gogetemturbo

I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what caused the fire since it happened. The overdrive switch on the dash was the only aftermarket bit of wiring on the inside of the truck. It did even have true power running through it. It was a ground control switch. The only other thing I can think of is that the A/C has never worked on the truck since I bought it two years ago and it seemed like an electrical issue. The control never told the compressor to turn on when it was in the right position. I may be misunderstanding how the A/C system works on those things though. I really just don't know. It really bothers me that I can't figure out why.

Even from the get go I was already pretty much convinced I was going to keep it and do something with it. The roof is pretty gnarly, sunk down a good 3 inches . The doors drag on the top of the roof when you open them. I thought about doing what Sir Sam suggested, very very tempting so it's down to that or cut the back of the cab off and adding a second row of seats. One way or another it has to have atleast 4 seats. I just can't justify having a 2 seater truck when I want to be able to go out wheeling with the family.

That's weird that they wouldn't cover it. Sounds like a cop out to me. I only had liability on my truck so the Insurance company isn't involved at all. They wouldn't have given me much money anyhow since all the aftermarket goodies we're part of they're insurance. I didn't want to pay extra.

I'll have to try and get a picture of it but the roof is sunk in about 4 inches, hence the cutting it off. I'll post up a pic later. I still haven't decided which way to go yet. first thing is to get a vehicle to drive to and from work. My commuter Honda Civic got stolen about a month ago. It was recovered within a couple hours of being reported stolen (LoJack is great). The insurance company ended up totaling it out. I decided to let it go because the payment plus gas and insurance was more than the insurance and gas on the MJ (it's paid off). Saving me some money. But then this happens. And yer right "MJ is Dead", I will be putting a fire extinguisher in every single vehicle I own!

So now I am trying to decide what to do with it. I could slowly fix it, sell it whole, part it out or strip it and build something else. I am leaning towards slowly fixing it but with a spin. I have a 5 month old daughter that makes a standard cab truck very impractical. Eventually I am going to want more seats for when we all go out wheeling so I am thinking about doing something like this... Image Not Found I was playing Photoshop yesterday and this is a work in progress. With a full cage all the way back. Cut out the back of the cab and the front of the bed and add a second row of seats. Would allow me to keep my MJ but have something more practical for family wheeling. What do you folks think? I'll post up better finished photoshops when I get around to getting them done.

So here's the story... Since I put the ZJ Grand Cherokee trans in (42re) with a manual valve body, the overdrive is on a switch on the dash (ugh WAS on a switch on the dash) and it’s been acting up and not working right. Well on my way home from work Thursday it wasn’t working. I was taking it slow but the motor still started to get really hot. So I pulled off the freeway to find a spot I can stop for a little while to let it cool down. I should have turned right instead of left so have a parking lot to stop in so I went to the first light to flip a u-turn. Sitting in the left turn lane my right leg started to get really warm. I looked down and saw smoke. For a split second I though of jumping the median to get the truck to the side of the road but the light turned green. I got to the side of the road, got out and tossed a soda onto the flames but it was already too big. While on the phone with 9-1-1, I grabbed my tools and a couple other things out of the truck before it got really big. Anaheim Fire Department was there pretty quick but the damage was already done. The fire never breached the fire wall of the engine compartment, so the engine and everything seems to be ok. All in all, I am safe. No one was hurt other than my most beloved material possession. I am extremely happy it is only a material possession that is destroyed but it hurts none the less. Seems to have been an electrical short somewhere in the dash. It's impossible to figure out what exactly went wrong with the charred mess that is left in the cab.

It was strictly on the interior. The fire never breached the firewall. How it sits for now...

That's my truck. This happened on Thursday on my way home from work.

Watch the video first. Be warned, it's pretty depressing. There is nothing graphic or un-suitable for children, just a very sad day for any Comanche owner.

Wow, I didn't realize my post was so far away from the pictures I was referring to! I ment the second pic from TerraWombat's post on the first page.

That second one is the best one I've ever seen. A while ago I say a very small build up thread on it somewhere. The guy does body work for a living and took a long bed truck, spliced in the rear doors of the XJ and left the wheel base alone. Bobbed the back end of it to round it out and poof, clean Crew Cab. I swear I am going to build one of these some day. Just having a hard time with the thought up cutting up a cab...

It can be done though. While I worked as a tech at a Jeep shop I installed a set of the full bedsides on an 88 short bed. You have to cut away all the "center" portion of the sheet metal bedside and basically just leave the edges. Fiberglass fenders are a tricky thing. You have to have a TON of patience. Things need to be pulled, tugged, tucked and trimmed to do it right and you don't want to take too much off. This is true for both front and rear fenders on any vehicle.

It's amazing what the front end swap does to change the look of the Comanches. Welcome to the dark side! I looks great.

I always thought it would be a cool conversion, just because it would be different but when I saw these while trolling around NAXJA I changed my mind. Just doesn't work. The body shape does not flow correctly for round headlights. I give the people who do it props though, would take a fair amount of fabrication to make it happen. Just not my cup-o-tea.

madzz1 - That's exactly what I was gonna say! She literally sat on her own head at 1 minute 54 seconds. WHAT THE?! I just don't understand how that would even happen. The human spine is not ment to do that... Craziness...

I just don't understand why they haven't put a V8 or a diesel into the JK yet. I would have already bought one! Especially the 4 door. It's heavy enough that they could make it it happen with emmisions. They put one into the WK, why not the 4 door JK? Blasted suits say no. Ya know that dang 3.8L is such a turd that people have to floor it to make it go, so they only get something like 15 mpg. The 4.7L easily gets more then that, even on a lifted rig with bigger tires! I am very fired up about this. I am going to be in the market for a new family rig pretty soon, so I am stuck at looking at the Grand Cherokees/Commanders because the motor in the JK would make me want to shoot someone. I could still buy the JK and pull $15k out of my bum for a motor swap AND that's just parts with me doing all the work!!! Ugh. Jeep pisses me off sometimes. They use to have awesome ideas all the time and stayed ahead of the curve on everything, but now they have the occasional good idea and only let a few of them out to the public. Asinine, completely asinine. End scene. Thank you, thank you very much.

hahaha that's awesome Pete! Sorry to side track yer post jteckmann! I seriously love that concept, it's super sick. Would be cool if Mopar would have the front end available in the aftermarket. Not to mention that they really need to have a better motor then that blasted 3.8L turd!

comanche Comanche commanche comanchee CRAZINESS lol :rotf: I wonder why it's only affecting me though? weirdness... COMANCHE COMANCHECLUB comanche.com Comanche Maybe I'll Topeka it and find out what is going on....

Sorry, an odd thing I just noticed when I re-read my post. It shows in there that I spelled comanche with 2 Ms....when I went back to edit it, my original was with 1 M and a capitol C. Does our site automatically change it? That was wierd. I spelled it with 1 M in this post, so I'll see if it converts it over too...

It's official. I have found the only thing I would get rid of my Comanche for....well maybe not but I certainly would love to have one!

A buddy of mine put a 4.7L HO into one of his MJs last year, the thing is wicked! Used a Dakota bell housing and bolted up the NV3550 with an NP242 behind it. The truck is such a blast to drive. He doesn't live real close to me anymore, but I'll try and get pics ASAP to show it off. The rest of the truck is kinda rough, it's a work in progress. He needs to get his Race truck back together, it have a wicked stroker that he built up. Though it's running 2wd, I'll tell him we need to line the two up next to each other and make a few runs trading drivers out to see which one takes the cake. My thing is that for the expense of building a quality stroker, to optimise it you need to do a large amount of custom work AND run high octane fuel. Reliability goes down. Versus the 4.7L HO. Motor can stay stock and more reliabe and still pump out more power. Not to mention it gets better fuel mileage. You still have to have custom stuff to install it but they are all accessories and mounts, not internals. Just my thoughts. I love V8s and Strokers. A few years ago when I had to rebuild the motor in my 87, I was so stuck on which way to go (stroker or V8) that I said screw it and went with a stock motor...I hate myself for it sometimes but oh well!

Thanks for the compliments folks. They look blingy, but in actuallity, they are spray painted silver! When I got them they were painted black, and I didn't really like the way it looked, so I painted them silver before I had the tires mounted. The lift is mostly Rubicon Express. Has the Drop Brackets, adjustable arms, a 4.5" coil and about 2" of spacers. I threw it together with what I had off the other truck, and plan on swapping the coils out for a 5.5" and reduce the amount of spacer. I took the basic Rubicon Express trac bar, and modified my factory trac bar mount to turn the heim into a double sheer for a bit more strength. Works really well.

89eliminator - usually I agree on the big rim situation. But I like 17s on 35s and bigger. That and it gives me lots of room for a custom big brake upgrade down the road. Besides, I went from a 33 with a 15 to a 35 with a 17, so I still have the same amount of sidewall I had before! Blue XJ - It's a fairly simple install. T and J Performance in Orange, CA sells a complete kit for the XJs and MJs. They call it the XRock. Here's the link to their online store: http://tandjperformance.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=18 They are cool guys over there. I worked with them for a long time. They are a complete Off Road shop, and have built tons of rigs. The actually helped start the Jeepspeed series, built most of the original cars and tons after that and have raced every season since the beginning. Not to mention all the routine maintenance and what not that they do. --Jake

I've had these tires sitting in my garage for almost a year now. 35x12.50x17 BFG KM2s. I had been waiting for smokin deal on 17s, and I finally found some. Image Not Found Image Not Found Makes my brakes look tiny! Need to do a big brake upgrade! They didn't hurt the stopping really though. Image Not Found The D30 looks so puny under there. Good thing I have a one piece axle passenger axle that I am trussing and putting in a Super 30 kit with ARB that will go under there pretty soon. Picked 'em up for $200 - 5 of them total. They had been used, couple dings and major scratches but nothing to compromise the integrity of the wheels. There was one that had a hefty ding in the outside edge (hit a rock pretty hard or something) but I go it beat out and has a nice sealing edge for the tire. I made it my spare. The wheels had been painted black, they were originally chrome and had been scuffed up pretty good to get the paint to stick. So I painted them silver. I may powder coat them sometime down the road. Anywho, I hope you like. I would have liked to have a bit less offset to kick the tires out a little more but over all I am pretty happy with it. They run great down the road. Since I was already gear for the 35s, I didn't notice much of a power loss.

I've heard the CJ designation didn't originally stand for Civilian Jeep. It was just a designation they gave it that had no particular meaning. Multiple people who work or worked for Jeep told me this. One of which worked there quite a long time ago. I don't know how much truth there is to it, but these people told me this without me leading them that way. Who knows anymore, it was so long ago, I doubt there is a concrete answer.