johnj92131

Krusty's hitch is the way to go if you want to tow anything. It is a VERY near duplicate of the factory approved Drawtite hitch and does not rely on factory bumper brackets that are not built or located to support towing much more than 2000 lbs. or a equalizing hitch. Krusty is building a near stock like bumper for me. Cost will be considerably less than $$ for Hanson. But I think the Hanson bumper looks very nice - not sure if it is compatible with my Drawtite hitch. So that was a killer for me.

Family car? Cherokee, not Comanche Besides, many, many more Cherokee's out there than decent Comanche trucks. Also look at a Grand Cherokee for a family car. It is more comfortable.

Did you check with your local Jeep dealer to see if the 97+ window felt is available? I would start there. After that, check your local pick and pull yard for samples of the window strips. If nothing else, it will help you identify the size of the felt you need. Rock Auto and the other auto supply stores should be able to help once you know the proper size felt you are looking for. Lastly, have you checked the Cherokee forums? How about the smaller AMC specific forums? I rather suspect the window felt you are looking for can be found in 80's GM cars. If so, after market GM suppliers will have the correct window felt.

You seem to have most of the bases covered. Especially in the brakes department. What you seem lack is the heavy duty cooling for the engine and the trans. So watch your temp gauge. The only thing I would be concerned with is the rear springs - you don't mention what, if anything, you have done over the stock rear leaf springs. But your equalizing hitch will help you out here, so not too worried about that. Also, I "assume" your hitch is a proper factory type Drawtite hitch. Give it a try with some relatively short trips and see how it goes. I would be surprised if your trailer is loaded to 3200 lbs. It will slow you down, but should be OK.

I seen it done somewhere on the interwebs but it's been a few years. The filler was in the box floor itself. Would be cool for a road tripper. Have a selector type switch like the older fords and double the range! Road trip range may sound attractive at first. But I can tell you a 1200 mile range between refueling stops does not translate into no stops for 1200 miles. Your bladder will require you to stop every 3 or 400 miles. My 23.5 gallon tank can last more than 500 miles, if I slow down to just below 60 mph, I get 23+ mpg with my 4.0 and AW4 transmission. Even without slowing down, I can get 18+ mpg and that translates to more than 400 miles per tank. Now if you still want to add a second tank, you have 2 options: 1) Relocate the muffler and tailpipe, then put a stock tank on the passenger side. That has been done by one club member. 2) Put a 19 gallon tank from a Ford F150 pickup in the rear spare tire location. The Ford tank is only about 8.5 inches high, so will not cost any ground clearance.

Hey, what ever floats your boat! If you think a "hot" coil is important to you, then go for it. No Problem. It is just that most of us think there are better things to do than spend our money on a "hot coil". Like I said, what ever floats your boat!! Me? I would rather just replace the old plug wires and get the factory spark to the plug in good condition!

Wonder if it is the same issue with the ash tray lamp, XJ only? Thanks for confirming that I need to splice in those speakers. Thought I might just be missing the plugs or looking in the wrong place.

krustyballer16 is putting together a rear bumper and tire carrier for me right now. It will bolt up to my stock bumper mounts. You might want to p.m. him:

VERY interesting! The thing I see missing here is just exactly how long was/is the replacement tank? I used to think all 3 strap tanks were 23.5 gallons before this thread. What is the biggest refill/refuel you have managed to put in the new tank? With my long bed, I have once or twice manage to run it all the way to the bottom and still make it to the gas pump. Then fill it up with 23.8-24 gallons. Way too close I know. But it has helped me calibrate my fuel gauge down to a gallon or so. My low fuel light goes on with about 7 gallons remaining, so I can watch the odometer from that point for an estimate of miles remaining in the tank. For some interesting reading about getting more fuel in the gas tank for a Cherokee, check out GoJeep's web site. He added about 5 gallons of capacity to the Cherokee's 20 gallon capacity. One of these days, I will try the same tricks in my Comanche fuel tank http://gojeep.willyshotrod.com/ Fuel tank info here: http://gojeep.willyshotrod.com/HowtoFuelTank.htm

This question comes up several times per year from new Comanche owners. The O.P. has raised a new issue with "improving" weight distribution. I have to ask, Where is your spare tire located? If it is not in the location you want to put the gas tank, where have you moved it to? Next, you should look under the bed and measure just how much room you actually have there. If you have a long bed, you will find a very big X brace in that location that will mean the Cherokee tank has to hang down 8 to 10 inches lower than the spare tire (if not more). I don't own a short bed, so can not say much about the fit in a short bed - Except to say I don't think anyone here has done it. If you want to "improve" weight distribution - keep your spare in it's original location and run with no more than 5 gallons of gas in your tank. Or In my case - loose about 50 lbs off my fat gut.

Looks like a great deal for $20! And we let our Amazon Prime account go this year. Thread highjack warning: Don - just noticed the "metric ton" badge on your tail gate. According to my 91 window sticker, the old metric ton package was called "big ton" package for 1991. Do you know if there was a "Big Ton" badge for the truck? Never saw a trace of it on the OEM painted tailgate. But my truck was just the base interior truck with lots of options. Think I have seen a picture of a rear window "Big Ton" decal on a factory fixed window. But not on my 3 pane rear window.

X 2 on oxygenated fuels. Ethanol is my enemy! Very tempted to start buying Aviation fuel for the lawn mower and for the Honda Trail 90, simply to avoid ethanol Couple of thoughts on oil: Any oil that meets SAE specs required for the small engine should be fine. I would use the same engine oil I keep on hand for my car/truck. Simply to keep my stock of different oils at a minimum. Change it once a year, call it good.

First block I purchased was wrong for the Comanche. Check the casting numbers. Second block is fine. Also, SCAT has a new 258 crank for about $450

J & S has been around a long time. First heard of them in the late 1970's from an old Corvair buddy who was using one of their products on his Corvair.

"The high altitude doesn't have a wider range. It is literally, physically, advanced forward on the bracket so that the base signal timing starts more advanced. You can take a regular CPS and make it high altitude by simply moving the sensor over on said bracket yourself. Covered in Cruisers tips." Impulse - Absolutely correct! I misspoke when I said the range of the CPS was larger. The high altitude CPS advances the timing because of the bracket as you have described.

I will give this a try with my 88 2wd. 70 mile round trip to work all highway. I'll let you know how it goes. Currently averaging 17.5mpg running 87 Oct. You can also modify the stock CPS and physically advance the timing a few degrees for better highway MPG and the knock sensor would still pull the timing back in city driving when the engine knocked. But again, it is the CPS sensor adjustment that improves the MPG. This CPS sensor adjustment can even improve the highway MPG with 87 octane fuel under the right conditions.

That is not what he said. Rather, the renix engine has a knock sensor that permits the ecu to advance ignition timing to the point where the engine knocks, then backs the timiing off. Eagle put a high altitude Crankshaft position sensor on his truck. The high alltitude CPS has a wider range of ignition advance than the normal CPS (octane requirement drops with altitude because altitude has the same effect as lower compression). So because of the High Altitude CPS and the high octane fuel, his ecu advanced the timing further than normal which improved the highway MPG. Without the High Altitude CPS, premium fuel would have done nothing at all for the MPG.

After doing way too much research/reading, I knew I wanted a double sheer hinge on what ever tire carrier I purchased. It is simply the cleanest way to support both ends of the hinge/pivot point of the carrier. Much of what I read was up to 6 years old. Some of the suggested/preferred suppliers had gone out of business or discontinued the particular parts. Comp 4x4 had been favorably reviewed and was still in business. So that was a good sign, right? The only time I got a return phone call from Comp 4x4 was before I purchased the hinge. I left a voice mail message telling them I wanted an 8 inch sleeve for the hinge and did not know how to order it. Got a return phone call a couple of days later telling me to just make a note of it in the comments section when I placed my order. So I did this when I placed my order on Feb. 22, Paid via Paypal at the same time. Comp 4x4 sent the confirmation via Paypal. I expected shipment to be made in a couple of days. After a week with out any shipping info, I called back and left another voice mail message. Never got a response. Just a Paypal message that the package had shipped on March 5 - 12 days after the order and payment. Brandon received the package a few days later. The pictures Brandon posted speak to the build quality of this bracket. Who ever did the welding for Comp 4x4 is clearly not a Certified Welder. I will let it go from there. I wanted the tire carrier on the driver's side of the truck to preserve my view from the rear view mirror, It also keeps the tire swing arm short for less stress on the hinge bearings and preserves the stock location for the rear license plate. I also wanted a very near stock bumper and Brandon has build exactly that for his truck.

mattman6 - Great pictures! Notice the mounting brackets at the bottom - I have seen back panel boards with just one mounting bracket and with two mounting brackets from the factory. Seems to take self tapping screws to hold on to the floor. Backer board tucks under the plastic trim on the other 3 sides. Felt on the top of the back side keeps the plastic trim from rattling like crazy.

Jess, My truck is a base 91 long bed and a bench seat. It it came with plastic under the rear window trim about 4 to 6 inches wide. It had a headliner from the factory. Under the rear window plastic trim was painted sheet metal all the way down to the factory rubber floor mat. I have seen other, non base trucks with a trim panel over what is bare sheet metal in my base truck. The trim panel had color matching cloth cover the same color as the seats. That trim panel also had small cut outs that to hold the jack/tire wrench, etc. I have one of these rear trim panels that I recovered with the same material as on the head liner. One of these days, I will install it. But I keep telling my self I should put some sound insulation in there be fore I cover it up for good. If you want to see pictures, send me your email address.

Are you going to bid on the Coleman?

Noticed Costco selling 5.3 gallon (20 liters) plastic Jerry cans for gasoline. Price seems great at $13.99 each. If you want 1 or more, suggest you move fast as this is not a normal stocking item for Costco.

Here is a review I found on "rattle trap sound deadener" and some other products: http://www.caraudio.com/forums/miscellaneous-car-audio-reviews/513678-sound-deadener-review.html For a good quality product and for some education on sound dampening your car, you may want to look at this site: www.sounddeadenershowdown.com

258 rods? No Way! 4.0 rods - YES Quench is very important! I will post a link to a David Vizard article later (need to find it again). Speaks about compression and quench. Here it is: http://www.hotrod.com/events/coverage/0311em-power-squeeze/ Custom pistons to get correct compression height (proper quench) and custom bowl size for correct compression.

Getting the truck stolen sucks. Locking the door would not have made 10 seconds difference if he had a Slim Jim. So don't worry much about that. Main thing is nobody got hurt. I once confronted a car thief in the process of stealing my Mustang GT. I was lucky the thief decided to run rather than stick around. My truck was stolen a few years ago when I loaned it to a friend who lived in Tijuana. Thieves stole it right out of his driveway. But my friend's brother in law was a Tijuana Cop. So they found the truck with no problems, in the process of being stripped by 4 guys. 3 of them managed to get away, but they got one of the chumps. That poor chump got 7 years in prison! I all most felt sorry for the chump - getting 7 years for car theft seemed steep.