Minuit

Is the cooling fan missing a blade?

Ooh, if they work on rivets I need to get me one of them right there.

Reminds me of older Volvo headrests.

Nah, it's no big deal. I like the way the short bed looks better personally, but the rest of the differences are pretty much all upsides IMO - more range thanks to the bigger gas tank, more room for stuff in the bed, likely a better ride and high speed stability thanks to the extended wheelbase. You may find the new truck to have a slightly bigger turning radius, but I'm not sure how big the difference is. Don't worry about the difference in parts. In a world of MEGA SUPER ULTRA CREW DUTY bulldozers roaming the streets, a LWB Comanche isn't even that long really.

Group 58 is what they came with, but a 34 fits and is all I buy. The 34 provides more reserve capacity.

If you guys want to hear some REAL noise, I could always go record a clip of my '89 with a severely blown exhaust gasket on multiple cylinders, a badly cracked exhaust manifold, next to no oil pressure, and at least one stuck lifter

I filled up the Volvo for less than $70 yesterday!

My truck has sounded exactly like that for the 49,000 miles I've put on it, and probably for the 144,000 miles that were on it before. It's never been apart further than it takes to replace the timing chain and rear main seal, and it's been well maintained since new. When I first got it I was also very concerned with the noise. It's just a Jeep thing. The later NVH blocks with the bearing girdle are a little better, but the piston slap is still there. The later 4.0s also have a tendency to break piston skirts.

X3 on a bad booster. X2 on the factory braking system being fine as long as everything is working as it should. I have rear discs on my '91 and the stock booster and master cylinder drive those just fine. Yes, the pedal effort is higher than more modern cars, but the pedal in my truck is very firm, easy to modulate, and the stopping performance is just fine. I actually kind of like it, to be honest. In a non-ABS system, requiring a deliberate effort to induce lockup is good IMO. An upgraded booster will lessen pedal effort. It will make it "easier" to stop quickly. If your stock system is capable of locking up the wheels, that's all it will do. A lot of people interpret this easier pedal action as an improvement in braking performance, but it ultimately comes down to the traction between the tires and the road.

Almost 193k on this one. Also apparently I zoomed right in on my nasty valve cover for half of it so you can see in glorious detail that I haven't cleaned my engine in over a year

When I was a kid I got a lot - probably way too much, in fact - of pleasure out of shooting squirrels off of bird feeders with my automatic airsoft guns.

...and you can do this with them too What happened to the A/C compressor?

Guessing that's the aftermath of getting hit in the rear by someone not paying attention driving one of these:

I don't hear anything unnerving here. My truck(s) make all of the same noises. Maybe not as loud, but they're all there.

And it'll continue to bug you until you go grab it!!!

I think I remember seeing this truck on here before. The seats look really familiar, and they've definitely been redone.

All the weird wacky stuff like single-year interior colors probably cost too much to be sustainable for cash strapped AMC is my guess. Funny how once Chrysler got a hold of them it was nothing but the same grey, maroon, and tan for miles.

I'll be damned.

Long shank screwdriver or a long extension works too. Let's see how good my memory is. I've pulled so damn many of these dashes at this point. I think my fastest time from getting tools out to dash on the floor was 35 minutes, but that is with power tools and it's back when I definitely remembered each tool and the exact order I needed them in. It's been a bit since then. The defrost trim is held in with #2 phillips screws behind the glove box door and then multiple across the top of the dash. Look carefully and make sure you get them all. Once the screws are out, it's still held in tight with several snap fits. I recommend trying to get the snap fits out working from right to left. It doesn't usually want to just come out either, the windshield and A-pillar are in the way. Resist the urge to turn the defrost trim once you start getting the right side of it loose. That's normally the easiest way to break that far driver side snap fit off, and then it'll never fit tight again. The dash bezel is held in by 2 screws above the gauge cluster, one above the headlight switch, and one above the lighter. After that, it's a bunch of snap fits. The lower dash knee panel is held in with 2 big philips (I think they're #3, but I've always used a #2 driver on them just fine, may also be 8mm depending on year) screws at each end on the bottom, and one behind the ash tray in the middle. Open the ash tray and push down on the tab to remove it. Be very gentle doing this as the hinge for the ash tray is brittle. There's also several #2 screws that are readily visible across the front of the panel. Your parking brake release is also bolted to this. At this point, you can loosen (but don't completely remove) the 15mm nuts at the steering column. Loosening will take some pressure off of the dash, but removing them will let the steering column hang, and that's not great for the column or the firewall. Once the lower dash is out, remove the headlight switch by reaching into the hole in the dash under it and pushing on the button. Once you push that button the pull handle can come out, and then a big flat head screw holds it in place. You can unplug the headlight switch and keep it with the dash, but I usually take it out from the dash. This is a good time to take out the bolt for the dash ground. Don't forget it. If you have the twilight sentinel relay, either unplug it or unbolt it. Since the wiring harness is attached to the dash, but stays with the truck when the dash is removed, you've got to remove the electronics from the dash. Remove the instrument cluster, clock, lighter, radio, and switch panels if you have any. Remove at least the first two screws on each lower cab trim. This will allow you to get the kick panels out from under the lower cab trim once their screws are out (they are in deep recesses in the kick panels). Don't bend the lower cab trim too much. Remove it if you can't get the kick panels out. This will reveal two 15mm bolts for the dash under the kick panels. Note that you do not have to remove those bolts. You just have to loosen them some. The dash itself is held in with 2 15mm bolts at each end under the kick panels, 2 15mm nuts at the steering column (the dash is just sandwiched in there), and multiple 8mm (I think) bolts across the top under the defrost duct. Don't lose those top ones, and especially don't drop them into the heater box. Ask me how I know. Magnet, tape in the socket, whatever it takes to keep you from losing them. The dash should be free to move once you have the 15mm bolts and nuts loose and the top bolts out. If not, check for anything you might have missed. Try to avoid touching the vinyl at this point. Try to handle the dash with the metal frame as much as you can. The wiring harness is ziptied to the back of the dash in several places using push-mount zip ties similar to these. I would cut these zipties and just replace them on the re-install. I think that's everything, but there's just as good a chance that I've missed something, but that should get you started.

New year, new plan, right? While I'm on self-induced unemployment, let's work on the runt of the litter, shall we? I'm really rusty at writing these updates, so do not expect anything that is easy to read, flows well, or makes sense. Upon realization of the fact that I have most of the hard-to-find parts to complete another grey MJ interior, and the fact that I sold most of the parts I had accumulated for the planned 1987-tan interior... this truck will have a grey interior, but different from my 91. Armed with that knowledge, I went on a junkyard rampage: A tight tilt column with a good leather wrapped wheel in a junkyard in 2022? Say it ain't so! I had it in my head that all of the good condition parts for these were crushed by about 2016 or so. It will need a new horn button though, but I want the one with the fake screws in it anyway. This is an automatic transmission column, so it will need to either have the park-lock feature disabled or be converted to have the key release lever somehow. A decent, non-cracked grey dash is another thing on the "never thought I'd see it in the junkyard again" list. This one is 95% good, with one small flaw on on the front. It'll definitely have a mat on it to keep it that way. This was my first XJ/MJ dash pull in years, but I can still get it done in just under an hour and still remember every tool needed. The bastards at LKQ were very proud of this thing and charged me separately for every little bit and piece on it. That place sucks these days. The biggest mystery left at that point was seats - the factory buckets as found in my 91 are off the table entirely. I don't want two of the same truck. The driver side seat bracket for this truck is rusted out anyway and would require one of the legs be added back on to even be able to bolt into the truck. On this project, I can allow myself a little bit more freedom to stray from original equipment, plus I'm having to do fab work on the floors anyway, so my next move was going to be determined by my choice of seat---hello, beautiful. What a fortuitous find that is. Late model XJ seats on their own are kinda unremarkable unless they're leather, but these have some special guts. This XJ was an especially rare bird - 2.5L with a 5 speed. A totally optionless late model. Much like early 2-door XJ seats or MJ bucket seats, these flip forward, but unlike the others, the mechanism that makes these tilt forward are self contained into the recline mechanism and can be transplanted into all sorts of Chrysler-era Jeep seats - XJ, ZJ, WJ, you name it -power, heated, and all kinds of leather. We're going to start off somewhat restrained, with these '98 ZJ seats. By the way, don't think this is something I've come up with myself. Multiple CC members have done this before. I'm just using their notes, but I'll be putting my own little spin on things for that "OEM-plus" flavor. The recipe here is ZJ seat - except with the 2-door XJ recline/tilt mechanism swapped in place of the ZJ's recline-only mechanism - bolted to the 2-door XJ floor mounts. Ooo, what's that? Anyway, a Frankenstein late model XJ/ZJ seat swap implies some level of fabrication on the floor. This is a pretty simple job on an XJ, much less simple on most MJs, but made a little easier for me because about 60% of my floor pan is gone to begin with, so I can pretty much do what I want putting it back together. Here's the plan, more or less: If you know me, you know that I like to ramble. You also know that I like an OEM-style installation. Not only does this seat mount neatly replace the (rotted) sideways unibody brace, it also acts as a full-width crash structure tying the side of the cab and transmission tunnel together in case I were to be hit in the side. Couple that with the side-impact bars in the '95 XJ doors I'm running and this ought to be a bit stiffer than a stock MJ in a side collision. Not worlds of difference, but something that will hopefully prevent the cab from imploding in the event of a crash. I also plan on reinforcing the other side of the trans tunnel where I'll be welding this in so it won't be bearing on just the floor pan. An easier way to do this would be to cut the "feet" off the late model seat brackets and make new ones that line up with the factory seat mounting points. Considering that 3/4 of my driver side factory seat mounts are... nonexistent, I'm going to go with a plan that more or less replicates the 95+ XJ seat mounts in the MJ. Key Parts comes to the rescue again, because not only do they make the best floor pans, they also make the 95+ front seat mounts. I did not feel like drilling the spot welds out of a pair at the junkyard. Today, I did what I don't usually do - call in some reinforcements. A buddy and I worked through most of the day on getting ready to test fit the ZJ seat to make sure what I was dreaming up would actually work. Step one: cut out even more cancer, leaving us with this: I think I have finally gotten rid of all of the perforated metal on this side. I've never seen a southern truck this bad. And it truly is a southern truck. It's spotless everywhere else. Stay on top of those water leaks, guys. I'm starting to think I should have ordered the "full length" floor pan meant for an XJ and just cut out what I didn't need. My new pan isn't going to even come close to what I really need. I'm also going to either have to cut out half of a donor XJ's trans tunnel or just fab it myself out of some sheet metal. Step two: lay in the new metal in its approximate locations. As a starting point, I matched the 95+ XJ's dimensions - 28.5" from the gas pedal mount (the only thing I could think of that was constant and still existed between my truck and the late model XJ) to the front seat mount. Step three: seat! The starting point of 28.5" from the gas pedal left plenty of room behind the seat, so I decided to move it back for maximum leg room. There's a small flat area on the floor that the back left "foot" on the new seat fits perfectly onto. That just happens to coincide with the back of the seat hitting the back of the cab with the seat moved all the way back, just like it does with factory seats. I think the ZJ seats make better use of space than the old factory seat did - it seems like I'm going to pick up a couple inches of leg room while keeping about the same amount of space behind the seat. I can stretch my left leg all the way out and still not hit the firewall. Can't do that in the 91. All in all, it should be an upgrade in every way, with the added benefit of being able to swap between something like 20 different styles of seats at a moment's notice without even unbolting the floor brackets from the truck. Approximate height comes out to about 1" to 1-1/4" higher than the factory seating position, which is totally fine with me, especially considering that I'll be putting a tilt column in this. There's still plenty of headroom and everything (everything that's installed, anyway) seems to fall right where it should. The seating position will be flatter than stock, but not by a huge amount. With the seat all the way back, it's going to hit the back of the cab. No biggie, the factory buckets do it too. I've already checked - it clears the B-pillar trims. Since it seems like I'll be picking up a couple extra inches of legroom, I don't think I'll even need to have the seats all the way back anymore. I might even be able to recline the seats a bit without smacking into the back of the cab. Approximate seat to mount to floorpan fitment. This is all a little rough and by the seat of my pants. The final thing is going to take a little bit, but not much finessing to really get right. Another thing that I'm massively excited for - there's going to be room to put stuff under these seats! That opens up a whole lot of freedom for amplifiers and other fun stuff that simply doesn't exist with the factory mounts. Mounting wise, it doesn't seem like there will be any real difficulty. Up front, the only modification I'll be making to the seat mounts is to add new captive nuts about two inches over from the original ones to line up with the seat. In the back, I'll be copying what the factory did and welding captive nuts to the floor, with an extra plate under both rear seat "feet" for strength. I'll be welding them a little better than the factory did, because the rear seat mount captive nuts are very prone to breaking the welds on ZJs. You may have noticed that my mockup driver seat looks a little shaggy, so chances are it won't be around for much longer than it takes to get this setup finalized. To be fair, the jeep it came out of had 287k on it. Not a bad run for a seat. To be honest, I'm not sure what I want to end up with. I just grabbed those ZJ seats because they were somewhat clean, convenient, and on sale at the junkyard for $20 a piece. I'm not tied to them, so I might end up changing seats several times. Don't be surprised. I might try to go fancy, or just keep things simple. I really don't know what I want to do. Door panels are an obvious choice - these: I think I will use chrome armrest trim and power window switches (wait, did I say that part out loud?) once I get to that point. Those are easily my favorite XJ door panel, I just never can find them in good shape. Carpet wise, I'm thinking an MJ carpet will fit OK once I convince it to fit around the seat mounts with a heat gun. Those ACC carpets are pretty loosely molded to the floor to begin with. Color wise, dark charcoal to match the seats and door panels for sure. I've put a light down the HVAC box and the truck still has its original copper-brass heater core. 33 years ain't a bad run for one, but I definitely plan on changing that while it's easy. It's already outlived the 91's heater core, and the 91 had way better maintenance than this thing. The last thing I would want to do is to get the interior buttoned up beautifully and have the heater core spring a leak. I don't know whether the evaporator core leaks or not - I never attempted to charge the A/C, but I do fully intend to run A/C in this truck, so I might change it for peace of mind - I am worried about breaking the evaporator probe though. I think the Renix variety of those is an unobtainium part. Anyway, how's that for an update? Nobody wanted to buy this truck from me, so might as well try to make something cool out of it.

Well, guys, it's been a while. Guess I should update with what happened to this car since I haven't posted on it in a while. ...I went on a junkyard rampage last week, mostly seeking parts for my '89. I came out very well there, but I also found some Volvo stuff - including the roof trims and a couple of other small items from this car, which was just like mine except missing a bunch of options. I have not done much to it since the last update, mostly because I don't need to. I have done some maintenance items: Changed some spark plugs, Topped off the A/C refrigerant, Bought a dedicated "shop computer" along with the software that makes up the "dealership scan tool" - it's awesome. Deep dive on that coming up later, but what I can report is that there are two fault codes in the entire car: one for a burned out front marker light bulb (ARGH - I can't keep bulbs in this car, and the front ones are a pain to change), and an occasional code for a TPMS sensor that's starting to die. A long time ago, I changed the busted air vent and just forgot to put it in one of the updates. How many of you guys can find the thing in this picture that's bugging the $#!& out of me that I can't find a replacement for? I just changed the oil again, 5650 miles after my first change. Here's the dipstick BEFORE I changed the oil: That made me very happy to see. I have some goodies including a set of factory mud flaps to install, but all I really need to do is give the car a nice detailing and apply touchup paint in a few spots. Oh, and the windshield. It's gonna need a windshield, because of course I can't have anything nice.

There are drainage holes in the front of the bed already. They may be plugged up with junk, preventing the bed from draining.

While they might say that, it is my current understanding that, as long as the input shaft, output shaft, and line connections are the same, a Saginaw 800 steering box is a Saginaw 800 steering box and it'll fit whether or not they say it will. Borgeson advertises their box as fitting Chevrolet S10s 1982-1993. If you look up a steering box for an S10, many rebuilders (yes, I know they aren't the most reliable source) list the same part number for Jeeps and S10s. So my guess is it'll work just fine, it's just nobody has tried it yet. Who wants to be the first?

Yep.

What are you majoring in?