rocketwheels

I wouldn't , you can fix the jeep relatively cheap and easy, not the Ford/Mazda

Good One !!! GirsMJ88....how hard are those to find? I'm not looking in the right places !

Does the brushgaurd on the Twister j10 look like a Jeep dealer product or option? I havent found any like it available online . There are a few available but they look more modern. .

Don't worry, I'll do the truck justice. Phoenix Graphics sells the decals for the Honcho like the ones on the Twister j10, the light bar and brushgaurd are a natural addition....and Dorothy doesn't have to be bolted down. I intend to make it truly portable, and still have the truck for regular duty. Those of you that remember when I got Sgt. Rock, the 87 ComancheSWB out of the chicken shed were he sat for so many years, I've put him to good use, close to 40k on it and he helps carry firewood out of the mountains every winter. The camo paint job makes him instantly recognizeable everywhere I go. I don't mind "Camo" or a movie "clone"...but you'd never catch me in one of those big wheeled freaks. There is a certain level of acceptable "Tacky", and they crossed it by a wide margin !

really hornbron...... just changing the color, adding a brush gaurd, a light bar with lights and a self contained portable Digital Orthographic Telemeter, satellite comlink, on-board Pulse Doppler, real time NEXRAD unit. Oh yeah.... and a couple of CB antennas. Really guys , stop being so serious. not cutting it up, just making it fun. My girls ( now ages 14 and 12 years old) love to go to car shows and events, and what could be more fun than showing up at a car show in the Twister j10. They just loved the AMC pacer we had for a while, they really enjoyed how happy were to talk with them about "Their" little car! Imagine how much fun they will have with this beast at a show !!

it's really a 20 footer, the paint is still wet from washing in the photo's.A little bit of rust, lots of little dings and such and paint worn through, you don't even want to see the interior !!!

I had said earlier (several months ago) that I had the opportunity to get a '79 J10 and I was able to work it out. Here is is in all its uglyness. Ditched the topper shell, 360 cui ,Holley 4bbl and alum intake, granny low 4spd, Dana axles.....all the other trucks in the neighborhood are afraid to drive down my street. Big plans...BIG , BIG plans !!! can you say yellow with blue stripes, some angle iron and a washingmachine tub in the back and a custom plate that reads DOROTHY ?

dasbulliwagen....I did tear up the original 35 myself....it had about 225k on the odometer and I was constanly doing ProStock style burnouts with it before drag racing some of the guys at work. That truck is surprisingly quick. The 2nd rear axle came out of the salvage yard, a truck that had 80k on the odometer.After hearing the horror stories on this forum about 35s, I haven't abused this one at all, but no telling what may have happened to it before I got it. When I first felt something was wrong I was going thru a right hand curve around 45mph and something popped and then sounded like a baseball card in the spokes of a bike. I thought that one of the finger springs on the presssure plate must have broken. There was no more noise, once I started to drive again. Then a few days ago I had to jump out across traffic to the median and heard a loud pop and felt the learch...I eased it home with it popping and crunching along the way. Removed the cover to see several spider gears missing teeth. BTW....would you have ever guessed that a 225k mile big 6 in a 24 year old Comanche would out launch and outrun the v6 "new" camaros that showed up a few years ago? Embarrased , my co-worker sold it and bought a hemi Challenger, I didn't have a chance !

Thanks for all the help !! this quote is the part I was concerned about... "The only possible issue is that both the D44 and the Chrysler 8.25" have a 1" longer nose than the D35. Make sure the slip yoke on the front of your driveshaft (the part that goes into the transmission) has 1" or so extra length sticking out or you're going to need a shop to shorten it a bit. U joints on the driveshaft are identical for all these axles." ...as I wasn't sure how much longer the whole assembly was in affecting the length of the driveshaft, and a possible different (larger) ujoint. I managed to find 2 scrapped 2wd mj's in this county , both with the 35, got the cleaner one (the other was partially submerged in a mud hole) for $150. Weird how scrap yard prices have really went up. The one I bought a couple years ago was only $50. I did find one Xj with a D44 out back if anyone needs one. Not sure what was up front, it was there but I don't know what I'm looking at. It would have been nice if the XJ and MJ leaf spring to axle mounting point widths were the same! I would just bolt it in and ride around like a 70's street machine with airshocks !

...my 2nd 2wd 35 rear end just started to break, fished out all the cluster gear teeth pieces a few minutes ago while inspecting it. The first one exploded about 2 years ago and I finally found another 2wd mj in a salvage yard. Will any 2wd cherokee 35 rearend swap into this with no mods? Bolts up the same way on the leafs? or are they axle under spring? Also, if I happen upon a 4wd comanche rear ( a 44 or such) what mods are required to plug and play? I'm assuming a will need to get the 4wd rear drive shaft for a possible length/rear yoke mod and appropriate u-joint swap onto my original drive shaft along with a new correct u-joint for the 4wd mj rear. I don't care about gear ratios, any will be fine for old Sgt. Rock, he's just a back up daily driver to get to work in bad weather. Thanks for any advice for a hobbling old veteran !

I just went for the "blackout" military lights effect on the stock units..... ....fronts, too.

Here's a few pics from tonight before sunset.... ...this is the front 235/75-15 GoodYear Wranglers...about $160 a pair at Walmart ...and this is on the rear...31x10.50 - 15's GoodYear Wrangle Authority from Walmart, about $170 each ...you can see a hint of the cut/scrape where the inner fender lip got into the edge of the tires lugs when the truck was extremely weighed down with firewood... ....I haevn't had any problems or rubs (loaded or unloaded) on the front and I fixed the rear rub that only occured under extremely heavy loading by rolling the metal inner fender lip under with a vicegrip.

10-4 on the o2 sensor, that will be on the check list. Thanks !

..won't hardly run at all now.....I am thinking this truck is having TPS issues same as mine may be. It's an '87 Comanche with the 4cyl and 4spd manual. Here is what his is doing....it was cutting up erratic under acceleration and also at idle (felt the same as what mine does at hwy speed), now when you crank it it revs up then stalls. You can mat the pedal as the truck cranks and it will run full out, but as soon as you let up on the throttle, the truck just dies. We are going to do a full refresh on the ignition system (plugs, wires, cap and rotor button) and also a fuel filter. I will check all vacuum lines at that time. I thought that perhaps the TPS may be a culprit, and also checking the vacuum line to the map sensor. Thanks for the heads up on how to check a TPS down the board, got 2 trucks to practice on !

I only bought the Wranglers for the front due to cost.....2 Wranglers = 1 Authority !

ok....tomorrow in the daylight !

Perfect, Thank You !!!

I have narrowed down my crazy "miss" that has no rhyme or reason. It must be the TPS. Just recently, the truck had a high idle issue, it would hang in a higher rpm range. I would shut off the engine for a few minutes and the idle would return to normal. This doesn't happen very often. This along with the miss makes me look at the TPS. Previous problems was the erratic miss while holding highway speeds. Changed out everything in the ignition one by one. It did run much better, but the errant miss is still there,but only while trying to maintain 55-70 mph. It idles fine, rolls up to 45 mph fine, and doesn't miss a beat when you flog it. Sensor must be worn at that "freeway speed" range of movement. shopped around (including O'reillys where I work part time) and have to special order this TPS for the '87 4.0/ Man Trans....around $70-85 bucks ! Any idea where I might find it cheaper? (there are other TPS listed but they are for the 4cyl and 4.0 / Auto Trans...and some of the listings are incorrect showing the wrong part for my application). I guess I'll pony up for the TPS when I can, just not in a place financially to do it now.

Got Goodyear Wranglers for the front and Goodyear Wrangler Authorities for the years (my MJ is only 2wd)....the tires ride great but the Authorities do have a slight hum at highway speed. I bought 235/75-15's for the front with no clearance problems and 31x10.50-15's for the rear with no clearance problems unloaded. I did have to remove the fender flares and roll under the sheet metal ( can't tell once I re-installed the flares) because fully loaded with fire wood the fender skin was cutting into the outer most edges of the tread lugs. haven't got stuck yet while in the mountains cutting firewood!

I will be getting a '79 J10 Honcho Townside 360 / 4spd / 4wd soon and wondered if there was a forum like this for that kind of Jeep pickup.Looks much like this one except base color is maroon. This forum has been an invaluable source of info for my '87 Comanche "Sgt. Rock"

....I just looked under mine, it is the Dana 35 :mad: ....the salvage guy said he'd throw in the driveshaft if I needed it for the new rearend !! :cheers:

hornbrod, you hit the nail on the head, thats the guys that want $400 for the D35. I'll keep them in mind when I can't find another complete junker laying around to buy outright. I've got several 2wd trucks around the area that could be bought for $200-400 bucks , just trying not to have to deal with a hulk here in the city limits.....

....wow Thanks for the pic, didn't know there were that many styles used under the Comanche. As for the gear ratio, since I'm not messing with internals and this is just a 2wd truck, what difference (other than general performance or milage) does the gear ratio matter? I have swapped 2.79's for 3.25's and 3.9's in older Fords with only a little "performance" change. I agree on the $125 is high, but as I said , the salvage dealer that knows and deals in Jeeps wanted $400 for that rear and higher for the better ones. Anyways, $125 is a fair "Stupid Tax" to pay for asking an 80's ChryCo/AMC vehicle to do something extra-ordinary just once. Something that my '72 Corolla (just to name one of the vehicles I had fun with thru the years) did thousands of times over a great many years.. That 1600 Hemi head Yoda would do sideways Posi burnouts thru 3 gears, slamshifting with no clutch, Never once broke anything except a u-joint. I turn the tires over in the Comanche and then pop 2nd and BLAM, clunking junk in the rear.

....thanks Eagle! So there is a D35 and a D44 and there are others that came under these trucks? On the D44, other that the length of the "snout", all other items will interchange?(ie, ujoints, leaf mounts and such?). Will the driveshaft HAVE to be cut down (no problem, just asking about tolerances) or is there enough play in the yoke/spline to let it ride? Are the drive shaft yokes different or are the driveshaft lengths different in these different applications? I might get him to throw those in, too, on the deal.

...sorry, just assumed everyone knew I was talking about a donor Comanche. This is the "Comanche Club Tech" forum, right? I'm not a total goob, wondering if a '75 Ford F-350 Dually rear will just bolt up to existing mounts under my pile ! :nanner: I don't know the year or if 4x4. The scrap yard dude knows even less ! Parts truck is a Comanche truk and not a Cherokee suv. Main question is, will all Comanche rears swap (entire rear axle housing assembly,drum to drum, complete)? I don't care about ratios or lockers or any of that, unimportant. This is my rainy weather ride to work and I throw the flatbottom in it occasionally or for Camping. Doesn't do anything heavy work related and isn't used for serious 4x4ing. I'm not sure what rear mine has either....hey, its a $200 dollar truck saved from exile in a chicken shed, looking for the absolute fastest/cheapest fix so that I can pull the Pop-Up to the campsite with the kids over spring break weekend in 2 weeks. This is what I get for slamming second and laying rubber, showing out leaving work. What a lousy rear end ! Hey, BTW, that :nanner: was meant in a fun way, not in a negative way. Just in case anyone took it wrong ! :D