front clip came with the truck and while the front end was apart I swapped that out as well. Still have the '87 fenders on it. My plan is to cut the radius off the corners and match the chamfer of the fenders.

I have wanted to start a build thread on my Comanche for a while but have got around to it until now. So I will start at the beginning. I picked it up on July 3, 2021. Here is how it looked after I got it home. To get it home I changed the alternator in the sellers driveway jump started it and hit the road. It had been sitting for about a year with the dead alternator. The previous owner had lost interest in it. He had an internal slave AX15 swapped into it and the original 231 transfer case got rebuilt with a 23 spline input shaft swapped in. (Build date of January 87 on the case) One of the first things I had to do was fix the wipers. The motor had seized up so I got a rebuilt one and swapped it in. Added a delay box and which was working but was over a minute between wipes. I found out that the timer is actually in the switch in the steering column so got that swapped out as well. Now it works like it should. There was a lot of oil in the air filter so I cut down the crank case vent tube inside the valve cover and it has helped a bit but hasn't stopped the issue entirely. Also got the proper vacuum harness's installed. Build sheet link. Edit:added a link to build sheet so I could find it easier next time

Started working on the gas tank tonight. Since I am switching to an XJ tank I decided to also use and xj filler neck in the stock location behind the license plate. I bought a new one but it was way to long so I cut almost 3 inches out of it and welded it back together(still need to pressure test it). I got it mounted with the factory bracket.

It has been running great since I regeared the axles and the limited slip diff is fantastic. Now it's time for fuel injection!! I got started with the swap last weekend and am still working on it but so far I have swapped out the intake manifold, replaced the harmonic damper with a crank position unit from Hesco. It uses the later style crank position sensor. The reason I am using it instead of the one that would mount on the bell housing is because I am still have the factory Borg Warner T5 4x4 trans in it. If it ever has a catastrophic failure I will put in the extra AX15 I have and move the crank position sensor back to the bell housing. Also I have installed the fuel injectors and fuel rail also replaced the intake manifold gasket. I dropped the gas tank and am going to swap an XJ gas tank into it so I can use the XJ pump and sending unit. (Not sure if the sending unit will work with my gas gauge but I will figure that out later). Tonight I started to make the new fuel lines and got the return line bent up and tried to bend up the pressure line but it got kinked so I need to get a better bender. Also the air filter I am going to run is an in line filter from Spectre. Still Need to make a mounting bracket for it. I also got the throttle cable working. Turns out the '92 wrangler 4.0 throttle cable is almost a bolt in fit for the Eagle. Had to modify the mounting bracket a little on the intake manifold so it would be closer the the throttle body. It now works great.

May 2022 Finally got around to regearing the car. For the back axle I got a Dana 35 out of a 2001 Cherokee. It already had 3.54 gears in it. I put a Detroit True Trac limited slip differential into it. The only thing needed to make the Cherokee axle fit in to the eagle is to cut the shock mounts off the axle and move them to the opposite side of the axle and weld them back on. At the same time I also put in some Cherokee 2 inch full length add a leafs. To help the sagging rear springs.

Sept 2021 just having some fun up in the mountains Nov 2021 installed a trailer hitch from a Xj Cherokee. Made some custom bolt plates similar to the rails used on a Cherokee to install the trailer hitch. Had to drill new holes in the hitch and matching holes in the frame. Works great for my bike rack.

Not much happened over the next 8 months until my power steering pump pulley wore a hole through the steering pump pressure line. Replaced both the line and pulley. (March, 2021) April 2021 replaced my clutch master cylinder with a new one that came with the car when I bought it. May 2021 installed a third brake light under the window. Came out of a 2001 Saturn L200. It is only taped in place. It keeps falling down. I need to figure out a better way to mount it.

That same month I started getting the parts together to regear from 2.35 to 3.54. I found a 2.72 front axle in a junk yard and regeared it and replaced all the seals, bearings and repainted it. About this same time I finally tore in to the dash to replace the heater core. Just like the XJ/MJ's you need to pull the dash off the fire wall to get the heater box out to replace the heater core.

Next was to replace the brake booster and master cylinder and add a clutch master reservoir. The reservoir is one for a 2nd gen Honda CR-V. About as close of a replacement for a factory reservoir as I can find. And used a inverted flare fitting to connect it to the master cylinder with some 1/4 inch fuel line. This happened in June of 2020. In July 2020 finally fixed my broken seat. Used some angle iron to fix the twisted and broken seat frame.

Next I got the factory fog lights working had to replace the relay plug because the housing had melted at some point. I drove it for couple months with out doing much then I lucked out and was at a junkyard with dad looking for the rear glass for his wagon and came across a 1989 Grand Wagoneer with the NP229 transfer case sitting in the passenger foot well. So I pick that up rebuilt it and swapped it in. Now I have locked 2 low and still functions exactly the same as the NP129 I pulled out. I added a shifter for 2 low next to the transmission shifter.

Yes the previous owner swapped in a 4.0 out of a '92 Wrangler and kept all the original v-belt accessories and carb set up on it. If you didn't know it was a 4.0 you would guess it was a 4.2 with a aluminum valve cover.

Before I could do much driving around I needed to fix the broken off dipstick tube. I ordered a new tube for a Cherokee. I had to get creative with the dipstick because when you swap a 4.0 into an Eagle you need to use the 4.2 liter oil pan which is only 5 quarts not 6 like the Cherokee. So I drained the oil and filled it up with 5 quarts and used a universal dipstick and marked it and cut it off to the proper length. The next thing I did was install a sound system. This Eagle did not have any speakers or radio in it. I think that it had am radio and a single speaker under the dash somewhere when it left the factory. That was all gone by the time I got it. So I ran new wire for all for all 4, 6.5" speakers and got a radio installed.

Thought I would start a build thread on my Eagle. I bought it on Dec 7, 2018 and was a 12 hour round trip drive to pick it up. At the time it was the only SX4 I had ever seen come up for sale and it had the 4.0 and 5 speed. It did not run but I wasn't going to pass it up. Here it is on the trailer on the way home. Soon after I got it home I re-wire the starter relay and started it up. (P.O. had crossed some wires when he changed it and could not figure out what was wrong). I then did a tune up on it and got it registered. The first big thing I did was replace the factory tach (it was dead) with an after market one. I cutt the housing of the tachometer flush with the face of the gauge and used a thick dvd case as a place fille. And used some plumber tape to hold it in to the gauge cluster. Still working great after 4 years. Hooked it up to the factory wiring.

That article is a testament to just how influential the Eagle really was. Not many other cars that have been out of production for 35 years are having articles written about them. Also Eagles with a 4.0 are awesome. Currently working on putting the fuel injection back on my 4.0 in my SX4. Lots of stuff left to do but hopefully it will be running by the end of next week.

I am also having this exact problem. I haven't replaced the sensor yet but my dash gauge reads the exact same. And my R.E.M. usually reads about 180. However as it warms up it will hit 195 then the thermostat opens and settles about 180. The other interesting thing is my volt gauge also reads low by the same percentage. Which is leading me to think there is a resistance problem in the wire harness some where. Over the winter I also noticed my volt gauge was more accurate the colder it was. As the engine warmed up the gauge would slowly drop back down.

Was browsing Rockauto and stumbled upon the moog cc784 springs for dirt cheap. (Got the last set). I have read mixed reviews about these springs but for the price I couldn't pass them up. I ordered them last week and just came in today. The overall diameter is 5 inches even. I must have the wrong springs in the front. The odd thing is that the current springs sit right at factory ride height plus the 3 inch coil spacer. I am going to get them swapped out this upcoming weekend and hopefully everything will stop rubbing.

Last weekend fixed my sagging driver's door. Replaced the hinge pins and reshimmed the door. Now it close like new.

Hopefully all my issues are gone with the gauges now. Just scored a new renix tach cluster from the junkyard. Cleaned it up and everything seems to work properly now.

After looking for a while trying to decide how I wanted to do a third brake light. I came across a Dodge Dakota in the junkyard and liked how the light looked and decided to take it home and see if I could make it work. A lot of modification later and now I have a third brake light and cargo lights in my Comanche. First I knew that because the angle of the Dakota and Comanche roofs were different it would need to be cut apart. I cut the face of the light off and set it in place to see if it would match up the body. Turns out it has nearly the same profile as the Comanche roof. Time to cut a big hole. The hole ended up being about 1 3/16" high and 9" wide. After I cut the hole I realized that there is not much depth available in that area for such a deep light fixture. So I pushed it in as far as it would go marked it and cut a big section off the reflector housing. Then I used my soldering iron to weld the two pieces back together. Now that the light bulbs were closer to the lense I decided to use LEDS so the housing wouldn't melt (Using Napa brand 921 LEDS). I wanted to put an insert in for the screws. I ended up using the same square 1/4" inserts I used to put the aftermarket 97+ front grill together. (Came with the truck when I bought it). Wiring was simple. When I pulled the light I made sure to cut the connector off the wire harness in the Dakota. The cargo light wire harness was already there just had to plug it in to my fog light switch. For the brake light I ran a wire from the connector to the brake light switch on the pedal. I tied the grounds together and grounded them where by the e-brake. The lights work well and I think it looks great. Here are a few picks at night.

Caster is about 7 degrees. (The ground was about 1 degree sloped down towards the front). Angle finder is resting on the top of the upper ball joint. This is the driver's side. Passenger side was the same.

Thanks any pictures of other axles would be appreciated.

After looking at the pics closer it looks like my C's are bent. I don't have another axle to compare it to. What do you think?

Make sure you have a good ground. Both the widows and the power locks share the same ground. I just did the 97+ full size power window swap into the original doors and took the power widow door harnesses and switches out of a Cherokee (don't remember the year pre 96). I had to make a harness to connect the two sides. I ended up grounding the harness to the body under the driver side tread panel where the wire harness is bolted there. I unbolted the wire harness retainer and put the ground there. Not sure where it was grounded from the factory but it works well there.

Here are some pics of the driver's side looks worse than the passenger side. Looks like the coils are starting to wear grooves into the C.