my mj project. current name "project over"

[lostissues]

i have finaly decided to post about my project, first a quick history:

 

Me and my brother in law have always loved jeeps, comanches in perticular. i got my first comanche when i was 16 or 17, so young so nieve, here is my post on that truck: http://comancheclub.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1351&highlight=

 

I still hate that guy :mad:

 

so i decided after it sitting and taking up space in my parents yard, i did what any person would do... bought another one! they are both 87's, stright 6 4x4. i hope to have it up and going by the winter, the floors were the worst part had to get floor pans and replace them. it took a while, a long while to get them in, I'm sure it would be a day project for most of the guys on here but I'm not too skilled in that kind of stuff, hopefully this will be a good learning experience.

 

here are some pics of the progress:

 

old parts comanche:

 

New one:

 

I plan on making the doors that came on the new one (they had some rock rash on them) i was able to get them off and the new ones on, it took a long time but i probably went about it the long way. all in all so far that turned out well, i used the idea that other on the board have used, i cut off the bottom, but instead of using the pin, i use some steel rod from home depot and had someone weld them in.

 

here are some pics of the floor pan:

 

 

after i get the floor in and the drivers seat back on, it is proving to be a pain in the bum, i will have it towed to a local garage where i will have the slave cylinder replaced, a job that i don't want to tackel cause it involves droping the transfer case.

 

then i will have to patch up the rockers, fix the exhaust, replace whatever the guy that owned it before me decided to cut off or break, then it should be road... scratch that, it should be OFF road worthy.

 

(Question on the rockers if anyone has the answer, the replacement ones that you can buy, what exactly do they cover, is it just the area just below the door, or does it go all the way to the back of the cab and further toward the front? i don't think that they do but it would make things a lot easier if they did.)

 

then down the line, i have plans for a spare tire holder that will be awsome, but for now its top secret ;)

 

for now, though i just recieved the most important equiptment for an off road comanche, the sound equiptment

 

yea i know, not important, but i can't do without music, so here is what i got:

 

all Eclipse stuff as i was able to get a killer deal on them.

 

head unit: Eclipse 3000

Speakers: Eclipse 4x6 and 2 sets of 5 1/4 (one set for the half doors also)

Other: Eclipse Ipod adaptor

 

that stuff will be going in when the truck is ready to move though.

 

then down the road i will put in a cb so my brother in law can talk on the trail.

 

by the buy, my brother in law has a off road, under water worthy wrangler that i currently out of commishion due to tranny problems, right now he has a 88 2 wheel drive comanche that he picked up for 400 bucks, replaced the gas tank from my parts, and had the breaks fixed it its road worthy, plans are to take the 4x4 parts off my old comanche and transplant them into his. hopefully updates will be posted cause that will mean that I'm getting closer to finishing it.

 

thanks for your time, sorry for spelling and grammer, besides there is no use for proper grammer on the interweb ne way

 

Jonathan

[feerocknok]

I'm guessing the frame's better on this one? Good luck on your project, and nice job on the floors! Are you going to be POR15ing it like most others are doing?

[lostissues]

the frame is a ton better on the new one, thanks, the floor was a little work but it turned out nicer then i expected, i hope to have someone weld them in when its able to get somewhere where there is a welder. either por15 or herculiner.

[87manche]

nice work on the floors.

Is that a facotry LWB rollbar?

you do know that you should never throw that out correct?

We'll lynch you for that :D

[DirtyComanche]

I'd suggest spending money ona welder before anything else. You'd be suprised how fast it will pay for itself.

[Stumpy]

I'd suggest spending money ona welder before anything else. You'd be suprised how fast it will pay for itself.

 

X2 i love mine!!

[Cabz]

nice work on the floors.

Is that a facotry LWB rollbar?

you do know that you should never throw that out correct?

We'll lynch you for that :D

 

X2 on the rollbar :agree: :D

[Guest]

I'm absolutely not going to get rid of the roll bar, that stays. what kind of welder would you suggest, i had borrowed one from my uncle, it was electric no gas, and it sucked, or the people using it sucked one or the other. i heard that a mig is the best for beginners to start on. i planned to get one in the near future, probably split the cost with my brother in law.

 

also, the question was a little hidden in the post but with the replacement rocker pannels, where do they end, do they just cover below the door or do they go all the way back to the rear of the cab?

 

thanks,

Jonathan

[Oizarod115]

my brother and i bought a Lincoln weld pack 3200 (i think thats the number) which is the biggest one we could run on a house circuit... it blasts up to 1/4 inch steel, has the MIG hookups too... it does good for me.. i think it was close to 400

[feerocknok]

My family's welder is a weldpack 185 or 175 or somethin by Lincoln from Home Depot, and we had to hook shtuff up to the fuse box and run a new plug for the 220V, but it welds 1/2" and you can set it up for MIG, or flux-core.

 

We run it flux-core, cause we don't have a tank for gas right now.

 

I lay my life on the welds I make with it, and trust it. It's easy, and was only like $600, even after we bought gloves and a real helmet instead of that crappy handheld shield it came with.

[lostissues]

WOO HOO UPDATES FINALY!!!

 

oh well a lot of time has passed since the initial post but here is what happend

 

me a close friend and my brother in law spent way too long trying to get this beast into an enclosed trailer, all i have to say to that is that you should never plan on pulling a tuck into a trailer with ratchet straps, wow what a learning experience.

 

ok after we got it on the trailer we got it down to the local jeep specialists and droped it off (that was a PITA also.), i told them i was in no real hurry and that they could take their time with it, a little later in the week me and my bro in law went down to the junk yard and got a new used tranny and transfer case, and droped it off with the truck, about a month or maybe two passed an i finaly got a call, they said that they took a look at it and that the frame was cracked where the tranny was going to be bolted on and that there was spray foam in the rails of the frame (that was my bad it seamed like a good idea at the time :oops: ) well anyway they refered me to another guy they use when they need stuff welded, i contacted him and he went down and took a look at the truck and said sure he could do it.

 

so i had it towed down to his shop and sat for a while, once again i said no rush i just wanted to have it sometime this summer and i asked him while he is doing that if he wouldnt mind welding the floors in place and also fabing up something for the rockers and cab corners, also the exhaust. so a few weeks ago he gets started working on it and makes some progress, discovers that the old tranny worked fine it just needed some convincing to get unstuck form 4th and then the clutch kit with the slave cylinder, so he starts on beefing up the fram and the rockers and thats where he was last he said it would probably be about a week or two cause he has to pull in other cars and do stuff on them, I'm like thats fine no prob :cheers: .

 

so today me and my brother in law have the day off work so we decide we should stop in and see how everything is going, on the way we get a call and its the guy, he says its all don't. and I'm all "sweet!!"

 

so the big problems are taken care of all i need to do is fix the little things, like mangled fender flairs and put on some mud flaps and get some sort of bumber on it and it will be able to pass inspection.

 

so now here are some pics:

this you can see the rockers, the put on 4x4 and tied it into the frame, its looks sexy

here is the beefed up frame and how he tied them into the frame

and then here are pics of the floors

and just so you remember here is a before shot showing the floor... or lack there of, and the rockers a little.

 

in my eyes this guy is a god :bowdown: and i didnt cost as much as i though it was going to.

 

i will get more pics as soon as i get it home, should be bringing it tuesday, and the pics arnt that great camera phone and lots of light.

 

Jonathan

[jackel18]

its definately getting better

 

pretty soon we'll have her out on the trail(hopefully mine too) :cheers:

[lostissues]

ok so we went and got my truck a few days ago and my brother in law drove it home from the mechanic, it was an ok drive, he said it was slow cause of the stock gears, and the lack of a sway bar wasnt very fun and the fender kept floping in the wind. well we got it home and he parked it off the driveway and up a little in the woods, so i want to drive it and park it on a little dirt mound we have, that is fun wet and squishy. so then he says "park on the rock" so i go for it and inch up and bump the rock, well the truck rolled back a little and i didnt realy feel it so when i went to get up on the rock it climbed a little and then i heard a thud, well turns out i snapped the bolts that hold on the front drive shaft :oops: well i got the extras we had from my old comanche and I'm planning on putting it back on tomorrow, i will take pics cause I'm bored.

 

later.

Jonathan

[lostissues]

i have the stock tranny, the pukegoat and the shifter doesnt center its self anymore, has anyone had this problem? it just flops from side to side.

 

also as i posted before i snaped the bolts holding on the drive shaft :oops:

now i got one of the bolts out, it had a little sticking out so i was able to grab it with some locking plyers, but the other on was below the surface, i tried a screw out bit we had but that didnt work, i ended up drilling a hole all the way through it and how i just have a hole with the threads of the bolt still in there, anyone know of a way to clean out the hole? or would a nut and bolt be sufficiant to hold it? any ideas would be great.

 

here are some more pics of the truck:

no bumper and a flat tire :D

my vehicles

[JeepcoMJ]

don't drill it out next time...build up a weld in the middle of the bolt, then weld a nut to the weld you built out (after it's cooled) and you should be able to unscrew it.

 

but you'll have to do a nut and bolt now, or thread the hole bigger and get a bigger bolt. make sure it's a hard enough bolt.

 

oh, and replace that u-joint now. it's shot. unless you can account for every single needle bearing that was in it....

[lostissues]

how hard is it to swap out the yoke? (i think thats what its callled :oops: )

i have another comanche that i could pull that form if its just an un bolt and swap. as for the ujoint, i think its fine, the one that fell off it lost all its needles but i just grabbed one from the other driveshaft in the cab of the other one.

[JeepcoMJ]

make sure the other one rolls good.

 

not hard to switch the yoke...theres a big nut on the inside of it if you look, just remove that nut and you should be able to pull it off. now's the time to replace the rear seal on the axle too if that's leaking.

[87manche]

how hard is it to swap out the yoke? (i think thats what its callled :oops: )

i have another comanche that i could pull that form if its just an un bolt and swap. as for the ujoint, i think its fine, the one that fell off it lost all its needles but i just grabbed one from the other driveshaft in the cab of the other one.

swapping the yoke is not hard, an impact will make it a ton easier, and you need a real stour torque wrench (250ft lbs) to get the torque right.

[Oizarod115]

how hard is it to swap out the yoke? (i think thats what its callled :oops: )

i have another comanche that i could pull that form if its just an un bolt and swap. as for the ujoint, i think its fine, the one that fell off it lost all its needles but i just grabbed one from the other driveshaft in the cab of the other one.

swapping the yoke is not hard, an impact will make it a ton easier, and you need a real stour torque wrench (250ft lbs) to get the torque right.

 

sheesh! ours only goes to 150ft/lbs

[87manche]

how hard is it to swap out the yoke? (i think thats what its callled :oops: )

i have another comanche that i could pull that form if its just an un bolt and swap. as for the ujoint, i think its fine, the one that fell off it lost all its needles but i just grabbed one from the other driveshaft in the cab of the other one.

swapping the yoke is not hard, an impact will make it a ton easier, and you need a real stour torque wrench (250ft lbs) to get the torque right.

 

sheesh! ours only goes to 150ft/lbs

I thnk that the FSM says about 200 Lb Ft. I don't know, I'm away from the FSMs. but its somewhere up there. Honestly, when I did the pinion in the turdy, I just set the impact at 80 PSI and hit it. It's been fine for 6 months and 7K miles.

The 35 is where you really need to have a torque wrench, too much torque and you'll crush the crush sleeve too far and you'll never get the pinion bearing preload right.

[lostissues]

well let me see this Sunday, we did a little work, we pulled the yoke off the old truck and put it on the new one, the Haynes manual said that we should use a puller, well we don’t have on so we substituted the word "puller" with "two idiots with a couple of flat bars and soon to be smashed up hands" well it worked, for the tightening it to specs. We did the "that look good?" "Sure". It seams to be ok it didn’t snap when I tried to drive on the same rock. Then we decided to attempt to take off the rear axle off the old truck, gave up on that, we forgot we couldn’t break loose the last 2 bolts. then we took the sway bar off, were planning on putting it on the new one as the PO decided to cut it off, then just throw some welds all over the frame just to make my life a pain in the @$$. Need an angle grinder to clean it up.

 

Ok so Tuesday we both have the day off and head to the U-pull-it, we wandered around for a little while, looked in random vehicles, said "damn!! That one must of hurt" and "oh man, i'm sure this frame if fine, why would you get rid of it?" you know the usual JY talk. well we got a set of buckets from an XJ for my bro in laws new 92, and a set of towing mirrors for his 88, then we got a bumper for me, woo hoo, got it out with some tools, a big pipe, a checker board made from the top of a Budweiser crate that said "toys for tots" on the front, well if someone associates toys for tots with beer then I can only guess the vehicle was there due to some drinking fiasco :cheers: . Oh and a cat-in-the-hat ball, I love the random stuff you can find, oh and we had obi-wan looking over us also.

 

well we got the bumper back and started to put it on, well again the PO decided to make my life hell, the bumper that was attached oh well not so much attached as held on with bubble gum, rainbows :headpop: . anyway the pass side front bolts look like they were pulled out probably from an idiotic recovery attempt, so they decided to weld (and I use that word lightly) that side back on, it didn’t hold up, and so the other side was all mangled due to the weight of the bumper being held up by one side. The rear bolt and the unibody around it had been crushed and pushed in on both sides. So with my degree in engineering and all around smartness :roll: brought me to this idea:

 

 

Tank bars give lots of leverage :D

 

Well bumper is on, kind of

 

 

I also removed the stoopid sticker on the hood and windshield and rear windows. I made room for the stickers that I plan on putting on. next I plan on seeing if there is a better way to attach the bumper, and seeing if I can clean up the random weld bubbles all over the frame and putting on the sway bar so I can kind of steer.

 

Jonathan

[lostissues]

so i ordered my wheels from summit racing on the 23rd and they arrived today, the 25th, i got 5 of these:

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=CRR%2D3975812&N=700+4294923107+4294923106+4294923105+400292+4294795098+4294906458+4294906456+4294917250+4294906359+215+4294793325+115&autoview=sku

 

now i need a day off to go and get my tires mounted on them and the truck should have some new shoes and meat. right now its meat is kinda deflated :cry:

 

Jonathan

[feerocknok]

That's what I got but with 3.50" of BS. Nice wheels. They look super clean if you ordered the center caps as well.

[lostissues]

how do they fit? i was wondering if i would have a problem with rubbing and the backspacing, but i think I'm ok, do you have any pics with the center caps? if they look good i may have to order some.

 

Jonathan

[feerocknok]

Don't have any real good pics of the centercaps blinging, but here's one with them on before I got my bumper on (bumper changed the whole look of the truck!)

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When I got the tires mounted they drove the truck out without the center caps and it looked good, but I had em go back and put em back on. Made all the difference in the world.