neohic

I see you got your rear springs figured? Looks real good, Wade. :thumbsup:

We all have those dirty little secrets, eh? I think it's a common thought in all of our heads to own a lowered, street bound Comanche. I mean, think about it... so many of us enjoy our MJs on the trail on occasion, why not enjoy a sweet little road racer on occasion instead? This month, I really love this one. This month is all for... YEAR/MODEL ● 1992 Comanche Eliminator – 348,000 miles on the odometer ENGINE/PERFORMANCE ● 4.0L H.O. out of a ’98 with a ’99 intake manifold, Dynomax exhaust DRIVETRAIN ● AX-15, front beam, rear Dana 35 – I have a 44 with 3.73’s, a trac-loc and Explorer disc brakes waiting to be swapped in COOLING ● Factory plus a late model e-fan swap ELECTRICAL/IGNITION ● Factory SUSPENSION/STEERING ● ZJ rear springs for the front giving 2”s of drop, 2” lowering blocks plus XJ shackles to even out the rear. Upgraded swaybar in the front and would like to do the Chevy Blazer swaybar mod in the rear INTERIOR ● Factory, I added a cup holder at one point but it broke. It’s hard to drink coffee with a 5 speed. LED bulbs in the kick panels and B pillars and an Ebay shift knob BRAKES ● ’96 brake booster/master cylinder swap, rear discs coming LIGHTING ● Hella E Code lenses and bulbs and a 12ga wiring harness, factory fogs. EXTERIOR ● Original Colorado Red paint, eventually would like to repaint it and add back the factory Eliminator body stickers. Bed has some sort of DIY bed liner that is slowly disappearing WHEELS/TIRES ● TJ Rubicon wheels wrapped in Yokohama 235’s MISCELLANEOUS ● Still rocking the factory cassette deck, the heads need cleaning FULL BUILD THREAD HERE Remember That One Time?... Tell Us Your Best MJ Story ● I started getting interested in cars when there were still a fair amount of Comanche’s on the road and always thought they were a cool truck. I was an XJ owner for a long time and love the platform. Eventually decided to pull the trigger and after about a year of searching and envying my buddies MJ’s I landed this one and have loved owning and driving it. Every so often people comment on it in a parking lot which is always nice or say I didn't know Jeep made a pickup. CC is Awesome!... Why Do You Think So? ● Comanche Club is a great community with a wealth of technical knowledge. I never cease to be amazed at the quality of work that individuals are putting into building and restoring these trucks. I thought I knew a lot about the XJ/MJ coming into CC, but I have learned a lot since joining and gotten a lot of inspiration for my own build. ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●● Way to go, Scott! Perfect year... perfect color... perfect stance... dare I say it?... perfect truck! I can speak the same words as many of us here by saying that someday I'll have a hot rod Comanche of my own. Until then, it's trucks like yours that keep that interest going. Real good lookin' MJ, Scott. Real nice! -Ben This post has been promoted to an article

I like writing even though I usually don't use proper sentences. Fragments and sometimes not even words but the noises that I'm thinking in my head. (Yup... that's not a full sentence either.) Think of writing something like vows like how you would speak them out loud... because that's what's going to happen. When I wrote mine, I just started writing down fun little memories that Robyn and I have shared over the years and then started connecting the dots to form a complete thought that includes past, present, and future reminders. What are some things that she does different from everyone else? Be specific... it'll let her know that it's the details in life that you're paying attention to even if it's day-to-day examples. Here's mine... still remember word-for-word from eight years ago. I still remember the first time I said "I love you". There was no moon that night, but the stars would just glitter in your eyes. ... and I remember the starts being the brightest I've ever seen. But it wasn't the sky that would make the world shine that night. It was the girl that was sitting next to me. It was the girl that would give me a total loss of words. It was the girl that was holding my hand. And now I hold your hand today, and I look into your eyes again... but it's not the stars I see. Today I see tomorrow, and the next day, and... and surprising you with french toast in the morning, and going to the park, and feeding the ducks... even though the signs say not to, and... and kissing you every night just before you fall asleep. And every time I say those three little words it means more than the last. So today... I love you, Robyn, more than ever. But not more than I will tomorrow. The wedding was in my parent's back yard. Little bit of a breeze that day too. Still, not a dry eye in the crowd. Mission accomplished. As far as the "Jeep, dirt, mud, rock, wrenching, and all around gear head related stuff", there's no reason you can't work any of that into the wedding itself. Our unity candle was my rose-bud torch (fueled with propane for a nice, big, sooty flame and lit with his and hers flint strikers!), and the get away car was my Beetle... but that's only because my Eliminator was in a few thousand pieces at that point. Weddings are awesome ESPECIALLY when they're your own! Make it awesome. :thumbsup:

Wow... imagine them both sitting in your garage! :laughin: http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/cto/5145919339.html

I just... uh... well?... :hmm: http://rmn.craigslist.org/cto/5143888223.html

Love to but can't. Starting Thursday whenever my dumpster shows up, I'll be gutting a bathroom. It'll be a marathon to get as far as I can this weekend. :(

Pros: Excellent traction as you know that power is going to both rear tires all the time and it sounds like you're in an episode of CHiPS. Cons: You will hate every corner you will ever have to make on dry pavement, rear tires will wear faster, and everybody will look at you because it'll sound like you're in an episode of CHiPS.

THE AIR CONDITIONING WORKS!!!! :banana: ... not that it makes a huge difference when the tube doors are on. :shake: Still, nice having one more thing that didn't work working again. The factory air box got removed too. Tons of space for... something. One thing that found a home there was the PA speaker from my Eliminator. Did it need it? Nope. It was sitting unused though. The rear window got more sticker power too to make sure that proper representation has been made. :D

For everyone that has ever said that getting rid of their C101 was the best thing they've ever done to their MJ, they were 100% right. I did that today... took a little while... very nerve wracking to make the first few cuts... but I did that today. Other stuff on my list of getting done today was installing the Putco harness I got for Christmas, an EGR delete (not there was anything wrong with it, I'm just tired of all the vacuum lines going every which way), and swapped in a copper three core radiator. Runs better than it did and I wasn't complaining before by any means! Engine operating temp is still the same, but I noticed that the trans temps are lower. The idle smoothed out a little too. I'm debating swapping the ECM with an '89 ECM that I have per Cruiser's list of Renix upgrades. We'll see. All that's left of my list of other stuff to do... Redo the exhaust so it routes around the spare tire under the bed instead of just hacked off before it Do away with the load sensing valve

Love this truck. Just an honest driver. :thumbsup:

'98. Not sure what was up with the elbow, but mine has is like it's keyed to only go in one way. I don't mind the 90* loopty-loo. My cruise does work. As do I. :D

I'm off from my job at the school for the next four weeks. My shims came in to get my pinion angle where it belongs and there's a few little odd jobs I'd like to get done before the next rip up to Gilbert. Besides the Ape, I've got some things I need to do on the Eliminator along with a bathroom to gut and a garage sale up at the in-law's. That'll make for a few days on the Eliminator, probably at least a week and a half by myself for the bathroom, a few days away from home... time is going to slip by quickly just like any other "summer" I've had while working in education. As for today, bathroom materials took priority, but I managed to sneak in a couple hours on this. The rear needed to get pulled apart... again. Not a huge deal since I don't have any u-bolts anymore. The springs settled some more since I last looked at it making the stance just about level from front to rear. Now with the shims in place, it's raised things slightly again. While things were apart, I cut apart the bump stop mounts and lowered everything by a couple inches. The new leaf springs are stiffer than the old ones and they don't flex as much. Still, I wanted to allow for flex should they decide to do so in the future. Not crazy about the bright silver, but after one trip up to Gilbert no one will ever know. For this thing, I just grab whatever color I have on the shelf that needs finishing. Just wait until I don't have a choice but paint something purple! Anyhow, I put it through a couple ditches and the front suspension is doing all the work. I'm hoping the rear will loosen up some after a good exercise. Next on the list is the AC. No... I really don't need it, but it's just another one of those things that doesn't work and it bugs me. Besides that, I need to figure out why the CB radio is kind of wonky. I've got another one that I pulled from my Eliminator along with the external speaker. Need to figure out what to do when I get around to pulling the factory air box out too. The cowl intake has been done for a while now... just haven't really wanted to pull the cover to take a picture of the completed setup. I guess ambition got the best of me today.

Hmm... that's sure an interesting offer. PM sent.

I can honestly say that I've seen worse. However, I really don't think they're all that bad for putting floors in. Done it in a few MJs now. I wouldn't call it fun by any means, but definitely necessary in saving a rare MJ. Very jealous of what you have there, sir. I'd love the opportunity to work on it... even to the point of throwing out ridiculous offers like putting the floors in it for nothing. For real... I'm feeling generous today. Get it to MN, bring the sheet metal with you.

It's always fun to find something so elusive that you'd think that all of what could be found has already been. So cool to see another one of these pop up! Nice find! :bowdown:

How unfortunate. On a truck like yours, I think these flares would fit the bill perfect in the looks department. On the other hand, it would still be advertising for a company that you clearly want nothing to do with anymore. You mentioned this though... I think this is the route I'd go to try and make the best of it. After all, that's a lot of cash to throw at a set of flares. For how stout they claim them to be on their website, why not take some flat bar and match the curve of the bottom of the flare? Mounted on the inside of the flare, it would give a solid place to weld on some new mounting studs along with adding a little more material on the under side for filling any gaps for the rear flares. The flat bar could then be attached to the flare with additional hardware and barely be visible. Just a thought anyhow... sorry for the soup sandwich of a situation you're in with Notch.

That picture was of oversized tacks, yes. However, the finished product was also... uh... :ack: All that goldish color is all contaminants burning on the surface. The clouding along the edges of the welds are also a sign of terrible cleaning or they need to play with their AC balance on the machine. That black spot way to the right? Somebody needs to keep their tungsten out of the puddle. "Professionals". :shake: Still a neat project but it's always the welds that kill a project for me.

Just watched this online. Interesting build but I've been disappointed with the crappy job these guys do with their welding just about everytime I see them do any. Granted welding on anything cast can be a hit or miss, but more pre-cleaning the material can go such a long way. :ack:

:rock on: Looking good, dude!

Ugh... another day of fighting with things. The front went fine minus the fact that I forgot to pick up a coil spring compressor. The axle has enough droop to it that I can push things a little farther with a bottle jack up to the frame so I lucked out there. All I needed was three inches to keep the tires from rubbing so I made these up... The left side lower sway bar mount was in the way of easily getting the coil out. Being I already removed the right side and plated over the left side upper threaded holes, there really isn't a need for it anyhow. Gone. Back to the rear... this is where things get ugly. I took it down the road a ways and flexed it around in a couple ditches. Got back home and was shocked with how my pinion angle looked. Way down from where it was! The springs did settle but I wasn't expecting to see this at all! I pulled everything apart again thinking that the old main leaf was tugging things around, so that got removed. I now have the main, stock #2, another stock #2, Dakota leaf, and then stock #3 and overload. Down to a six leaf pack now and I lost a half inch of lift which is fine. It helped my pinion angle some but not near enough. I'm off by 4*. Not up either so I can't just call it a win and follow it up with a hack and tap and then throw a stock front driveshaft back there. Nope... 4* down. I though about lowering my transmission cross member to clean up the angles, and about an inch would make things parallel. I can't stand to put spacers on top of an already custom crossmember though nor am I about to cut it all apart and start over. Same goes for the spring perches on the axle. I think my best option now is to take the leaf packs apart... again... and throw in a shim. :wall: In the end, I think it sits just about right though.

What a busy day of wrestling with an axle and a fair amount of grown up language. The rear leafs were in terrible shape with stress cracks near the eyes. I found a set off of a '00 locally. Bushings were in great shape and no cracks to be found. Spent more time than it should've to get the front bolt out but I was happy enough to see the welds holding on the nut inside the frame. Got the springs out, new springs in, and started tear down to decide what was going to stay and what was going to go. I was reading around and found that people were getting consistent results with adding a stock main leaf to a pack to get 1.5" of lift. A bastard pack with a Dakota will give about 2.5". I didn't need all that much more than I already had, but a couple inches would be a plus. My new leaf order is now the main leaf, another main leaf with the eyes cut off, then the stock #2 leaf and #3, a mystery Dakota (?) leaf, and then everything followed up with the stock #4 and overload. Yup... seven leafs in each pack now. The axle was put back under it to find that I gained a little better than 3". I was shooting for 3" total over whatever was already there and figured that everything will sag a bit. Just for good measure, I wanted to throw another inch in the mix and I also wanted more overall ground clearance. U-bolt eliminators and raised shock mounts followed. Mocked up... The elongated top spring plate is for a future bump stop. Measurements were taken on the old spring setup that I would benefit from a 6" bump stop to keep the fenders and tires happy. With the new setup, I'll need to re measure to see how close the spring comes to inverting, but here's what I'm thinking... Sure, I could've removed factory bump stop on the frame, but after breaking the first bolt, I decided that I didn't want to deal with it. Drilling and welding and fighting with wrestling the axle out again... nope. Shouldn't matter if the frame comes down to a hard stop or if the axle goes up to a hard stop. The rubber is stock stops from a '85 Chevy one ton. These things are hard!... but they'll do. The brake lines need to routed better now, and I need to get longer bolts for the leaf springs, but everything got thrown together and snugged down to see how things ended up. It's got a little rake to it, but I still think it'll settle down.

Geez, Pete! Really sifting through the archives with that one, eh?

Agreed. On the road would be total nightmare and on the trail still would be no fun at all. Speaking of which... it's on again. August 14th-16th will be another Gilbert trip. Iron Rock Offroad is having an appreciation day up there. Got it home last night and took another look at things underneath. The brake lines look fine, however the leaf springs got the big ugly "X" on cutting the mustard. Stress cracks... lots of them. I know Austin flexed this thing hard. As did I and the owner before Austin. I knew that they both had some inverted arch, but they look really sad close to the eyes on the main leaf. Probably fine on the road? Yup. Fine on the trail? Probably not. Measured up for some bump stops too being that there aren't any on the rear and the fronts have clearly always been too short. I've got a set of used springs that I'll be picking up tomorrow and I'm hoping that I can reuse the guts of the bastard packs and just move everything over to less abused mains. Otherwise, I also have a set of 2wd MJ springs, but I'd really prefer to LEAF those alone. :rotf:

Drove this thing to work today and I went out around mid afternoon to find a new spot of fluid on the pavement in an odd place. Crawled under it to find a few moist lines. "Hu... well, that's either a fuel line, or a brake line. Neither of which I'd like to deal with in a parking lot." Hoped in it, pushed the brake pedal and things felt okay. Pumped it up and gave it another go... and then it went straight to the floor. Crap. Had a nice walk to the closest parts store, got a 5' stick of bulk line, few fittings, and then tried to rent a flaring tool. Well, they didn't have any flaring tools left to rent out, and I contemplated throwing a compression fitting on there just to get it home... for about two seconds. Wifey picked me up after she got done with work and we headed for home to get my flaring tool. Got back... cut... flare... assemble... she worked the pedal... now it's better than ever. Honestly, I wonder how long it's been leaking! Scary thought! :eek: As for the rest of the day, it started off awesome! Why? Because it now sounds like it's got a turbo breathing through the dash! It's a little loud at start up, and then also when you stab the gas. Pictures to follow at some point of the new intake. :D

I'm missing the point of putting a heavy duty bumper on that doesn't have its own tow points. :hmm: