johnj92131

Have to say my truck had the huge mirror mounted on the door as OEM. I hated the way they worked loose after 16 years in the wind. Then I swapped doors with power everything and the stock xj mirrors. Even the 1 inch convex mirrors did not help when towing. But with the 97+ mirrors, I am fine towing. Also kind of agree the vent window bugs my mirror view. My plan for the diesel Comanche includes one piece power windows at some point.

Don, Would you feel better about the late mirrors if they were chrome and not black???

Here is the "how to" on 97+ mirrors and door handles: This really improves visibility. When I used to tow a camping trailer, it was the difference between seeing around the trailer and having to use towing mirrors. I got power mirrors and used the mirror control from a Honda Passport/Isuzu Rodeo. Mounted the switch on an XJ blank switch plate just on the left side of the steering wheel (stock location).

Hard lesson to learn. My uncle was killed in 1968 - tossed out of his truck in a 30 mph collision, his head hit the black top. Didn't learn enough from that. About a year later, wife's sister was thrown into the windshield at a very low speed accident. No serious harm, but that got us to use our seat belts 100% of the time. Also trained our children to do that. My son and a friend roll his mom's Escort while in High School Both of them walked away from the upside down, now totaled car. When we went to the tow yard to get our stuff out of the car we saw another car not as badly smashed up as the Escort - Young girl driver died in it. No seat belt used. Use your seat belts people - make it a habit. You never know who's life you may save.

I have a problem with the humidity in most of the east. Suppose that comes from living in Southern California since I was 4 years old. The trees and plants in the east is so different from the chaparral of the southwest. Have to say I find it a refreshing change when traveling east of the Rockies. Not to mention how different the weather can be in just the same day in the east/midwest. We have been thinking about taking a train to New Orleans then renting a car and driving up the Nachez Trace. Anyone know how that would be in November?

Knucklehead, Most jobs suck at one time or another in one way or another. You did good going to the instructors to ask about working conditions. Lot's of good thoughts in this thread. I do like the way you worked thru your issue right now. Good thought process. That kind of logical process will serve you well. Remember, when life gives you a bunch of lemons: Make Lemonade!!

One issue that I have to say a big Thank You to Automan2164 here on the Comanche Club. We had problems trying to find the water temperature sensor on the old Renault engine. So I posted a request for help here on the Comanche Club: Rob gave us all the answers and Pictures we needed to find the old temperature sensor! A big Thank You to Rob! With that help, we found the old sensor. Matt fabricated a bung, welded it into the water lines and we had a sensor. But we ran into another issue. The wire that came off the original sensor "Looked" green and there were several green wires on the other side of the engine bay. Turns out none of them match our original wire. So we pulled the wire back out of the cross body loom. Turned out the color was blue by the time we got to the other side of the engine bay. Oil, heat, and time had changed the wire color and fooled 4 of us who all check the wire color. That solved our water temp problem for a little while. Turned out a few days later with the engine warmed up the old temperature sensor was not reading any heat. So the old sensor is bad and will be replaced. By 10:30 a.m. Friday it was time for me to leave the shop for a meeting in Plymouth, Michigan. Several issues remained. The biggest was Reverse could not be engaged with the engine running. Boost was very erratic. Matt planned to change the N75 valve. There were a few smaller issues to be addressed. By Sunday afternoon, I was back home in San Diego and the truck was still in Michigan. But I was very well pleased to see how close the truck is to being road worthy. Here is a Monday afternoon progress update from Matt: Bled the clutch more, everything seemed to be fine, went out for a drive today and by the end of the drive it was mushy again and couldn't engage reverse without shutting the truck off. I'm going to replace the master and hose. Seems that everything that's original on the truck is just worn out/leaking/tired. Jeep temp sending unit isn't reading right either so I'm going to replace that. Grounded connection and it goes right to max so the gauge and wiring are good. Coolant also sprayed everywhere due to a bad cap on the radiator. The oil pan gasket is also seeping so I'm going to do without the gasket and just silicone seal it like Mk4's are, I did the same on my ahu in my rabbit truck. The alignment is also wayyyy off, it's toe'd out in the front badly. It's twitchy and all over the road. I don't have a single good n75 here apparently so I'm going to grab also. They all are leaking vacuum out the vent port so boost control is all over the place. Last bit of bad news, the left rear rim is bent like all hell. It has a good 1/4"-3/8" wobble in it spinning on the hoist. Good news, tach works and i adjusted it to read correct 900prm at idle, heater valve operation works, and it has 5 miles on it now . Matt likely means 5 kilometers on the truck - Originally sold in Canada, so metric speedometer/odometer. JJ So now the thread is up to date with progress. __________________

That starter solenoid relay turned out to be just the first of many electrical issues. All caused by the most common Jeep electrical issues: Bad connections after close to 30 years. Once the engine was running, we discovered nothing electrical in the cab seemed to be working. More importantly, none of the tail lights/brake lights worked. After a bunch of rechecking splices and connections, Matt found the problem at the fuse panel inside the cab. All the fuses and connections were corroded. So all the fuses were tossed and the connections were cleaned. Once this was done we had power to the cab and the tail lights. The fan blower motor still did not function but had 12 volts to the motor. Seems the 30 year old motor is shot. Next the tach did not work. After some research, Matt got it working by picking up the W terminal from the alternator. The tack was now reading 1100 RPM and the VW computer was reporting 900 RPM. This was fixed by adjusting the Comanche tach (had to pull the tach from the cluster to access the adjustment pot on the tach). Now the Comanche tach was reading 900 RPM. By now it was 2 a.m. on Thursday night/Friday morning when Matt finally quit for the night.

Once everything looked ready to start the engine, we turned the key and got exactly nothing. After rechecking the wiring, we found the starter solinoid was not getting any voltage. We had voltage to the solinoid relay but no output from the relay. So we jumpered around the relay and the engine started first time! Here is a picture of the factory solinoid relay. That metal boxbolted to the fender between the red wires: I made a 15 mile trip to the nearest NAPA store for a new relay. Turns out Jeep uses the same relay for all the 86+ Cherokee/Comanche's.

It has been 3 weeks since I last updated progress on the TDI engine conversion. So here it is: Here is the bottom line: I was in the mid west to see the Solar Eclipse and managed a couple days to Matt's shop. Saw the engine start for the first time while I was there and the truck moved under TDI power. By the time I left on Friday morning there were just a few items left to complete. Here is a picture of the finished turbo mounted on the engine and connected to the stock Jeep intercooler: You will also see the VW ECU mounted under the radiator overflow reservoir. Here is the lift pump, mounted above the remote oil filter. The Bosch relays are Jeep OEM, repurposed to power the VW ECU/glow plugs and the Volvo electric power steering pump. Fuel filter is mounted on firewall. Below is a custom water outlet adapter to replace the plastic OEM VW outlet that is pointed in the wrong direction for the Jeep TDI conversion. More pictures to follow.

I will supply a nice, new rope for the hanging!!

This tells me your temp gauge is working properly. As I understand it, you need 2 different 12 volt sources to make the needle go to the middle. You are only testing it with one 12 volt source. So it goes to one extreme or the other extreme.Depending on which side gets the 12 volts. You do not have a 12 volt source running thru the temp sensor to provide the other signal that would "balance out" your battery 12 volt source and move the needle to the middle.

Use the dented one unless you have an issue with the dent. Should be fine...Just cosmetic damage As for the one with the cracked case, try filling/patching the cracks with JB Weld, then put the battery in a plastic battery box and use it as your secondary. That is the cheap way out. If they last a year or two years...well you are money ahead. My guess is you will get full life out of at least one of them and 50 to 70% lifetime out of the cracked case one.

Does more heat mean less humidity??? Warm air holds more moisture, not less. Warm air over oceans mean more tropical storms. Warm air has more energy, not less.?? Leading to more, larger weather swings???

X 2 Would love the extra can room

Judging from the fact that the seller posted a number of how to pics for the double DIN stereo, I would bet a call or email would get some answers from the seller.

I "think" the cab vents would help with the rear cab pillar. Right now it just looks too "thick". Also, the proper Comanche roof line would be a couple of inches higher and look a bit more "normal" to us. Some trim along the lower part of the doors, fenders and bed would also help out.

One thing I have learned: There is no shortage of different tastes in the world. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Generally, with projects like this, I simply like to see the workmanship and effort put into them. Even if I don't like the project itself. Why the crap paint job?? Maybe he just got tired of the unfinished project. Maybe he was running out of money? My biggest item on this project? Why not use a Comanche roof line rather than the Cherokee roof? Yes, I know the Cherokee roof is the easy way out.

That is one good looking front end !!!

Replacing the 30 year old temp sensor is a good idea. The temp sensor in my 86 diesel turned out to be bad when we fired up the TDI engine. Harbor Freight sells several infrared point and shoot thermometers for $28 or less with their typical 20% off coupon: https://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result/index/?dir=asc&order=EAScore%2Cf%2CEAFeatured+Weight%2Cf%2CSale+Rank%2Cf&q=thermometer I will likely pickup one this weekend for just over $23.