JeepcoMJ

And special thanks to $500mj for getting a renix flexplate shipped out to me so quick! I ordered a brand new one, but the parts store told me 3 days later that it was on backorder and they couldn't get it. must be discontinued.

I'm in the process of doing some serious work to Troy's (bigredjeep1) comanche. skinny front tires so it could fit on the trailer to get here. it's an 89 IIRC swb 4.0 ax15 np231 HP60 front (89 ford) 14 bolt rear 4.56 or 5.13 gears...troy will have to chime in xj buckets/center console he streets it on 36's, wheels it on 40's. I'm converting it to automatic for him. rear end The front axle setup is completely untraditional, and while lacking in precise engineering, it is functional enough. I relate it to simply being the 3rd link of a triangulated 3 link, less lower bushings, and support links that would make a trackbar unnecessary. crude, but he says it works nice and it's pretty damn strong. the central pivot is some crazy implement pivot that basically is a 2 and 5/16 ball with a cup and retainer that are greasable. Always organize parts by side so everything gets put back together properly. Because of the nature of the suspension setup, I had to remove the front axle not only for the swap itself, but even to gain access to drain the transmission or transfercase. I had to put jack stands on the front bumper and drag the axle out the side with a pallet jack. Once done with that, I proceeded to gut the manual harness, ecu, pedal assembly, and floor plate. In this picture, the ECU is hanging on the new auto harness...so that I could test fire it and make sure everything would work prior to continuing. The harness is out of a 90, the truck is an 89. couple of connectors are different. here is where I had to temp up the wires to get it to fire. back to the junk yard to get the other side of this connector, with a foot of extra wire, so that I can solder it all together and heat shrink it. won't ever be able to tell it was worked on by the time I'm done. Once I had it running, it was time to pull out the driveshafts and all of the 5 speed parts. The clutch was just toast, the slave cylinder junk, the flywheel so blued that it's just plain useless. won't have that problem ever again. engine held by oil pan big jacks under the frame just in case the ones up front want to fall out. trans out. old flywheel all the cleanout/grip lines are worn off the clutch gotta love when slaves fail that won't happen again, either. I'll update with pics as I go. I also replaced all of the wheel studs on the front axle, since half of them were broke off, and will be doing the rear main, oil pan, and valve cover gasket along with an oil change. The interior is completely buttoned up now, but I forgot to take pics today. wiring will be completely done tomorrow, along with any cleanup necessary, and the rear main, valve cover, and oil pan. I also have to fabricate new driveshafts to get this thing driveable...the old ones are homebrew hodgepodge setups.

I'd do reverse through drivethroughs here every damn day just to have RHD.

plugs, wires, cap, rotor would be a start. surely plugs, if it's putting unburnt fuel into the exhaust. aside from that, check for an intake manifold gasket leak. I assume it's a 4.0? a bad intake/exhaust gasket leak would allow fuel to get out and right down in the exhaust. doubtful, but it's an idea. aside from that, any fuel injectors wet when you shut it off or while running? if so, cracked injector.

No offense, but the REAL problem here is that you have a ba10/5. I'd start there, and work your way towards a new slave, master, clutch, and ax15 trans.

Looks good so far...now you need to figure out how to put the grille on upside down

The rear springs were sagging so bad that I couldn't put ANY extra weight in the xj without riding on what was left of the bumpstops, and I'm not quite ready to lift it...so...bandaid time. those helper springs were on an mj that got scrapped out years ago. thought i'd never use them, and forgot I even had them until I accidently stumbled upon them. brought the arch back 150 percent...rear now sits high enough to give it a rake. I'll be throwing air shocks in as well, once I have a whole day to spend getting rid of all of the booger welds the PO's mechanic put on them to hold them in when they broke off. would have done it today, except it started snowing...i won't work under a dripping wet vehicle. last night, I got sick of my rear endcaps and bumper looking like @$$, so I picked up some chrysler match duplicolor paint...here's the result. all I did was scotch brite everything, then tape off the body/remove the tail lights so I could paint. I haven't put clear down yet, because I'm counting on a few days sun fading to bring the color to a perfect fade. unfortunately, instead of sun, we got snow. will probably have to redo it but oh well.

I've ALWAYS wanted to do an RHD 97+ comanche. that firewall conversion will be fun, but at least the RHD steering box will bolt right in. you will have to swap front axles as well, since the bracketry is all opposite. good luck! and keep us posted!

I carry a 9mm beretta model 92 when it suits me. prefer a gun that I can remove a mag on for transport, even with my cc permit. Not a good thing to have a loaded gun in a vehicle, chambered or not. Good gun. Imo, though...a .22 will still do alot of damage and is cheap. Just so happens that I got a deal on the 9mm. A larger.cal gun is nice, but overkill (and expensive) But I guess you can't really put a price on self protection The important thing is to practice at the range, and to be intimately comfortable with any weapon you own.

cool, but you need to redo those rear shock mounts if you want any flex. otherwise you'll bend a shock every trip out.

actually...opening up the TB gets rid of the venturi effect. stops bottlenecking the air.

Staunchly against more subforums. We have more than enough already. How about a 2wd thread in the popular threads section

TB spacers would only function on a TBI injection system, or a carb'd system. they do absolutely zero on a MPFI system. as far as boring the renix TB, IIRC there is still a taper to them, and opening up the taper on the bottom side below the butterfly plate will gain you quite a bit of incoming air, *possibly* netting you some overall gains with that crappy designed intake manifold.

I've got a good collection of a handful FSJ tonka jeeps. none of them are perfect. but, I just plain don't need them, and don't have any interest in having them cramp up my tiny apartment any longer, nor space to put them in the shop. question is, what are they worth? (and is anyone interested in them? I'm not going for top dollar) two green ones on the outer ends in 2nd row are structo brand internationals. the camper, one of the mixer trucks, and the yellow dump truck are well played with, but complete and actually in fairly nice shape...all the paint is still there, tires/rims/wheels are all nice, too.

ugh. when I put the 4.0 radiator in, I just redid the hood latch assembly so that I could retain the already painted hood. custom upper rad support combining 87+ and 86- parts accomplished it. can't abide the look of hood pins.

agreed. you could try bleeding it out, but usually when they fail, they fail.

I'm sorry to hear that you're going through this! happened to me before. good luck, I hope they catch them!

I'd stay away from aluminum, and definitely use steel rivets. had these on a customer's comanche. he wanted them back on after the paint job. they cause rust like a mofo up north here.

yes. so long as it's equipped the same as your jeep is.

that's why we don't drive our gems in winter. I don't have an mj that's seen the road in winter for years.

it's really screwing with my business. like wade said...warm. need some snow, that stays, on frozen ground.

zj coils have a higher spring rate than stock xj ones. I'd be willing to bet that the ones you removed weren't more than a few inches longer...inches you'll lose do to low spring rate. swap them, see what happens. the zj ones aren't as soft so they won't compress as much just sitting there.

gonna have to replace it. it's wore out. I've got one that never got used...bought the jeep from the original owner, it was an auto. he always just put it in park. I took it apart, blasted it, and repainted it, just to get rid of surface rust. even re-greased it so it is good to go. shoot me a pm if you're interested in it.

yes, xj shafts will work. I wasn't seriously telling you to get parts jeeps just for the shaft. just saying, I've had over 20 shafts laying around over time...i've only wrecked two. one was on my wheeling mj when I bent it on a rock, the other was on a virtually stock 88 metric ton, and the ball joint failed on it...from lack of proper maintenance. never had an issue with them being too short. just be sure your front pinion angle isn't screwed up, and NEVER use a transfercase drop kit. there is no need for one on an mj anyways.

stock at 6.5 has always been fine for me. I've roasted a couple, but that was after beating on it pretty hard, and usually bending them on a rock. they're plentiful, and cheap at junkyards. or buy some parts jeeps, scrap them out, keep the shafts, and make some money on other parts.