DirtyComanche

Turned out it was failed ubolts. On one side they had stretched out at some point, and began working in the spring plate. Due to the nuts being rust seized I didn't catch it the last time I retorqued them, or it started since then. Anyways, the ubolts wore down until one or more of them failed, which allowed the factory spacer block to come loose and the rear axle to steer me around. They had a very clear wear taper on them that was corroded, and then a clean break where the remaining material (not much at all, 5/16" maybe) failed. Not really something that you can drive out of at highway speed. The Dodge setup with a large lift block from the factory didn't help.

Not really worth it in his case.

There is gold honeycomb and snowflake style wheels. They're terrible.

Yup. And with the older demand regulated propane setups you need very little wiring. The only wires I needed were to power the ignition, and for the starter and alternator, since I used a vacuum lockoff and you only really need the primer when the engine is quite cold. Don't get me wrong, I was happy with my setup, but it was a wheeler only at that point. Swapping bottles is a pain in the @$$ if you're driving on the street, and most permanent tanks that will fit a Comanche are bed mount and take up a ton of space.

It's not the power cut that's the issue, it's that it takes you that much more fuel to get somewhere; a gallon of propane will only get you at best 80% as far as a gallon of gasoline. There also tends to be other losses as MPFI (even the Renix setup) is quite efficient when it comes to controlling the A/F ratio, whereas the older demand regulated propane setups are just not that good. When I did my conversion I used an Offenhauser (sp?) intake meant to put a 4 barrel carb on a 258 (I just modded it a bit) and an Impco 425 mixer, Model E regulator, and a VFF30 lockoff. I don't feel there was any appreciable power loss compared to running the Renix setup with the restrictive intake manifold and throttle body. I did spend some time trying to get the timing dialed in as well as possible too, which is a big thing, you will need a good dial back timing light to do this as you're going to be running a lot of advance.

Be careful with propane appearing cheap. It has only 80% of the BTUs as the same amount of gasoline. To use a GM HEI, IIRC, you need to get an inline 6 version and you need the drive gear off an AMC 360 distributor. I don't know if other models will work or not, it was years ago when I did mine, but the info is out there as it was a common swap into carbed CJs and YJs.

That was an actual dual fuel setup. I'm not a fan of them. But if you just want to run it as a propane only setup I would pull all of the Renix EFI stuff, just leave the injectors and rail to plug the holes in the intake manifold, and drop a GM HEI distributor in it. That would be basically the best setup in regards to power and reliability. Why do you want to run propane?

I need more details to tell you anything useful. Pictures of what you have and info on how it was installed on the Cherokee.

:thumbsup: Yup, it's just mangled metal now. It didn't owe me anything anyways. Thanks for all the kind words guys. I survived the weekend road trip too, actually had a really good time and was just as happy to be out doing stuff.

I'm just riding as a passenger, which is good. I already told my friend that we're going to have to stop at every pullout/lookout/rest stop/gas station so I can stretch. :crossfingers:

Good advice that. I'm definitely an offender, especially when just running errands around town. This will change now. Were you fairly close to home when this happened Dirty? I think the statistic is that 75% of all fatal accidents happen within 25 miles of home. Like 5 minutes down the road. I think I left at 7:20am and the text I sent to my shop supervisor to say I wouldn't make it was at 7:28am. You get complacent on roads you know well and drive every day.

Thanks man. :cheers:

Yeah, I'm hoping my head is okay, I didn't really hit it on anything that I know of. My neck is sore now, along with a bit of my torso, but otherwise I'm feeling fairly decent. Just drained though, it was a long fawking day. I managed to get the truck towed to my buddy's, unfortunately the towing company would not touch it without a flag team to direct traffic. The traffic control team charged $360 for the two of them to put some signs out, then wave at each other, they didn't even have radios... The tow was free though, so whatever. Hopefully the stitches are all still good, haven't pulled the gauze yet to look. Of course they tell you to take it easy and I don't even thinking about it and use the stitched up arm to yank the ebrake on my JK, and to try to turn the wheel on the dead truck so it would track straight. :doh: I have to go to Edmonton tomorrow, which is bad timing, but hopefully I survive. Anyways, wear your seatbelts, I'd be dead if I hadn't.

It's a 99. I'm there now and it is turning free, but it took a hell of a hit. So who knows.

Thanks guys. Still waiting to get stitched up. One of my friends wants the engine to trans adapter off the truck, so I'm going to try to get it towed to his place when I get out of here. We might be able to figure out what happened then. Ya never know, I could just be a terrible driver.

But could have been way worse. Driving to work this morning and I rolled my Dodge. I think the brakes locked up or something let go or seized in the rear axle. Just touched the brakes and it suddenly went completely nuts, uncontrollable skid, damp pavement but not anything crazy and I wasn't going that fast. Went in sideways and flipped onto the roof and crushed it down into me pretty hard. I managed to wiggle out the side, remembered to get my keys too. And now I'm waiting for stitches for my arm. Hopefully they get to me soon.... Been waiting an hour so far. So anyways, guess I have to actually get my MJ together because I need a truck.

Close. Closer than a lot of things.

Fill it through the shift tower if you have to... But yeah, it's always good advice to make sure you can put fluid in before draining fluid out.

Make one out of Lexan for the time being?

If it's got more than one axle, locking a tire up doesn't do much if they're prepared. Lift that side of the axle, strap it up, and go. Same thing you do when you have a blowout and you're too lazy to change the tire (or out of spares). :rotf: My personal theft deterrent is that my trailer is in a field, and the grass is high enough you wouldn't know it was there without doing a flyover first. :thumbsup:

Glad you got it home and it will be saved. I was afraid it would wind up getting scrapped sooner or later.

I have Explorer rear disks on my truck. For comparison purposes, the rotor is 11" in diameter and 1/2" thick (vented). Shouldn't be vented... Unless you've bought fancy aftermarket instead of 'normal' stock style. Or do you mean drilled/slotted? Official numbers in the book at 11.25" and .470" thick, or something like that (nobody really agrees, I think it's because it's actually listed in metric and converted/rounded). A modern vented rotor is typically about 11-13" and 1.25-1.5" thick. There is exceptions, as there is some thin vented rotors on cars like the Lincoln Mark VIII, Mustang, etc (some are even 5x4.5 bolt pattern if you're interested). And there's some much bigger stuff used in front applications. There's probably smaller stuff used in front applications off of cars, but the question would be finding something with a hat large enough to accept redrilling/fit over the hub. The GM rotor that normally is used in this application is 12.8" and 1.28" thick. 1/3 of the thickness is mostly void space (no weight) as it is the vent area. Guys cut them in half at the vents, then turn the (previously vent are) face smooth. We dug up some rotors for a limo that are about .790" thick and 12.8" diameter, waiting for them to arrive to be weighed. I have my doubts that they're any lighter, as most of what has happened is the vent area is smaller, and they have a thicker hat to incorporate a parking brake drum. The K20 rotors most guys use are a front rotor, and they actually windowed the hat for whatever reason (airflow probably), so between that and the wider vent I doubt it weighs more. The small Isuzu rotor is only 10.3" diameter, or something like that, IIRC. Super small friction area, as the hat is the same size or larger than the comparable solid rotors. It actually would probably be a good choice if a guy was running 6 lug hubs. In short I doubt there is anything that exists that's really worth the hassle. The conclusion I am at right now is to not worry about it. I'm waiting for other ideas on hubs that don't cost a fortune, we're going to try weighing some and see what we can come up with.

And the easiest (and probably most reliable) option would be just a generic DRL controller that's wired to the ignition, if you can live with the lights being on in park/neutral.

Affordable, and looks easy to install. But the wiring diagram doesn't make any sense -- from the diagram, the lights would be on all the time. It's either as Hornbrod said, and it senses alternator charge due to increased voltage (turns on at 13V or so), or it is as I suggested and senses ripple current and turns on. Both methods do have certain risks, IE a system like GM's intelligent charge controlling might not trigger at all times if it is voltage sensing, or it may not trigger with certain 'smoothed' or low RF alternators if it is sensing ripple output.

This DRL "switch" is pretty cool, stand alone, and simple to install. It must work by sensing the increased battery charging voltage when the engine is started and keeps the DRL's on until you shut the engine off and the battery settles down to it's lower normal "at rest" voltage state. I can see this might be problematic though if your charging system isn't working as it should and/or if the your battery is dying. It might work on seeing the ripple output from the alternator. Kinda like the Soundracer. :rotf: