johnj92131

The spare tire area is the clear location for a second gas tank on the long bed. The down side is the big X brace behind the axle. It takes up a whole lot of space under the bed. Still a 38 wide and an easy 30 inches deep for a shallow tank. How high can the tank be? Well that depends on how low you are willing to let it hang down. The mid 80's to mid 90's F150 rear tank holds 19 gallons and is only 8.5 inches thick. My spare is thicker than that. Ford Bronco's have some tanks that would hang down a bit more. Some 25 gallon Chevy Suburban tanks would fit and not hang down as much. 28 x 28 x 10.75 Not bad. The 92-97 Suburban came with a 42 gallon tank that measures 29-3/4 X 33-1/2 X 13-1/8 inches. Only 2.5 inches lower than the 25 gallon mid 80's Suburban tank. There are a couple of other size Suburban tanks from the same vintage. Think there were 26 gallon tanks in full size GM's of the mid 80 that were quite thin. Problem is what to do with the spare tire. Use a compact spare and a bulkhead fitting thru the tank to hold the compact spare would solve the spare tire problem. The real question is how much gas do you need to carry? Now with a 30 gallon 2nd tank, the Comanche could go 1000 miles between fillups. With my Passat TDI, my tank holds 25 gallons and I can drive 1200 plus miles without refueling. Problem is my bladder will not hold that long on the road. So how much gas do you need/want to carry?

I have looked off and on for 6 or 7 years for an easy fit larger tank or a second tank without much luck. I keep looking on Craigslist for a boat tank or some other custom tank that might fit. From what I can see, the stock long bed 23.5 gal tank is just about as big as can fit. Would guess a larger stock replacement tank could be fabricated to add a few more gallons. The replacement Dakota tank is a 22 gallon tank and requires some work with the sender, But it is plastic, so that may be of some help. It required some custom work to fit the Comanche. Good luck with the search. Love to hear what you find.

May have a good set of MJ bucket seat brackets. I should know Tomorrow afternoon. Shipping costs may be an issue for you.

It will get one honest bid.

1990 was not a High Output. 1990 was the Last year for renix.

Will take a good look at your build, Thank You for posting the link.

Yea, that was fun, but the price was right for both of us!! Are you back in North Carolina now for good or just for now?

So the good news is that they have lasted for years with just sheet metal screws holding them to the MJ floor pan? Did I get that right? And please correct me if I am wrong, these are 95/6/7+ XJ seat brackets with the sheet metal "bridge" taken from an XJ by just drilling out the spot welds?? I think I could do that with my battery powered drill. One more thing, you are still using the ZJ seats in one of your MJ's, right.

Thank You for the additional information. Shelbyluvv has a how to make ZJ/WJ seats fold forward right here: http://comancheclub.com/topic/15375-making-zj-or-wj-seats-tilt-forward/?hl=seats His build has how to mount ZJ/WJ seats in an MJ. Problem for me is welding. I have the MJ seat brackets, so my problem will be attaching the ZJ seats to the MJ brackets, since I don't weld.

It is good if you can get it, right. He shoud just part the truck out and be done with it.

I have a factory type class 3 hitch that fits just under the stock step bumper. In fact it bolts to the factory step bumper. So I am wondering how "tall" the JCR bumper is in relation to the stock step bumper? Will the factory class 3 hitch fit under the JCR bumper? Anyone know.

Thanks Jim. I will try that. The junk yard I was at today had both the 94 Grand Cherokee Limited with the leather seats and an 89 MJ with bucket seats. So I will be doing some test fitting at the yard before I buy them. Also a quick Google search points me to some Cherokee forums...there the claim is that seat brackets changed about 1995 and that the GC seats will bolt only to 95 and later Cherokee seat brackets...Not at all to 94 and prior X J seat brackets. So we will see what we see and report back. Guess I will wind up buying the MJ buckets just for spares (the seat covers are terrible) and a couple of other items someone will want. The cargo lamp switch - lamp is gone, the class 3 trailer hitch (yes, found one), and the center console.

Saw a 94 Grand Cherokee Limited in the JY today with gray leather power seats. The passenger seat was perfect but the drivers seat has some cracked leather. Back seat also looks to be leather and the color is very nice. So I am wondering if the ZJ buckets can be put in the MJ without cutting/welding the floor? When I search the DIY section, I see how to make the ZJ or WJ seats tilt forward, but not anything about using the ZJ seats in the MJ. Can someone point me to a good source? Thanks,

Nice find! Now, how to keep the plug fixed to the hitch without using cable ties or something like that?

Yes, do the 7 pin plug the very first time around and be done with it. Then just buy a 7 pin to 4 pin flat adapter for $12/15. Toss the 7/4 adapter in the glove box so you can find it when you need it. Another tip is to get the factory 7 pin harness from one of those Cherokees you keep seeing in the yards. Use that and you have good factory crimps in the female end of the plug. You might also want to figure out how to use the Mopar bracket welded to the Cherokee hitch that holds the 7 pin connector in place. Take it off the Cherokee hitch and have it welded on to your new MJ hitch. That is something I need to do for my MJ hitch.

This is the third radiator needed post in the last month. Mine was the first one late July. See this post: http://comancheclub.com/topic/43874-radiator-source/?hl=radiator The post in that thread mentions a PepBoys radiator on Ebay. That would be your best bet for the next couple of years. I had a local radiator shop do mine and it cost $420.

The plug is there in my 91 Comanche. It is also there on other years. Not sure about 86, but suspect it is there. Just have to pull the lights from a Cherokee and plug them into the Comanche. Simple. Even I could do it if I find the lights I purchased a couple of years ago.

$195 on sale $45 shipping $340 that I paid to the fabricator. $40 of that was a tip because he did such a good job. $200 for the welding, $100 for the finish grinding work. $580 - I could have welded it myself if I trusted my structural welding skills. Reviewing Nate's 4x4 design I would not use it for any serious recovery or towing. It does not bolt to the underside of the frame and the frame brackets do not have any side bracing to prevent bending. The shackle hangers are not welded to the frame brackets directly and rely on the four bolts holding the bumper to the brackets. I like to look of the JCR bumper. But I don't use the truck off road, so $580 is a bit much for a bumper in my situation. Nicely built and understand the extra cost over the very simple Nate bumper.

There is a bed liner and tailgate cover on the San Diego Craigslist. Not mine. Price was $75.00

Passed right by you picking up the 4.2 long block!

No you really can not just do that and expect accurate correction. The speedo can be off by X% and the Odo off by Y%, even if they are getting their information from the same original source. Reason? Two different instruments = two different errors. You can use a 5 mile highway marker and a stopwatch to check the speedometer to get very accurate results. Drive the 5 miles at an indicated 60 mph, start the stopwatch when you enter the 5 mile check, stop the stopwatch when you exit the 5 mile check. If the speedo was dead on and you held the truck to exactly an indicated 60 mph, your stopwatch will say 5 minutes, Zero seconds. If it takes 5 minutes 15 seconds to travel the 5 measured miles, the speedo is low. Unfortunately, to accurately check the odometer, you need more than 5 miles. I once used over 100 miles of marked highway signs - the Odometer was off by 3.45 miles/100. Because I changed to bigger wheels, I need to do it again (one of these days).

I am in suburban San Diego (El Cajon). My truck gets used mostly around town for just Home Depot runs and stuff like that. It is not my daily driver. The weekend before last, I picked up a long block in Apple Valley. I had 75 miles of around town driving on the tank before I drove 325 miles round trip to Apple Valley on Saturday afternoon. Speed was an indicated 75-85 (go with the flow) all the way over the Cajon Pass (4100 ft, for the non So.Cal drivers). When I filled up the tank after 400.2 miles, I used 22.6 gallons of gas. That works out to 17.75 mpg. The tank before that one was about 15.8 and that 15.8 is very close to what I get most of the time. Best ever tank was 23 and a fraction mpg. That was a back from San Luis Obispo at a 55/60 average speed. Odometer accuracy was checked against 50 miles of road markers in Santa Barbara County and corrected. So the 23 mpg number was a good number. My current tires are the same brand but one size smaller (225 vs 235) so the odometer is not too far off. My truck is a 91 H.O. 2 wheel drive with automatic and 3.55 rear end. And I run the a/c all the time. Your 19 mpg is more than most report. That doesn't mean you are not getting 19 mpg. You should check your odometer accuracy, simply to know how close it is. If the odo is close, then your numbers are good.

Do a shearch and you will find some drawings on this site. It has been done several times. Terrawombat has posted drawings. Not sure if it was short or long bed, but it has all been done and posted here.

You do not directly say what year truck you have. But you do talk about having an 87, so I am going to assume you have an 87 truck with a "tired" engine and automatic transmission. 1, No point to doing all the work to change over the 87 electronics if they work right now. Just a waste of effort. 2. Do you have a problem with the AW4? Doesn't sound like you do, so just leave the transmission alone. They run for a long, long time. 3. To use the H.O. engine you need to pull the head and replace it?? Did I understand correctly? Why not pull the head on the 87 engine? it is the same work. Then you can fix the 87 for the same or less work than change to the H.O. engine.

Think the knock sensor was a renix only item. There is no knock sensor in the Chrysler electronic controls. Guess that is why it is not plugged in??? You have the 1998 block, so no place for the knock sensor. Sorry, but I have no help on your high idle issue.