Biotex

I liked grey. Until I joined the NAVY!

http://comancheclub.com/topic/39063-88-axle-swap-into-a-90-comanche/?p=393119 Please check the above thread for my progress.

The easiest way I find to remove the rear axle, is to put both rear wheels off the ground by putting jack stands under the frame just forward of the front leaf spring mounting brackets. Remove the drive shaft at the pinion, leaving it in the transfer case so you don't lose oil if you still have a slip yoke. Remove the brake line where it connects to the rubber hose, and take the rubber hose off of the frame mount so it will come out with the axle Remove the lower shock mounting bolts. Remove the brake proportioning/ leveling rod where it connects to the ball stud at the diff. cover. Remove the vent line at the axle tube, driver side. Remove the four nuts holding the u-bolts on, and remove the spring plate and stiffeners. The axle should be just resting on the springs, with nothing connected. Put a floor jack under the leafs on either side. By taking some of the weight off of the springs, the rear mounting bolt will come out easier because it is not having to hold up the weight of the axle. You can remove the bolt at the rear shackles, and then lower the jack so the axle weight is now on the tire. The spring will rest on the ground. Repeat for the other side. You may or may not have to remove the tires and rims from each side so you can roll or lift the axle off the springs, and out to the rear. Set the 8.8 axle in place of the one you just removed. Put your new, or used spring perches onto the springs, and set the new axle onto them as pictured. Here I'm using the old ones I cut off from the axle tubes. They won't be tacked into place until later when we set our pinion angle. Take your floor jack and lift each side one at a time, and reinsert your shackle bolts as pictured. Also install your new spring plates & U-bolts. Just barely snug because we need to be able to move the axle left or right, and be able to rotate it for the pinion angle. The left and right adjustment is so the axle is centered evenly for proper track. I measured with a straight edge from the frame down to the tube, then over to the flange at the end of the tubes behind the backing plate. The idea here is to get the axle perfectly centered left to right with the springs hanging straight down with no binding. It takes a while if you are by yourself, but much easier with help. There are a lot of places you could measure from, so whatever suits you. Once the left to right part is finished, I tighten up the U-bolts a bit more so the axle won't shift around, but not so tight you can't rotate it. I start with the axle pinion angle lower than is need to be, because it is easier to raise it with a jack, than to lower it. So now I set the weight of the truck on the tires so I can get ride height. I use a digital angle finder to measure the down angle that the transfer case is at. Mine was approximately 6°. The 8.8 has a flange for a yoke, so real easy to put the angle finder on it and raise the jack until the flange is 4° or 5° up. You want the pinion angle to be a couple of degrees lower than it needs to be, because it will raise when torque is applied to the wheels. So when you are going down the road, it will end up at 6° up, and match the angle the transfer case is at. The idea here is that the rear pinion shaft is parallel to the output shaft of the transfer case while forward torque is applied to the driveshaft. Once the pinion angle is set, you can tack the perches in place. You can now tack your shock mounting brackets in place. With the wheel at full droop, I set the shock mounts so there was 3.5" of down travel left, and the rest was up travel. I had measured my shocks to have 7" of total travel, so at full stuff, I will probably bottom out. I didn't want to rotate the shock mounts any further down, or the sides of the shocks would hit the axle tube. Also a better chance of snagging a rock. I believe a couple of inches shorter shocks would be ideal, but these will work for now. I can fine tune them later. Once the shock mounts and perches are tacked in place. you can remove the spring plates again, and rotate the axle so you don't have to weld upside down. My measurements show that the drive shaft will have to be shortened one inch. A solution is to use spring perches like picture in the first post, so you can stretch the wheel base 1" by using the rearmost set of holes. This measurement is taking into account for the flange adapter you will need. I have one that came out of a Rubicon Jeep, but it is not for the 1310 u-joints. I'm going to either shorten the drive shaft and purchase a new adapter for 1310's, or buy a new drive shaft and a slip yoke eliminator set for the beefier 1330 U-joints. More to come...

As I mentioned above, the 8.8 uses a pinion flange instead of a pinion yoke. The pinion flange uses 12mm x 1.75 thread bolts. They are 12-point bolts Ford P/N N800594-S100. I saved the old ones when I took out the rear end just in case. You can purchase an adapter called a flange yoke that connect this 8.8 flange to the larger 1330-style U-joints or the smaller 1310-style U-joints. I'm not sure which direction I am going to go with this swap yet. I will address that part later. Here is a shot of the OEM flange: Here is what the adapter looks like: They can be had for around $65. Another thing that will need to be worked out, are the shock mounts. Since my truck is lifted 4 or more inches in the front, and approximately 3" at the rear with the military wrapped springs already installed, I purchased a pair of these shock mounting brackets (also from Barnes 4wd). They are for a smaller diameter axle tube, but easy enough to grind them a bit larger. I figure with the lift, I will still have plenty of travel , but won't know for sure until I get to that point. Since I am writing this as I go, there will be some things that need to be worked out on the fly so to speak. Shock mounts fall in that category, because everybody's lift is not the same. On an MJ with no lift, I'm not sure you would want to use this type of a shock mounting method. Perhaps something with more angle such as / \ would be better suited. More vertical, and not enough travel. Too angled, and you lose effectiveness.

Personally, I think the Ford 8.8 axle swap into a Comanche makes a lot of sense for many reasons. Reported to be 20% stronger than a D44. Readily available, and fairly inexpensive. Good aftermarket support. Comes with factory disk brakes. Fairly easy swap that most people can do themselves. Same bolt pattern. There are a few down sides to the swap. The axle is about 1.25" narrower then the Jeep axle. That works out to about 5/8" on each side. To make up for this, most people just run a 1" spacer. Quality spacers are not cheap, so that is why I consider it a down side. The axles are held in with "C" clips, so that is generally considered a downside as well. The 8.8 uses a flange style yoke, so that will need to be addressed. More money possibly, so another down side. Finally, the width of the 8.8 and the 5 lug bolt pattern severely limits your choices for a matching front axle if you ever decide to upgrade the D30. 1991-1994 versions had 10-Inch drum brakes but the 1995 and newer models come with disc brakes. The 95 or later Ford Explorer makes a good donor vehicle because they had disc brakes and 31 spline shafts. You will also find that many were limited slip. They came in all the common gear ratios, 3.55, 3.73, 4.10 for example, so you can search around for the ratio that suits your tire size. I paid $300 for the axle used in this write up. Not a great deal, but not a rip off either. The tubes on the 8.8 axle are 3 1/4" dia. so you will want to source some brackets that will match up to that tube size. I purchased the ones from Barnes 4WD, and that is also where I purchase the rest of the parts pictured for the swap. When I removed the axle from the Explorer, I kept all the U-bolts and nuts just in case. I know you are supposed to use new U-bolts and nuts, but I liked how the OEM ones are flat instead of the round ones you always see. I'm going to re-use them. One nice thing about aftermarket spring perches is that they are drilled with three different mounting points so you can easily change your wheel base. This can be handy for fine tuning your drive shaft also. I'm going to stay spring under for my build, but pretty much everything will be the same as far as this write up is concerned. Due to the larger tube diameter (3.25") compared with the D35 (2.5"), and the differences between the height of the spring perches, you will losing about an inch of lift. For SOA, you will gain an inch or so... If you are careful when you remove the old perches, you can save some money by just re-using them in the new location. I haven't made up my mind yet if I'm going to re-use these. Here you can see the OEM perches I cut off the tubes: Here is the complete axle after cutting off the perches and shock tabs. It is worth mentioning also, that there are two different suspension systems used on the donor vehicles. Leaf and coil springs. I chose the leaf spring setup when I picked up the axle at the salvage yard because it looked easier to remove all the old brackets off of. Thus mine is not the beefier 31 spline shafts. Still stronger than a D44, so no worries there. The 8.8 has a speed sensor that fits into an opening on the housing. You could leave it in place, but I elected to take it off, and make a new cover for the hole. Here is the new cover I made. I'll put a bit of RTV on for a gasket, and bolt it in place. That is it for now, since this is a work in progress, I will add more as the time comes.

Yes, I will probably tie it into the subframe somehow.

Ok, enough interest, so I will take pictures and attempt a write up. I'm not an expert by any means, but think with every ones help we can get a decent step by step done. I can't promise a locker in the front at this time, because of funds.

Aren't the two lines different diameters? If so, then small to small etc...

Correct Mnkyboy. I'm ok with the strength, but am going for that certain look. After looking at the above pictures though, I'm thinking it will be ok as long as I add a stinger to the front to balance it out. Perhaps some matching tube sliders?

Seems to me I tried one from a YJ once and it fit. The YJ was a 90

I have tube bending software that already has templates pre installed. One of the hoops looks just like an OEM roll bar. All I need to do is to change the dimensions to what I want, so then it spits out a 3D model of what it looks like. I did the chalk outlines in to old days! :rotfl2: I have thought about the double bar design over the past few days since I saw the one listed for sale in the craigslist section. I still think it looks cheezy with the smaller diameter tube, but not 100% certain I coun't live with it. Would rather see if there are any pics out there before I waste money on tube.

I have a bender and dies for 1-3/4" tubes. I personally feel that the rollbars (not roll cages) should be at least 2" dia. Anyone have some pictures of their Comanche with 1-3/4" roll bar mounted? I see a few with exo-skeletons, but i'm interested in some pictures of just non oem style roll bars. Trying to decide if I should fab one up. I have an OEM family bar from an early YJ I could cut up and make work. It is the larger dia. tube, but would rather keep it whole and sell it to help fund an OEM MJ specific bar if I decide not to make one.

Wonder what it looks like in a Comanche bed? I contacted the guy by e-mail, we agreed on a price and all, he said he would call me during his lunch break to arrange and finalize, never called. probably for the best. Not sure it would fit correctly.

Yup, skid plate for gas tank. Possibly a fender brace? Hard for me to tell how long it is...

Will a 92 box fit a 90? I'm gathering parts to add A/C.

I'd start by refreshing all grounds, then clean the connectors with electrical contact cleaner, along with the fuse panel. I'd also make sure all the correct bulbs are in the sockets. Read thru Cruisers tips here: http://comancheclub.com/topic/36382-cruisers-renix-tips/

If the S/N matches the title, sounds like a score to me...

Yes, they will. I will only put them on for slow speed offroading. Not ideal, but I believe I can make them work just for the MOAB trip. My thoughts are that I would rather have the clearance than the gearing on that trip. What do you think? Better to leave the 31's on? No, I'd leave as much clearance as possible as well. Are you gearing your front to match the back? I was just thinking if you were going to regear, to only do it once with what you're going to need. I wheeled quite often in my TJ on 33s with 3.73 gears. It wasn't ideal, but it certainly got the job done. The 8.8 already has the 3.55 ratio, so to keep it simple and cheap, thought I'd just regear the front to match. I found a nice set of D30 matching gears for $45, so no big deal If I decide later to install some new 4.10's. I'm probably going to have to consider some sort of a locker anyways, otherwise Moab will be just a scenic drive I'm afraid..

The plastic is thicker, the price is cheaper also. Cutting is necessary on the fronts and rear...

Not sure what you're saying.... You have a rollbar that you want to sell, or you just saying I should look around for one and modify it like you did?

Yes, they will. I will only put them on for slow speed offroading. Not ideal, but I believe I can make them work just for the MOAB trip. My thoughts are that I would rather have the clearance than the gearing on that trip. What do you think? Better to leave the 31's on?

It's a lot of trouble, and it is already documented on various other sites, but I would take some photos and attempt to document my efforts if enough interest. Mods? I will be swapping in a Ford 8.8 SUA, then re-gear the front to match. This will include getting the disc brakes to work... I will of course be needing some help from all of you. Edit: Here is the new thread... http://comancheclub.com/topic/39063-88-axle-swap-into-a-90-comanche/

I ordered the Comanche letters from spencer at jeepsticker.com I also sent him an e-mail asking if he could make matching 4X4 letters, and he replied that he would toss in a set with my order. He has already made them, but doesn't have them listed on his site. Anyways, once again good doing business with Spencer. :thumbsup:

I think if it were me, i'd get a spare gas cover door, and contour it to match the flare. Shouldn't interfere with the filling process. Just draw the arc on the spare lid, cut it 1/8" longer. Cut some relief notches along the arc, and bend or fold the metal.

Thanks for the offer, they look cool. I think I will prefer the not all caps look OEM style for mine. Do you have the 4X4 ones that go under the cab vents? .