Moosieus

Been a minute since I posted an update on the world’s slowest Comanche restoration! Over the winter, through the holidays, weddings, work related things and etc, I took apart my interior, and… The floor pans are done. I suspect this was a result of rain leaking through the rear window, and soaking into the carpet for who knows how long. I’ve been all over this truck and nothing looks remotely this bad, even in spots one would expect to see lots of corrosion. I had lots of discussion with folks I know. Some recommended structural adhesives to glue in new floor pans, but I couldn’t quite get over my doubts about that. Ultimately I decided to learn me some GMAW for great good First practice beads on my own machine: I feel as though I have a lot to learn before I can get the floor pans redone properly, and I have lots of practice projects lined up exactly for that. All in all, I owe it to old Daisy. I feel extremely fortunate to have secured such a rare breed of MJ, and a survivor at that. So nothing short of my best work will do.

Lights in action:

Another day, another late night entry. Bumper off, broke every speed nut, ordered new speed nuts, cleaned every fastener religiously and applied anti-seize. Got bumper back on straight with a jack, jack stands, and a bit of ingenuity. Oh yeah, I also put the fog lights on. That being the whole point of the exercise. I need to get some proper photos taken, but these will do for now. Front profile with the Baja Designs S2 SAE pods on: Some new boot goofin': The dog would like to extend her unbridled love to all of Comanche Club: Quick photo while I was adjusting the fog lights.

Baja Designs S2 SAE Pods in selective yellow. Will get a pic of them on when I'm able to do so.

Front profile for reference - got some Baja Designs fog lights to replace the factory ROL housings.

Too late to take nice photos outside, but we're back in business! Had to get new brake cables, old ones were seized. Took it for a spin out tonight and bedded in the ceramic shoes. Stopping distance no longer feels like "eventually". Onto the fog lamps next...

Gotcha, tyvm!

Started in earnest on fixing up the axle seal and brakes today, having taking sweet time to educate myself. How today started: How it ended: Pending review by friends, family, and forums I did err against swapping the brake cylinders. I sided on "leave well enough and working alone" on account of my newness.

Oh yeah, it took me entirely too long to deduce that this is was indeed gear oil and not brake fluid as I'd initially thought. Thing is, I know the smell of gear oil. I even thought to myself "ugh, this brake fluid smells like complete butt, reminds me of gear oil". A bit of internet research later and TIL the rear axle shafts ALSO have gear oil in them, not just the differential. Such is the nature of my cross-sectional experience

Prior to today, the brakes were... bad. I assumed it was a combination of bald '08 tires plus worn brake pads/shoes perhaps. The symptoms were as follows: Some shuddering that was ebb and flow, come and go. A general stopping distance of "eventually". On the way home from a day trip a few weeks ago I got caught in a downpour on an interstate, in infamous Maryland traffic. I made it home safely, but the utmost ginger application of the brakes would lock and skid. Some folks I know kinda just waived off the latter as an "old truck" thing. I was simply too accustomed to fancy-@$$ electro-missile modernity and braking late... Which had me feeling a certain amount of uncertain. Like man alive, I know this thing won't stop for grade schoolers of its own volition, but a wet road shouldn't feel like total ice. Fast forward to Friday, I picked up the wheels and was driving home. At one point I felt a strong I'm-going-to-need-a-tow-truck shuddering from the right rear. It stopped as quickly as it started though, and I wrote it off as just a patch of rough road. I noticed some fluid near the right rear tire when I got home though. Thought I'd perhaps ran through some engine oil - think I have a small leak from the oil filter adapter O-ring (known to be problematic). I was very, very wrong: In case your smell-o-vision's on the fritz, that's not brake fluid, it's gear oil, F***! Unrelated, through my Googlefu I've come to learn that the height sensing valve was "deleted" and the line capped at the rear: At the same time, they kept the stock MJ distribution block: So priority is as follows for now: Fix the right rear axle seal. Fix the rear drum - clean and install new hardware. Not sure if brake cleaner can salvage the shoes and drums though... I reckon I should refurbish the driver side rear drum to match. I don't intuitively understand the consequences of no-rear-proportioning-valve. Probably no bueno, and I gotta discern the best recourse there. Seems like the topic's been beat to death, perhaps without reaching a great consensus. All said and done, I'm starting to feel more "like a truck person" on account of having very real truck problems now. I'm learning so much!

Boy golly, today was full of revelations. I picked up four 10-spoke "Turbine" wheels a while back (and eventually one more for a full-size spare): Bought some 225/75/R15 Firestone Destination LE3s to put on them. Scrubbed the sin out of them and got them professionally refinished: Got around to putting them on today. The studs took a fair amount cleaning (sans lubricants, surfactants, or solvents) and the coat had to be knocked down a tad around the center to fit a few. I snugged the lugs to 88 ft-lbs per the service manual I've handy. I started on the right front rear and worked way around. I took a quick break before wrapping up to get a drink, and snapped a quick glam shot: Things went sideways with the right rear - more to follow in a moment here.

TIL, TYVM. I probably should've ran with that stuff instead. This was my rough super flush process: 1. Drained and added a bottle of Prestone 'Total Cooling System Cleaner' w/ distilled water, drove for a good while. 2. Drained and flushed the various paths with a garden hose nozzle. 3. Refilled from the garden hose, idled for 10 - 20 minutes, drained and sampled. 4. Repeated steps 2 - 3 a nauseating amount of times. 5. Blew out residual water out with compressed air and filled with Prestone coolant. Evaporust (Thermocure?) probably would've expedited this process dramatically with better results.

One of the prior owners installed a cheap Bluetooth head unit and made this rat nest in the process... Speakers were cutting in and out and generally sounded like death. I'm guessing they blew some fuses in the process b/c I found this as well So began the process of stripping and soldering up the harness for the new head unit. I learned in retrospect that well executed crimps may have been preferable, but I went with what I knew in the moment - perhaps whoever used wire nuts would've said much the same. All considered, I think my soldering skills are good enough to hold up. Here's the completed harness given what I had to work with. Finally, the fruits of my labor. I know floating screens aren't for everyone, but I'm partial to my Apple CarPlay. I'm also fixing to install backup camera. Visibility is amazing out of the rear, but I'm deathly paranoid about dinging up the rear end. The screen slides up need-be, but the climate controls are otherwise operate by feel.

One look at the coolant was distressing enough to warrant a "super flush". I ended up replacing all the coolant hoses in the process, admittedly later than I should've. It took more time than I care to admit, but I got this money shot for my labor. Pic was taken after the samples had time to settle. Fresh water's on the right for reference. In the months since I've replaced the water pump and swapped in a new old stock 195F Stant Superstat. I also hosed the radiator and condenser (what's left of it) out with A/C coil cleaner. The condenser was especially packed with grit and grime, blocking airflow from the radiator. All said and done, even with the E-fan out of commission, I'm operating solidly between 195 - 210F.

Here's an interesting anecdote - I've a cheap Borescope I purchased at one point to chase down a plumbing issue in my house. I ran it down cylinder #1 on June 1st, and it looked like this... Pictured from bottom to top: The piston, cylinder wall, head gasket, (covered in gunk), and the cylinder head. I'm no ASE Master Tech, but to my untrained eyes, that looks awful. Everything was covered in oil and gunk, spare the valves (not pictured): Here's #1 as of today, September 1st :O There's still apparent carbon deposits on the piston and cylinder head, but the cylinder wall is clean and the head gasket's visible. Also looks like the carbon's starting to disappear near the edge of the piston. And yes, the engine still has oil in it... I checked Now I can't empirically identify what fixed this, and I've no idea what cylinders #4-6 look like... But I am extremely pleased.