neohic

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:

How many of us have heard the comparison of Comanches and LEGOs? Everything fits on them... Parts are easily interchangeable... Don't like it? Change it. Point is that if you don't like something about your truck, it's easy enough to change it into what you really want. I remember as a kid getting the LEGO sets that look cool, and then getting another set that I wasn't all that interested in just to grab the good parts off of it to make my cool set even cooler. Sometimes it's drastic. Sometimes it's more than drastic! Sometimes it's subtle... fine details that take something good and make it great. Example?... YEAR/MODEL ● 1988 Pioneer ENGINE/PERFORMANCE ● Stock 4.0, Was rebuilt at around 150,000 miles by previous owner. Only had around 700 miles on rebuilt engine when I got it. DRIVE TRAIN ● AW4, 3:55 gears, Dana 35 rear, Dana 30 front with CAD COOLING ● Converted to open system ELECTRICAL/IGNITION ● Removed the C101 connector, did all the ground upgrades. SUSPENSION/STEERING ● Stock INTERIOR ● Gray, bench seat with headrests, new carpet, put a full instrument cluster in it. BRAKES ● Upgraded to a 95/96 brake booster and master . LIGHTING ● Stock EXTERIOR ● Previous owner repainted it himself white with blue lower trim. I redid the lower in black and added the Comanche Chief decals. WHEELS/TIRES ● Came with Jeep 5 spoke rims. I put on turbines and BF Goodrich AT 30x9.5x15 MISCELLANEOUS ● Has the full skid plate package, (front, transfer case, and gas tank). Has the tow hitch. I had the bed sprayed with Line-X bed liner. FULL BUILD THREAD Remember That One Time?... Tell Us Your Best MJ Story ● I only had the truck for about 2 weeks when I needed to go to Lowes and pick up some bags of cement. I just got back from having lunch with my wife and get back in my truck and turn the key and nothing happens. The engine will not turn over. Found that the starter was bad, so I had to take my XJ. My wife called my truck the Little Princess, since it did not want to do any work, just cruise around and have fun. CC is Awesome!... Why Do You Think So? ● I just love the way everyone helps each other out with any problem they might have. Very little drama if any. ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●● Everybody loves a Chief, eh Fran?!.. even if it is a clone. Anybody ever give a girl a cubic zirconia? No shame in a fake!Those sexy stripes stretching all the way down those body lines only to exaggerate the Comanche's already fit figure... that's some good stuff right there. You took an already nice truck and turned it into something fantastic. Very nice, sir! Very nice. -Ben Click here to view the article

I would imagine it didn't have the original driver's seat either! :rotf:

All you need is two parking spaces and an engine hoist. Pretty sure they have those in New York. :laughin:

A subtle pin stripe along the lower body line goes a long way. Silver and gray hockey stick Pioneer strips would look amazing too. :thumbsup:

I think it's great! Needs more silver to even things out though. Perhaps the tailgate letters and a few other silver accents?

Got me there! :laughin:

I'm really not all that picky. With everything that's been done with the truck, by no means am I after "factory perfect". Square... I'm after a set of square lights. Thought about recycling a couple of the round lights I had mounted on the bar, but the only other round things on the truck are the wheels and tires. :shake:

Nope. I'm done with the glare off the roof. I'd like to find a nice set of lights to put back on the bumper though. Something along these lines... :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: