DirtyComanche

Take everything with it that you can. I screwed up and didn't take the adapter for the flanged pinon to a Ujoint, and that cost me about $45 down the road. Also, brake rotors are bloody expesnive for these axles (at least, they are here). So, if they can be machined, take them!

Comments noted. I'll get to it at some point here.

Q. Help! My hood release cable has broke, and I need access to my engine! A. In the words of Petermontie "If all else fails, undo these bolts" They will release the hood latches. If you have the header panel on, you can pull the headlights and slip a wrench in. (A special thanks to Pete on this one, I'd have been screwed without him) Q. I have bucket seats, but want a center console. Will a XJ one fit? A. Yes, but not well. Pull the black plastic peice of vent that it mates to from the donor XJ, and swap it for the one in your MJ. Otherwise you'll have to cut the console up a bit. Pull all the brackets and self tapping screws too. When installing in your MJ, simply cut the carpet near where the brackets go. There is already punch marks in the sheetmetal for where the brackets should screw in. It won't fit perfect, but who's building a show truck? Q. What are these 'budget boosts' I hear about? A. A budget boost is simply an inexpensive lift. Often they are only 1-2.5" and consist of coil spacers, and either longer shackles or an AAL for the rear. New shocks are often not necessary for these lifts. As a disclaimer, many started with a budget boost and soon progressed to having a trail only rig with more rock rash than clean sheetmetal, and empty wallets. Also, you can often build your own budget boost, or source parts from a junkyard, and produce a much cheaper and better lift. Q. I've got 32"+ tires, I've noticed my steering is really unresposive now. What's the matter? A. Did you get a steering box brace? If not, that might be the problem. The MJ unibody is little more than machine bent sheetmetal, and the unibody at the steering box often fails after moving to larger tires. It's best to buy/make the brace before you tear the steering box from the uniframe!

What I did so far. Comments? -------------------------- Jeep Comanche FAQS and How-Tos This document is ment to be a simple pre-reader. It does not offer a complete or in-depth coverage of any of the questions. I would encourage anyone who finds that their question is either not covered here, or is not covered in-depth enough, to make a post indicating that they have already read the FAQ, but had further questions. Generally, this document is geared towards people who are modifing their rigs for off-road use. I cannot gaurentee the accuracy of any of the information contained within, as I am human, and a pretty flaky one at that. I'll also take the time to thank everybody I 'borrowed' images, ideas, and solutions from. Common abbreviations and terms: MJ - Factory abbreviation for Comanche XJ - Factory abbreviation for Cherokee (84-02 models) SJ - Factory abbreviation for Full size jeeps (Pre-84 cherokee, grand wagoneer, J-trucks) TJ - Factory abbreviation for Wrangler (97+, known as a TJ in Canada YJ - Factory abbreviation for Wrangler (87-95, known as a YJ in Canada) CJ - Pre-YJ open-top Jeep. Lots of different models. (Till 86) AAL - Add-A-Leaf, a short high-rate leaf spring with a large amouynt of static arch. It is added to a leaf spring to arch it more, providing lift. SOA - Spring Over Axle. (Covered below) SUA - Spring Under Axle. Leaf Spring - Long narrow spring made from several layers of spring steel. Used in many vehicles, notably the rear of MJ/XJs. Coil Spring - Helix of spring steel. Used in the front of MJ/XJ suspension. SYE - Slip Yoke Eliminator (Covered below) LCA - Lower Control Arm. UCA - Upper Control Arm. Radius Arms - 'Long' control arm setup that does away with the factory 5 link front suspenion, and converts it to a 3 link. Long Arms - Long control arm setup, but not necessarily a radius arm setup. It may retain the factory 5 link setup, but simply use much longer LCAs. Q. I have a Haynes/Chilton serivice manual. It really sucks. What should I do? A. Get a set of the factory serive manuals (FSM) from either your local jeep dealership or the internet. Q. I have a 4.0L and a 5spd transmission. Which 5spd do I have? A. Before sometime early in 89, all 5spds used with the 4.0L were the BA10/5 Peugeot. Later in 89, the Aisin AX-15 was used. The AX-15 is a FAR more desirable transmission. If you have a 89 with a 5spd, and wish to determine which transmission you have: The BA10/5's case splits along the top and bottom, with a seam running forewards to back. The AX-15 has a large ring that splits the front and rear sections of the case. Q. I wish to swap bucket seats out of an XJ in place of the bench seat. Will they simply bolt up? A. Sorta. The seats themselves will fit, but you must retain your MJ seat brackets, as the stud locations in the floorpans are different. Removal of the brackets is fairly easily, with either a drill or an angle grinder, as they are only held on by 4 rivets. Simply replace the rivets with bolts, and bolt seats back in. This is not the best solution, as the seats will be off-center by about 1" - it is however the easiest. Seat Bracket Diagram: Q. I'm having trouble finding a lift kit for a MJ. Will an XJ lift fit? A. Yes and no. The front suspension is identical to that of a XJ, but the rear is definatly different. Does this mean that any front lift for an XJ will fit a MJ? No, not really. Short arm kits will, but most long (radius) arm kits won't. Often long arm kits can be made to work with simple modification though. For the unique rear of the MJ, there's only limited aftermarket support at this time. Q. I hear about converting to SOA in the rear? What exactly does this entail? A. SOA (Spring Over Axle) is the 'easy' or perhaps 'cheap' method of lifting the rear. In simplest terms, the leaf springs are moved from below the axle tubes to above them. In order to SOA the rear, one must have new spring perches welded on the top of the axle tubes, and the old ones cut off the bottom. New spring plates must be made (or bought), as well as new shock mounts welded to the axle. A longer rear brake line will be needed. Typically this will net you 5-6" of lift, depending on perches and what type of axle you have. Don't forget to set your pinon angle when doing this! Q. What is pinon angle? What should my pinon angle be set to? A. Pinon angle is the angle of the pinon relative to being horizontal. Essentially, it's how much your axle is tilted. Tiliting the pinon towards the transfer case output will prevent/reduce driveshaft vibrations, and prevent binding. Generally, with leaf springs the pinon should actually point 2* below the transfer case output, as the springs wrap slightly when in motion. Personally, I feel that as long as you're somewhere in the ball park, everything will work out. If it doesn't, you can always buy shims to attempt to correct the problem. Proper pinon angle is also supposed to be determined with the suspension already set up, and with weight on it. I find that inconvenient, and actually just picked a nice number when I did mine. Q. What is a SYE? Do I need one? A. A SYE (or Slip Yoke Eliminator) converts the factory slip yoke on the output of the transfer case, to a fixed yoke. This allows the use of a Double Cardon (often called a CV) Driveshaft. A double cardon driveshaft offers advantages in that it is less prone to vibrations, and allows for greater slip as suspension drooops. The SYE itself also offers the advantge of allowing you to pull your rear driveshaft, and not having your transfercase pump all the fluid out. HD SYEs for the NP231 transfer case also offer you the benefit of having a stronger output shaft. Now, as to if you need one, I'll give you a firm 'maybe'. Lifted applications certainly won't hurt to have one; although there is next to no point if you're stock. It is quite expensive though, as you need both the SYE and a new driveshaft. Some front driveshafts (look at early fords) can be modified for use, but this is still expensive. Personally, I would say to first try without a SYE (after you lift). Set the pinon angle correctly, cross your fingers, hope there's no vibrations and that you'll have enough slip yoke engagement that it does not pull out when the suspenion droops. If it doesn't work, or you really want to do things the proper way, buy the SYE and driveshaft. Q. What are the major differences between MJs and XJs? A. From about the front of the doors to the back is entirely different. Foreward of this point, there is many small differences, most of which are incosequential. The unibody pockets for the LCAs are functiionally the same, but have a large amount of extra bracing. Shortbed Comanche 'Unibody' diagram: Image Not Found Cherokee: Image Not Found Obviously I've missed many things. I'll add to this, sometime. Q. I need new doors. Will the front doors off a 4-door cherokee fit? A. Yes, they will. You can also upgrade to power options while doing this. Later (97+) cherokee doors will require slight modification of the striker to fit. Q. Which Comanches came stock with a D44 rear axle? A. Assumably only metric tonne Comanches did; with the exception being 86, that got the AMC20. However, when working on 14+ year old trucks, strange things can happen. The best bet is to look. This chart of center sections will help with identification:

I'm bored, as I'm too sick to really do anything but sit here. Should I make a decent FAQ for Comanche owners/modifiers?

Have you got 297X shafts in the HP30? Hope it hold up to those boggers, they're a bit on the heavy side. Oh, embrace the sawzall.

If you aren't all about a resto, I'd use some square tube with some holes in it. That way they're a heck of a lot less likely to break. (Look at the ones they sell for XJs, if you don't know what I mean. I say MAKE because they're all overpriced.)

I thought that was a trim package for the XJs. :?: You're telling me.

It should fit, but the spline count will most likely be wrong. Most of the early NP tcases were 21 spline input, AFIK. Later were all 23. So, you'd need a new input gear for your tcase.

I just left mine hanging... It doesn't seem to do anything at all regardless of position. It might be broken or something... I was going to get rid of it, but if it was already broke and not a problem, why fix it?

Stock is 0* - I think. It's 6* over nothing. I swapped in a ford 8.8 when I went SOA so I don't have a baseline.

Mine are at 6* and I have maybe 7-8" of lift, not really sure. Pinion's a tad steep in reality. That's with a short bed.

Nobody knows! Things always work out different, and it'll depend how much stuff you put in the bed, etc. For a LWB, you'll probably not even need 4*. But you can be close, and it probably won't vibe. And if it does, you try again. But, I'm betting it will be fine. (I've got a shorbed, have over 7" of lift, and the pinon is set at 6*. It's bang on, reasonably a little high even. But the pinion might not be at 6*, the guy I had weld the perches on didn't seem to want to use an angle finder.)

Longbed, shortbed? You can probably get away without a Tcase drop if you set the pinion angle right. If you have a local 4x4 shop it's best because you can borrow and swap shims until it's right. But 4* should be close enough. If it doesn't work I'd build a tcase drop with some box and longer bolts, that's all they are. And the stock driveshaft will be fine unless the previous mentioned things don't work out and you need to get a SYE. You might pick up a YJ slipyoke as it allows a little more angle. Oh, you're swapping in the D44. Hmm, the pinion length might be different. If it's longer, that'll work well, if it's shorter you risk losing the driveshaft as the slipyoke will pull out at full droop. Jsut try it and see!

Definatly do that. Over christmas I was out of town and a bunch of 2.5ton military stuff went by, I was totally going "mmm, rockwells'.

There was a big white one that hung out on naxja, he sold it or parted it out. It was 1/4 elip, 4-link, I think. And there's BrettMs, he's 4-link with coils IIRC. And I've seen a couple that were dovenosed/tailed. But yeah, definatly unique. Well, wheeling an MJ is unique in itself.

You pulled all the glass? Mmm, guess you don't wheel in snow... Well, you haven't had doors for a long time anyways. Anywhos, looks good. Play with the wheelbase at all?

http://www.off-road.com/jeep/cherokee/9 ... iator.html Not the best written, but you get the point. Personally I'd throw some stop leak crap in it first and avoid f'ing with it unless it does overheat.

On the 'no welding' thing. I felt it really wasn't an issue to have my rear welded up professionaly, as I had jsut freshly pulled it from an explorer. If you're going SOA, unless you have a D44, you're probably going to need an axle swap anyways. It's no trouble to have a half competent machine shop weld perches for you, truck the axle back with your still running comanche, and then swap it in. The whole thing can be done quick and easy with a ford 8.8. But if you have a D44, go for it. I guess...

I just use my 231 when things get ugly. Which is about 6 months of the year. Otherwise I only need 2wd anyways... I guess it'd be nice, but I don't need things complicated.

Why bother with the 242? I guess if you see a lot of street.

Got mine off with a fine screw driver... Just pry gently working your way around... The clips will probably just come apart.

Typo or stroker. I'd think. And welcome!

I already complained about this in another thread, IIRC. Somebody here HAS this lift. I'd check to see who, but yeah, lazy.

Thoughts? No D30! GAH! What else? Get aquainted with the sawzall. You can make a hackjob look good. Really. I'd post a pic of my hackjob, but I don't have the flares on right now. Or tires.