Minuit

Does the gauge seem like it's "sticking" at 1/2 tank? In other words, once you get below 1/2 tank does it start working like it should, or does it do something else? If it starts reading correctly below 1/2 tank, it sounds to me like something is preventing the float arm from moving past halfway. Perhaps there's something in the tank blocking it, or maybe for what ever reason the floater isn't floating like it should be. Funny enough, my 91 has had this same problem for a while and I've been too lazy to drop the tank and see what's going on in there.

Further question: how did you get a Renix grille to fit on your (presumably) HO header panel? Or are they not as different as I thought?

I've always had a slight preference for the 10 slot grille, especially in black

'94 should be fine. The year they moved to the Chrysler column (and seats, for that matter) was 95. You may not be able to transfer your old ignition cylinder over... maybe, I can't confirm though. They changed from a GM style lock cylinder to a Chrysler style one in 1991 and they attach to the column differently.

Looks for all the world like an 87. Are the stickers in the engine bay or the very back of the driver door still readable?

Wait, are these body on frame? If so, I never would've guessed. I'm surprised at how well it held up. I always thought these things were deathtraps. I applaud your insanity for doing this.

Have to say I don't care for it. I for one browse CC on a lot of different public computers that I'm not going to be putting my login credentials into. IMO, hiding the good parts of CC will actually lower registration. I like most of the recent changes around here (I have no opinion on the hardcore tech sub yet) but this one isn't for the better.

Just another aftermarket junk brand. I used one of their temp sensors and it was wildly inaccurate.

If it is not set up correctly your rear brakes will not work even if the brakes are in great shape. Check it. Make sure it looks like Fig. 2 in this link: https://comancheclub.com/topic/45839-mj-height-sensing-brake-proportioning-valve-adjustment-procedure/ Easy to accidentally put it on wrong when changing rear diff fluid, etc. It should look exactly like the picture.

Is the load sensing valve positioned correctly?

The 84-86 seats are the same as later models to 94 and they have the best fabric patterns (IMO)

Yeah, it at least looks like they did the radio install partially right. I really like that brushed dash bezel.

Last weekend, I woke it up and made it do work right away. Had to air up the front tires. Then I gave it another radio.

Too bad, an 87 would have a cool radio.

Those are very good numbers for an old engine. Above average, but your engine has low mileage and I would not be concerned. Was the idle number with the engine cool or hot? Oil pressure will drop as the oil warms. If it drops a lot when warm that's bad, but it will drop no matter what. My 91 with 175k miles has roughly 55 at cool idle, 35 or so at warm idle, and 55-60 with the engine under load. Hard acceleration at high RPM will make it jump to 65 or so. Trust the mechanical gauge over the dash gauge. Those aftermarket senders are often very inaccurate. Mopar senders are highly suggested.

In the completely understandable case you don't want to do business with TeamCherokee, you can find the almost-right nylon push nuts at Lowe's. Sorry I can't say for sure which ones exactly because it's been a year or two now, but I brought one of my originals in and compared it until I found a match. The ones I eventually decided on were a pretty tight fit, but they stay put. Add in some of those black oxide coated screws and nobody would ever know.

Those exact seats were used in XJs up to 94. Mine originally came from two different 93 Countries. Actually, that pattern first came out in the '88 Eliminator. The '87 and '88 Laredos had a plaid pattern, but everything got the tweed (officially referred to as Luggage fabric) for 89. Fun fact: you could only get gray plaid uphostery in 1988 on a Laredo. That particular combination was unique to that year.

I enjoyed it. I had no problems watching the whole thing. You clearly know what you're doing and I enjoy watching skilled people work. Based on the editing, commentary style, and especially the camera angles, you're clearly influenced by Bad Obsession Motorsport. In fact, if I had to guess, that's probably what you were shooting for. If so, you did a great job. That watched just like an episode of Project Binky. Only editing things I'd mention is to maybe cut the welding segments down a little bit. The first one about 7 minutes in where you finish welding up the bracket goes a little bit long, but the other ones are better. As far as the title screens, that's just something you get a better feel for the longer you work on them. For the type of video, the title screens are fine as is. That's not the point of the video, it's the fabrication that matters. If I had to b*@$£ about something, it would be the narration, more specifically the inflection. It doesn't quite sound natural in parts. If I had to pick a word, sometimes your inflection seems almost a bit nervous, I guess? Not a huge deal, and narration is another one of those things that comes from practice. For me, 16 minutes is nothing for a YT video. I'd watch an hour long video if the subject was interesting enough and I had enough time. Considering this is your second video, you did a great job.

Those are absolutely useless and won't tell you much of anything. I downloaded a few different apps on my phone, and all gave different readings, and none agreed with my actual SPL meter.

I just realized that this car has directional wheels. Never occurred to me. Anyway, on with some boring stuff. I finally got annoyed enough by the very squeaky belt that I went out in the cold and did something about it. The idler pulley bearing was looking a little worn out, and the belt was looking a little bit old so while I was in there I replaced it with a Continental quiet-whatever belt (formerly known as a Gatorback belt). Anyway, it doesn't squeak anymore. The idler is a Motorcraft part. A much as I try to go for a "high end", whatever that means, restoration on the '91, I use way more OEM parts on this. They're just a lot easier to get. Say what you will, but Ford has a good thing going by making OEM spec parts so much more available. Idler pulley that's right in front of you. Automatic tensioner that takes a 1/2" drive, no socket needed. Easy as it gets. The trick is to get the belt on every pulley but the alternator and then work the tensioner. The tensioner felt strong and all of the other pulleys checked out, so I just replaced the belt and idler for now. I finally worked up the courage to change the blend door actuator! And it wasn't really that bad, to be honest. Most of it is working by feel and figuring out where the three bolts for it are. The service manual has "remove instrument panel" as step one. HAHAHAHA no. TCCOA consensus says to remove the glove box and climate control head, but I managed just fine working through the glove box hole. Taking the climate control out would've made getting to one of the bolts easier, but I probably came out about even versus messing around with the fiddly "stick a tool in the slots and wiggle it" method of getting the radio and climate controls out of the dash. With the glovebox and part of the climate control ducting removed, this is the view I had: The actuator is the thing with the ATC sticker on it. Once the 3 screws are out, installation is the reverse of removal. Of course, all of those metal braces and plastic ducts are sharp as hell and you will get cut up. Fun fact: the Standard brand actuator I bought on Rockauto is 100% identical to the Ford part, just without the sticker. I naturally had to take the old one apart to see what was wrong. Easy enough, it just snaps together. Hmm, that all looks fine. Or does it? Anyway, there was less carnage than I expected considering the awful noise this was making. Enhance! Cheap Ford Plastic Gears(tm) strike again! Look at the smaller of the pair of gears in front. Notice that there's a tooth missing right where those gears should be meshing. Every time that tooth came around, the blend door would slip a little bit and make an awful "CLACK" noise when it did. End result - stuck blend door. Every once in a while you'd get lucky and it would eventually work after a few minutes of clacking. What's that? It's been more than 10 minutes since I messed around with a radio? Ok. I found a NOS faceplate for my original radio on Ebay. The original was in perfect working order, except for some messed up buttons. The T-Bird and Cougar have green illumination and no clock, which is apparently a unique combination, so this was harder to find than you'd imagine. Now I gotta polish the climate control screen. No aux on this yet, I was in a little bit of a time crunch. Plus, I need to get the right service manual. I have the 1996 audio service manual, but the section on the single DIN radios just says "refer to previous year". Bastards. If that's not the '90s I don't know what is While I'm on the subject, Ford's manuals (radio and otherwise) blow Jeep out of the water in pretty much every way. Not only is there full diagrams, but very lengthy and detailed descriptions of how everything works. They're just easier to use and have way, way more detail. The service manual that covers just the '96 Thunderbird/Cougar is almost exactly the same size as the 1991 Jeep service manual that covers the XJ, YJ, SJ, and MJ. At some point during all of this the alternator died - 13.2V at the output terminal with absolutely nothing on. The alternator has always seemed a bit weak (lights on the dash would dim at a stop, for example). I wasn't feeling like giving the parts store any money for a remanufactured pile of garbage, I was off to the junkyard. It's your standard 130A Motorcraft 3G alternator, and pretty much every 4.6L equipped car used this particular version of it for a few model years, so it's an easy part to come by. Not only that, but Ford was kind enough to put it right on top of the engine with only 3 bolts holding it on. I could get used to this... Wait, that looks a little bit shiny for a junkyard part. Sure enough, a '96 Crown Vic had an almost new (new production, manufactured in 2014) alternator on it, so I adopted it for the wallet busting price of $20 after core charge. I've always heard of people finding brand new parts on junkyard cars, and it finally happened to me! Anyway, the charging system is great now. Yes, I know the plug wires were under the alternator before. No, I'm not taking it back off to put them back. There's a reason why all of the pics you find on the internet of a 4.6L engine bay have the wires zip tied to that bracket. Not pictured: I rebuilt the passenger side lower door hinge and replaced the door striker. The door closes like a vault now. Props to 91Pioneer for his article on MN12Tech - I basically followed it exactly. Now I need to do the rest of the hinges, because they're probably getting close to failure too even though the driver side door doesn't really sag. The passenger side hinge collapsed very suddenly, so I'll have to check the other hinges frequently until I get around to rebuilding them. Continuing to check stuff off of the MN12Tech article list, I decided it was time to pay attention to the vacuum lines. Yeah. I still need to replace a few more, but the car definitely runs better now.

Damn, that looks good.

Get this one. Just the basic one will be fine. https://www.amazon.com/BAFX-ProductsÂ-Decibel-Reader-Battery/dp/B00ECCZWWI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1520395811&sr=8-3&keywords=sound+pressure+meter ... and tell me how loud your undeadened truck is so we have more data points to compare with! For reference, my deadened '91 is good for about 72 dBA at 70 as long as the wind isn't blowing too hard. The wind noise on these trucks can get a little crazy. All of my SPL measurements are taken with the climate control off (so no air is blowing at the meter) with the meter sock at about shoulder level in the center of the cab.

The Comanche is a mix of new and old school engineering. The 86 is further towards the "old school" end of the scale than any other year. There is nothing complicated about the design. By modern standards it's a very easy vehicle to work on. Parts availability for most things is good, but slowly fading for parts specific to the older years. Anything specific to the Comanche (anything located behind the doors, basically) might be a challenge, but that's why we're here. The '86 Comanche is widely considered to be the worst year for good reason, mostly the 2.8L V6 that was the optional engine - I can't think of a single desirable characteristic about it. The 2.5L is an underpowered cockroach with a lot of similarities to the 4.0L. I wouldn't call it desirable in stock form, just "meh". It's not necessarily bad, but the 4.0 inline 6 (especially from 1991 on) was just so much better. With the 2.5 you at least get the advantage of fuel injection. The '86 2.8L has the dubious honor of being the only carbureted factory Comanche, and the carb it has is a typical mid '80s emissions nightmare. That's about as much as I know about it. Listen to Green Mesa XJ for 2.8L advice. As far as getting it going as a roadgoing truck, other than the obvious things like making sure it runs and drives: it is almost certainly in need of some front end work by now unless it's been done recently. It is 32 years old, after all. The steering linkage on these is relatively complex compared to a modern car and has lots of places to develop looseness and slack. It doesn't take much to make the steering in these feel sloppy. The steering gear is an old GM design dating back to the 60s, kinda vague and lifeless compared to a modern car in the best of times - but nowhere as bad as an actual old truck. New tie rod ends, ball joints, control arm bushings, and track bar will help, and will improve the driving experience greatly, even if none of them have visible play. The unofficial slogan of Comanche Club, "look under the carpet before it's too late!" is repeated around here for a very good reason. These trucks have a number of stupid design decisions that result in above average levels of floor rust. Water tends to drain in through the firewall (especially where the fusebox is), and if it's a manual the clutch master cylinder can leak directly onto the fuse box, destroy the fuse box, and flow down to the floor pans to help rust them out. If you look under the truck and don't see the carpet matting, you have a chance here. One of the first things you should do is remove the carpet/vinyl matting and look at the condition of the floors. Now that that's out of the way, the Comanche is one of the best small trucks ever made. It was ahead of its time and (IMO) was never really surpassed by a vehicle of its size on anything but refinement.

To me, "quiet" has the same problem as "good ride quality" - everybody thinks it means something different. Most people I ask seem to think quiet is "I can hear myself think in the cab at 55". When I say quiet, I mean I don't want to hear the friggin' exhaust unless I stomp on the gas. I don't want to hear it on the highway. I'd rather listen to my stereo than that inline 6 2200 rpm bzzzzzzz sound. The factory exhaust in my Thunderbird is just right. At idle, you can't hear it at all unless you put your head under the bumper but it's got a nice rumble under acceleration. I can hear my truck idling 50 yards away. When the most recent aftermarket muffler fell apart I told the exhaust shop the same thing you did. Ended up louder than it was before. I understand I'm working with a 30 year old engine here - but I'd think we could make them quieter with a new muffler, not louder.