neohic

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:

Stock bumper brackets? They should be the same for either long or short box MJs. :hmm:

Sold to someone here or just some random buyer? :eek: That's a tough thought to turn and put myself in those shoes. I were to sell off a truck like that, I'd probably never want to see it or know whatever happened to it ever again. I actually just made comment the other day on the thought of buying someone else's partially done project like this... the ground work is already done... everything is laid out for how the rest of the project will go... a plan is already in the works and to change it would be a major ordeal... and then when it's all done there is the thought that it's someone else's truck because they already got so far along with it that you're just picking up the ball and taking it that last yard. I'm sure there was a reason to sell it, but I hope it wasn't just because you were tired of looking at it. :(

Perhaps... I really only intended to put something on the roof for a place to mount a high lift and some other stuff. Things probably got a little out of hand and bigger than I needed though. :roll:

Good thinking with the black seats, Bo. Never would've thought of a black/blue combo interior but I think that'd look pretty good too!

:eek: That's a lot of truck!

Thanks dude. :cheers:

Thanks dude! Had a good morning working on this pile again. Started with taking care of some rust and "massaged" body panels and then got back to the roof basket. For the quarter panels, I went higher than most do when cutting, but everything was pretty mangled on the driver's side. Made room for a future wrap around bumper. Also found that some of the wiring behind the taillights needs some attention. Lots of corrosion and when I put everything back together I found that the parking lights don't work on the passenger side. As for the basket, right now the plan is to keep the spare hanging off the rear bumper but I also wanted the option of putting it up on the roof if need be. The four supports are all lighter gauge 3/4" tubing and the center is a big beefy length of 4" channel. Not sure if I'll add any "cool guy" lights to it, but I threw on some tabs just in case. Obviously everything needs to be finish welded, but I wanted to get it all together first. Then came the main event! It's a bit higher than it'll be once it's on its own mounts. As for the mounts themselves, They're a big clamp that sit down in the drip rail. The 90* bend needs to be cut way down to a smaller lip. I also need to add a little bit of a bend to the straight pieces because the basket came up a bit shorter than it should... that's what I get for using leftover crap. Got a little distracted after that so I put it on hold. Went back to the tube doors because it's a nice day outside and that got me thinking about them again. I was hoping that I could get away easy and just use some gate latches even though everyone online says that they don't fit too well on the '97+ latch pins. Well... they're right. I figured I already had them so they got modified to work. Drilled out the rivet and built up the inner part of the latch so it would fit the smaller latch pin. Figured while I was in there that I'd add a tab that I can put a spring on just to make sure that they don't ever go over center. Then I got distracted AGAIN and started thinking about the rear bumper. That is all for now.

Very nice, sir!