neohic

That's a Chrysler 8.25 out of a Cherokee. Looks like whoever put it under there didn't move the spring perches either putting lots of stress on the leaf spring bushings. :ack:

I would imagine that it would certainly aid in a "oh $#!&, I about to do a back-flip" type situation. :laughin:

Yeah... missed out on another.

I could, but just like anything else it'd be big and awkward to ship. :fs2:

And then there were two... talkin' about the doors. I started looking at the wiring for the wireless control for the winch today too. Got sidetracked trying to figure out why the horn doesn't work. Got sidetracked some more doing other odd jobs on it. Waiting for slightly warmer weather too... got a whole pile of stuff waiting to be painted.

The one on the right WAS a tank skid... then the Midwest took hold of it. Austin needed a tank skid before going out to Moab for Easter Jeep Safari. I sure hope we're in store for a big update on that. :redX:

For something as basic as that, why not just make your own?

It is April! Yes, I could've done some sort of temporary April fool's day something or other but instead let's just have a look at this month's MJOTM, shall we? That's really what this truck is all about... no nonsense. I've been following this build for a while now and there really haven't been all that many updates which is totally fine! The posts that are there, however, completely make up for it. I'm talkin' about keeping things business at hand!... and this guy knows how to do it... ●YEAR/MODEL 1989 Comanche Pioneer ●

ENGINE/PERFORMANCE 4.0 Renix 124,000 miles, Updated valve cover from Grand Cherokee. ●

DRIVETRAIN Jeep was originally 2wd, converted with aw4 transmission and np231 transfer case, high pinion dana 30 G2 4.10 gear set , front axle has jks mini-skids and I fitted a Rawk krawler truss to the dana 30. Ford 8.8 rear from Explorer 4.10 gear ratio with Spartan locker. Solid Diff covers front and rear. I upgraded stock gear selector with RADesigns rock shifter and Transmission control with Baja II shifter. ●

COOLING Open cooling system conversion, Transmission cooler from 1st Gen Explorer ●

ELECTRICAL/IGNITION Made new battery cables based on 5-90 designed cables with 2 gauge welding wire. Military battery terminals. Rebranded Deka AMG battery from Napa. ●

SUSPENSION/STEERING Front: Clayton Offroad Long arm, Rustys 4.5 inch springs, JKS ACOS spacers, JKS quicker disconnects, Bilstein 5100 long arm shocks, Iron Rock Offroad track bar. Rear: SOA conversion, Bilstein 5125 shocks, M.O.R.E. Offroad spring perch and shock mounts, 2wd Comanche springs. ●

INTERIOR All stock, removed the carpet and painted the floor. Upgraded to a Cd player out of a 2002 Lancer. ●

BRAKES Rear disc brakes. Replaced stock brake proportioning valve with one from a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Eliminated the load sensing valve from rear of Comanche ●

LIGHTING Rear Light on the bed side. ● EXTERIOR Dirtbound offroad manta ray bumper, Warn M8000 winch, Trail Gear Rock sliders, Jcr Offroad Diy rear bumper. ●

WHEELS/TIRES Eagle Alloy wheels, rear spacers, 33x10.5 15 Bfg Km2 Mud terrains FULL BUILD THREAD HERE ●

Remember That One Time?... Tell Us Your Best MJ Story It was 10 min in to my drive home from Alabama the night I bought it. I found out the the transfer case output seal was leaking like a sieve. A hour and half drive from Birmingham turned into a 3 hr drive cause I had to keep making stops to fill the case so I didn't run it dry. To go along with that issue the ride home was white knuckle because the rear shocks were only loosely U-BOLTED!! to the axle, and the truck didnt have a sway bar. It was a wild ride home. ●

CC is Awesome!... Why Do You Think So? Knowledgeable bunch of guys that don't mind to help out. Love reading the build threads. ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●● Very nice, sir. Very, very nice! Like I said already, I've followed your build from the beginning and I've enjoyed the whole ride. Seems like everything in it is there for a reason all the way down to that oddly placed rear facing light. I love it! Swell truck and congratulations! -Ben This post has been promoted to an article

What has two thumbs and is part of why the '80s were awesome? This guy. :D

Depends on if you're going with the '97+ hand brake handle or the '96-. http://comancheclub.com/topic/38053-early-xj-hand-brake-in-mj/

Here's some updated information on swapping a fuse block... http://comancheclub.com/topic/45231-fuse-block-dissection/ http://comancheclub.com/topic/32908-the-wyomanche/?p=463777 :thumbsup:

We have lift off!... of one of the doors, anyhow. Pretty straight forward stuff here as far as cutting the hinges, but I made the mistake of wanting to take the door off first so I could do a better job on the cuts. All of the bottom three bolts were rusted solid. Broke one off and the other two needed some hot persuasion to come out. Then my torx bit broke after a couple of the heads stripped out so I had to weld a nut onto the heads to get them out. Turned into a real soup sandwich real fast. Anyhow... then this happened which I was pretty excited about... Again, pretty straight forward stuff here. I left the top hinge long so I could put a lock nut on it if the tube doors were to be on there for a while. Not that a lock nut would keep anyone from walking off with them, but they'd at least slow them down. The latch got a keeper spring to keep things tight. Overall, very happy with how it looks! Just like anything else, something had to go wrong, right? The passenger window was bugging me so I took another look at it. With the door panel off I could jump the regulator and found that it still works fine... as far as I know. The I tested the wiring from the main switch... no dice. The switch came back out, taken apart, and cleaned. Everything worked again minus the left rear window. Then I got a little fancy and jumped the selector switch for the side view mirrors so it's always on the driver's side. While I was in there, all the other soldered joints got resoldered. Maybe get back to the passenger side door tomorrow? Stay tuned.

Ugh... wiring today... it's self inflicted though. :doh: The left side got taken care of today just the same as the right was. Same deal... pulled the harness back, shortened some stuff, lengthened some stuff, got rid of a few things, and moved the speaker. Pulled everything out of the door... Relocated the main switch control to the dash... First try after some dash hacking... Vented needed to be trimmed back... not that it's needed anymore anyhow... I was planning on using a trailer plug but I had a couple bits of other wiring stuff around. Found this connector with six wires running through it. Perfect!... Then to clean stuff up... Overall, very happy with how it turned out. I got rid of a couple switches though... again, nothing that's needed anymore. In the end, everything works as it did before cutting. The passenger side front window sometimes works (regulator?) and the driver's side rear window still doesn't work (maybe another regulator?). Might be able to have a look at removing the doors tomorrow and finishing up the tube doors. As for the rest of the day... ... 'cuz race car. :D

Don't bother, Rick. PM sent.

:thumbsup:

Thanks. Unfortunately it's still a "toilet paper" XJ that gets used and flushed... and it's definitely been used... and used... and used some more. Right now it's got 252k miles on it and the lifters are starting to make it sound like a diesel. :ack: With that in mind, everything I'm doing with it is easily movable to another.

Yup... me from Austin, from Gump, from you (as far as I know). This thing has sure gotten around. Got the rest of the rear facing lights working today. It's like a Christmas tree back there! Need to make a plan for the rest of the bumper now. Changed gears again and got thinking about finishing the tube doors. Started with the passenger side by stripping out all the wiring from the door that didn't need to be there. The power locks don't work... gone... the mirror is missing the actual mirror so there's no need for it to be able to move... gone... the window is all sorts of sketchy so it's now powered by just the driver's side... gone... moved the speaker... gone... I got the wiring down to the two wires needed to move the window up and down. Much better! Those two wires got spade terminals for easy door removal in the future. The speaker was relocated to the little hole next to the glove box. Sound quality?... probably down, but... meh... As for the door itself, the holes from the switches got filled. Started on the driver's side and decided that it's going to be a bigger job to move and cut things down. The dash was taken apart on that side with hopes that I'd be able to find a good place to reroute the door harness. The plan is to delete a dash vent and move the door switches. Probably find a similar spot to stuff the speaker too. Then I'll be down to the two wires to the window regulator and whatever it takes to keep the mirror functional.

For that price, they could've at least spelled Comanche correctly. :doh:

Trying to clean up some piles of stuff out in the garage as I add to them. The roof basket is done (minus a few little things) so that got put in the "to paint" pile and the old bumper off of the Eliminator got a second look. The width was just about right so I decided that it would for sure be a part of yet another Jeep... that makes #3 for both the front and now rear bumper. Plan is to make up some extensions to go under the freshly cut quarters but until then I just wanted it off the garage floor and out of my way. Then in the spirit of finding homes for things, I made up a carrier for the spare. Should be able to finish it up tomorrow. Yeah... it's a little low, but I wanted to be able to see over it fine. I put a license plate light on the bumper when it was on Jeep #1 so that won't be a problem to try and find somewhere new to put it. Also ran a couple new wires for the light and also for a reverse light. On that note, everything in the taillights work again! Everything did... kinda... when I first got it and then the passenger side just sort of quit. Cut out and redid the wiring, new tail/brake lights, and added some resistors to the indicators to get rid of some hidden bulbs to put enough load on the flasher. This thing is really one surprise after another. :shake:

Don't need to be an old timer to know the awesomeness behind the Dancing Machine. :(

Clamps work real good. Got the thing welded up too. Need to make up some mounts for some other stuff yet though.

If the donor is a 4.0/AW4 then it should have 3.55s. If you keep the 3.55s and go with a five speed trans then fifth gear will be pretty much useless without the proper gearing to back it up with a 2.5. Why not swap everything over from the donor and have a 4.0/4wd MJ?

Hu! Noted. :thumbsup:

What about gear ratios in the axles? You've got an AX4 which should put 3.55s in the stock axle in your truck. If you're using the axles from a donor XJ with a 4.0/AX15 then it should have 3.07s which would be a terrible combo when paired with that 2.5 of yours. Or, if you're looking for a donor front axle to match the rear you already have in it, then going with an AX5 or AX15 still won't be very much fun with 3.55s. If going with any five speed trans while keeping your 2.5, you should really have 4.10s in the axles. Geez... things are getting complicated now. :papers: