comsmack10 Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 Hey I'm new to MJ's and Jeeps in general. Read up on Comanches on this forum(very useful by the way!) for 1.5 months and then sold my old truck and bought one. Picked up a 89 4.0l automatic 4x4 d30/d35. 159xxx miles. Guy was from south texas as is the truck, floorboards don't have so much as a spec of rust on them. Body is straight, no dents and no bondo. It has 4.10 gears, welded rear with a busted cylinder(needed to go, pronto!). Picked up a d44 w/tracloc out of a 92 comanche with all hardware. Rebuilt it with new seals, bearings, 4.10 gears and an e-locker. haven't gotten around to installing it but will in the next few days. Buddys family business has a nice paint booth so we put on some fresh paint, bushwacker flares and JKS quick discos this past week. Has the cluster with a tach(stock with an auto?) and bucket seats. Ditched the worn out claws and went with 33x12.5r15 Goodyear MTR w/kevlar. PO had put a 4.5" rustys lift on with SS brakelines and LCA's. Not sure I like the lift, shooting for something with longarms in the near future but for now it does pretty decent. Had YJ mirrors on it that were useless above 10mph so tomorrow I'll go grab some XJ ones from the junkyard. This is just a start, got big plans for this thing. I start my duty with the Marine Corps as a 2Lt. in early June so until then I plan on wheeling the hell outta the truck and building it up. Two pics from the snow we got here in MD last week, had the truck for like 3 days before that, I was definitley sold after how well it did, pulled out an f-150 and a chevy 2500 and managed to drive through snow up to the doors. Let me know what you think. Hopefully the pictures work :roll: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1990 Pioneer 4x4 Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 Kinda hard to build a project thread, when you are starting out with something that nice. :cheers: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
green_miner Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 thats a nice truck the bushwackers look better than i thought they would Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakjeep93 Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 nice truck. but am i noticing that your front axel is not centered in the wheel well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camjeep3 Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 yeah seems like it... probably just needs some longer control arms truck looks awesome!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comsmack10 Posted February 14, 2010 Author Share Posted February 14, 2010 Yea I'm thinking that its the angle of the picture? It looks alright in person. Put on some mirrors from a 98 XJ today, liked 'em better than the old style ones. Putting the stereo and speakers in today. The PO had the truck broken into and the radio was stolen and all the wires cut. I grabbed a harness out of an old XJ and plan on splicing it instead of guessing which wire is which. It is not fun driving with no stereo by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comsmack10 Posted February 15, 2010 Author Share Posted February 15, 2010 On second thought I went out and took a longer look at it and it does seem to be that the axle is sitting further back than it should judging by the angle on the front springs. Longer control arms would solve this problem? Does it have any negative effects besides not being centered? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpdocdave Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 looks good, great color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakjeep93 Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 On second thought I went out and took a longer look at it and it does seem to be that the axle is sitting further back than it should judging by the angle on the front springs. Longer control arms would solve this problem? Does it have any negative effects besides not being centered? Thanks. i think it might mess your pinion angle up but I'm not sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comsmack10 Posted March 23, 2010 Author Share Posted March 23, 2010 Been a while since I posted any progress so here are a few pictures of what I have done over the past month or so...I am terrible about taking pictures while working and I don't have a "real" digital camera so these are all off my crappy iPhone camera, so bear with me. I picked up a MJ d44 and rebuilt it with 4.10 gears, an eaton e-locker and riddler diff cover. For the front I did the CAD fix, 4.10 gears, a detroit trutrac and riddler diff cover. Also replaced my CPS because I stalled out at a light in a busy intersection and needless to say, people weren't happy when it took me about 3 minutes to get it started again, haha. Also cut the front bumper and fenders to make the bushwackers flow a little better with the body. Put newer style XJ mirrors on, but didn't wire them up yet, I'll wait until I do an interior swap out of the newer style cherokees to worry about that. Also put in a center console out of a newer XJ with...CUPHOLDERS!! Man that was annoying not having anything to put a drink in or rest your arm on. It went in easy and I persuaded some of the brackets from the XJ into my MJ with a dremel and longer screws so its pretty solid. Color doesn't match too well, at some point I'll take it back out and paint it up. Also where the floor shifter in the XJ was there is now an akward piece of plastic with holes in it, I keep my ipod on top of it for now but looking to make a solid piece to replace it. Next on the list: 1. Brake Lights don't work 2. No horn, trying to figure out the crazy wiring scheme from the PO, had some sort of alarm wired up and there are wires everywhere... 3. Rear brakes suck, when I put the d44 in the rear I didn't have the proper install kit, ended up having to use the hardware off my d35, so that needs to be fixed pronto. 4. As you can probably see from the pictures, the door weatherstripping is horrid. 5.Taking it to Rausch Creek Offroad Park in PA this weekend for its first serious offroad excursion, hopefully everything works well...trailering it just in case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comsmack10 Posted March 23, 2010 Author Share Posted March 23, 2010 Almost forgot...I was doing some random looking around on the forum and found my truck from about 3 owners and 4 years ago...Pretty cool this guy found the forum too, I have no idea if he ever comes on here anymore... viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1821&p=15921&hilit=Project+RedbullMJ#p15921 Also found the guy the person above sold it to, who posted it up in the "introduce your comanche" section (lower half of the page)about a year later. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15&start=150 That guy sold it to the guy I bought it from who had it for about two years, still had the 33" claws from a few years back and only about 10k more miles on it. I thought it was pretty cool to be able to track its history from stock form until now. I also was able to learn more about to truck because the guy I bought it from really didn't know much about the truck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unglar Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 Nice work, I would love to have a shop with a lift! :drool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88pioneer Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 ahhh so this is your truck http://rustysoffroad.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=RIGS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comsmack10 Posted March 23, 2010 Author Share Posted March 23, 2010 ahhh so this is your truckhttp://rustysoffroad.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=RIGS yea that was the name of the guy who I bought it from, too. Truck is a long way from Texas now though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88pioneer Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 sure looks different, definitely a lot better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1990 Pioneer 4x4 Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 Those flares sure look good in the front :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one_bad_MJ Posted March 25, 2010 Share Posted March 25, 2010 wish i had a lift in my basement nice build how much was the lift Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comsmack10 Posted March 25, 2010 Author Share Posted March 25, 2010 wish i had a lift in my basement nice build how much was the lift Yea me and you both, luckily I've got a friend that lives right down the street who only uses the lift to change his oil and stuff. So I pretty much have free reign of the place. BTW, I tried your CPS fix posted on other parts of the forum, by brakleening the flywheel as its moving(I have a leaky RMS) and I went ahead and put a new CPS in and saved the old one, seems to be doing a lot better, thanks for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comsmack10 Posted April 6, 2010 Author Share Posted April 6, 2010 Not really a build update but an update nonetheless... I tested out everything at Rausch Creek Offroad Park in PA this past weekend and everything worked great. I don't have many good pictures because my buddy(red toyota) broke a front axleshaft around 3pm on saturday and we just packed it in and headed home not wanting to mess with it so I didn't get to do as much testing as I wanted and didn't get to too much challenging stuff but there is always next time. No real damage for me, a few frame rubs(need rock sliders!), small scrapes and a leak in my brand new rear pinion seal :mad: Not one to be outdone, I went for it... not enough momentum, didn't make it far. That isn't coffee in that cup! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88pioneer Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 truck looks good, hopefully i can get out to rausch this summer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1990 Pioneer 4x4 Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 Time to rip out the carpet and mat. :eek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HKB3 Posted April 11, 2010 Share Posted April 11, 2010 what part of MD are you in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comsmack10 Posted April 19, 2010 Author Share Posted April 19, 2010 what part of MD are you in? I'm in southern maryland (calvert county). Sorry for the late response. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagon11 Posted April 19, 2010 Share Posted April 19, 2010 nice truck like the flares looks real good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
High2by Posted April 19, 2010 Share Posted April 19, 2010 Those are the same rims I have to put on mine. :clapping: Looks awsome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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