drcomanche

All black interior?? Some people get all the good stuff... In any case, good luck with it and be sure to make a project thread.

@ daking Do you mean like the Nukizer concept? I thought that one looked pretty interesting, honestly. Can't say I'm a fan of the Comanche concept on the first page, though.

I'll grab some pictures a bit later today if I can. It pretty much covers about 6 inches under my cab all the way up to where the bump stop mounts for the rear leaf. Plus the cross member is looking a bit worse for the wear. My intention is to weld on this new piece(which is all inclusive. It is the entire rear of the frame, cross member and all) and to sleeve everything out after doing the initial repair to bulk up the frame all together.

Currently, I have a truck with some severe rear end frame rot that pretty much has it dead in the water. I did happen to find a guy selling a "frame as far up as I need as long as I cut it out" and the frame is in excellent condition. I was hoping to get some information from the fabrication side of the club about what is entailed in splicing the frame and what I will need to do to ensure it holds up. I would be cutting the entire rear frame and about a foot under the cab off and welding fresh materials on.

That's what I meant to say. I would need the forward unibody+rear frame of the truck at the least(I won't be needing the actual bed, fenders, hood, doors, interior, etc.). And I am far from a skilled welder but I feel as though this is beyond just a welding repair with how far spread it is.

Redeeming its name as Frankenstein, the stars have aligned(job promotion+ lack of sale interest= rebuild) and I am going to try to bring this one back from the grave. As I found out last year, the Comanche has some significant frame rail rot that must be addressed. I am looking to kind of test the waters and see if anyone anywhere near to me(I'm willing to drive to pick this up) has a roller or a junker with a decent frame that I could rebuild on. It doesn't need to run, or even have all the parts. I live in Lusby, MD 20657 and would need to be able to get it here to a friends garage to break down my truck and swap the stuff over, so it at least needs wheels.

I'll look into it. Thanks for the advice, I really thought the worst for it and it's had me down for days.

It didn't link, but I'll look it up later. As for patching, I don't weld or do metal work(the only things I don't have any experience in). So one way or another, this is a rough spot. My moneys pretty tight and most of it went into the front axle rebuild. This really puts a damper on spring. I was hoping to take her out more this year.

Yeah, that's the one. I'll keep an eye out for one. Really unfortunate.

As the title implies, I got out to work on the truck today since it was nice, and while trying to leverage the exhaust pipe noticed a little bubbling under my rubberized coating on the frame rail. I tapped on it a bit and boom, a nice hole in the frame rail. It's on the passengers side just before the forward hanger for the leaf. It's only on one side of the frame rail, not the bottom or inside, but the frame rail itself feels kind of weak(not able to poke holes in it, but can feel it give a bit when struck) the duration up to the high point over the axle(which is where I found another hole directly over top of the bump stop). The drivers side is solid, but the passengers side had, apparently, filled with some loose soil that really held in the water, causing the rot. The other side of the frame rail seems pretty solid with no give, and the underside, while it does have some rust, isn't bad enough to give either. The holes themselves are about 2x1 inches before it reaches some slightly more stable, I'll be it weak, metal. I was pretty depressed and ended my work for the day there, fearing the worst. So my question is, can I do anything about this, or is it gone?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-LEBARON-LANCER-HOOD-LOUVERS-VENTS-GREAT-FOR-JEEP-CHERKOEE-XJ-MOD-X570DA1-/121452579901?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1c47234c3d&vxp=mtr seems pretty inexpensive to have hood vents, and they're nos

In the past couple of days, I have since burned up a few more cut off discs trying to take off all the brackets. I found, as I had suspected, that the 3/8ths steel cross beam that was welded as a truss was not done properly. The center of it had not been welded making it slightly easier to remove. The only problem is that the short axle side was butted up against the diff housing. It's a slow process, but it will be done. Today, I managed to finish one side of the axle after cutting, grinding, and smooth sanding. I gave it a primer coat to prevent the rusting and tomorrow I will finish the other. I'll finish up the knuckles and diff housing by hand at some point. And now, pictures.

I probably should have specified that I have modified axles that require being locked out to engage them (D44 Front). Otherwise, the driveshaft just rotates freely.

This started out as a large mini fridge with most of the necessary equipment I got from a friends dad who decided that he was too old to make a kegerator. I've had a minibar built into my 'mancave' for a while, but with this, I added a tap to the top. I set up the tower with a 12v fan cooling box to chill it down using the old light in there as the power supply and adding a switch to the top. Works really well, I just need to get a longer feed hose to even out the pressure(too much foam when I get a beer). But otherwise, a worthwhile project I would recommend to anyone else who is a fan of beer (who isn't?).

I've had the tcase engaged before without being in 4wd(low gear is nice for gravel hills) but never heard the sound then.

As the title states, there is a high pitch hum that gets louder as the vehicle goes faster, but only if 4wd is engaged. It makes me feel like it's going to blow, but it has diff fluid. I have my front axle in pieces, so now I just need a hint on what needs to be replaced.

Today, after a lot of struggling, I managed to get my ring gear out with the locker. The bearings look good(not sure if I need to pack the bearings when I put it back in), but one of the inner axle seals was letting some debris by, but not a lot. Overall, it seems pretty clean, and I think that the debris was caused by the vent tube being clogged up. In the end, I'm going to replace that seal. Now I've started to cut the old brackets off with an angle grinder. I was on edge at first, but after a while started to cut the brackets closer and just became generally more comfortable. Took a while to get through the makeshift truss and by the end of the day, I burned out one of my cut off wheels. Tomorrow, I'll knock the other bracket off and start trimming them off and finishing the axle up. Then, it's on to welding and trying to get the ever expanding list of parts together.

I didn't consider that. And no, it isn't offset, just a metal ring. The calipers on both sides seemed pretty tight regardless of the ring. And the setup was built around the brakes so I would find it kind of odd if it didn't fit right(not to mention, it's only about 1/16th of an inch thick, if that).

Sounds awesome. Can't wait to see it.

That looks pretty much exactly like my 9 inch setup aside from the carrier. What's your plan for a front axle? Are you keeping the d30? Looks like it will be fun though!

Made more headway today. Got the axle completely stripped down aside from the carrier(I'm a bit intimidated to work with that). Learned a few new things about my truck, and one was that I need new u joints for the axles and the driveshaft. One of my axle u joints even had a chunk out of it. All of them were a little worse for the wear with the rubber seals obliterated from use. I don't know if it's standard practice, but the axle u joints had a spot weld bridging the shafts and c clips, making them very hard to remove. My passengers side brake rotor has some very deep grooves in it from something. Guess those are getting replaced as well. The pads on the drivers side were ok with some light cracking on the edges. The passengers side back pad was destroyed. The brake had reached the screws/bolts and the grooves it carved into the rotors took their toll as well. I'm not exactly sure how to tell if the wheel bearings are bad since they seemed intact and in decent condition. The rest of it was simple to remove. My seals for the hub were different on each side, so that makes me wonder, and on only one side, I found what I think is an axle seal(although it wasn't in place and was destroyed). My ball joints were impossible to move by hand so those are getting replaced too. I don't know if there are inner axle seals, but I really don't want to take out the carrier, since I don't really have the tools for that, but if there are, I may not have a choice. All in all, a successful day. Now it's on to grinding the old brackets off and smoothing it out and then cleaning it up and getting it welded. On a side note, I also had a weird rusty metal ring between the passengers side hub and caliper holder...

That's a real shame. Be sure to give it time to heal. Don't want any permanent damage there. Otherwise, I look forward to seeing more eventually.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for( and by that I mean it's really dirty and actually quite a large undertaking, all things considered) I have finally started my axle prep. Since it will be off(and it's old as dirt) I'm going to make this a full rebuild of the front axle. I began by jacking it up(which, as you'll see, took some innovation to actually maintain due to the truck being at that perfect height between jack stands and high stands) and removing whatever parts I could reach. This was the result of the first half day working on it, since I get off at 3 every day now. Most of it was pulled apart but I was losing light so I stopped for the day. The next day was far more accomplished. I broke it all free, save for the brake cables. I was hoping to keep those attached to the calipers, but the calipers seem to be attached to the axle. I'll have to wrench with that and see what I can do. One of my concerns was a high pitched hum that came from my transfer case when I had it in four wheel drive, so I split that open, hoping it wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg. Turns out, it looks pretty good. No wear or chips. The fluid looks healthy and good(aside from leaking out of the sides of the axle) so I guess the noise is coming from somewhere else. During this dismantling process, I also discovered that my u joint for the front axle was bad, so I'll add that to the list of items to buy. The hubs had frequently given be trouble, being hard to switch from 4 wheel to free, and because I'm stripping the axle, I took them apart too. Very dirty inside and I need a special tool to get the c clip out, so it is spared for now. My goals for this are to: Repaint my calipers, linkages, and y link in army green and everything else black Replace my ball joints, hubs, axle seals, u joints, wheel bearings, diff cover, and perhaps brake pads Strip axle to bare metal and have new truss welded on Overall bring the axle back 100% Two days from now, I will continue to disassemble it and try to start hitting it with the angle grinder.

Somebody has to at least check this one out. God knows, I would get it if I had the money and space. It looks like it doesn't have a lot of rust in all the usual spots. http://smd.craigslist.org/cto/4667940647.html

http://lancaster.craigslist.org/cto/4523228480.html Says the engines blown and could probably talk him down slightly on the price, but all told, if it has nice panels, it's not a bad deal.