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Project Utility Comanche. The Saga Continues


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Thanks Ben.

 

 

My thoughts on this are that it's more road-geared than off-road geared. mechanically, this thing is really reliable (at least engine and trans-wise), so I want to build off of that and make it into a truck I could drive all the way to northern wisconsin, or MOAB, or wherever, and not even have to worry about it.

 

I know what you mean Pat. It is nice having a turn key driver/wheeler without the worries of break downs. It is almost like having a new truck.

 

yeah. that, and I'm sick of continuous projects. and I needed a truck to throw my meyer's plow on...

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Man, you're moving pretty quickly. How much time are you spending on this a day? I cut most of the driver side firewall out of mine, but only ended up using small pieces of it. Are you using the new engine and fuel system or just the wiring? Is it that easy to use the newer style wiring on an older engine? If that's the case then I'd love to do that in my truck (I trust my old '90 engine a lot more than the new '97 one).

 

(reminds me to go update my own thread and take some more pictures....)

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Man, you're moving pretty quickly. How much time are you spending on this a day? I cut most of the driver side firewall out of mine, but only ended up using small pieces of it. Are you using the new engine and fuel system or just the wiring? Is it that easy to use the newer style wiring on an older engine? If that's the case then I'd love to do that in my truck (I trust my old '90 engine a lot more than the new '97 one).

 

(reminds me to go update my own thread and take some more pictures....)

 

 

I'm spending around 5 to 7 hours actually working on it per day...but I'm unemployed, and this isn't a new thing for me.

 

 

the truck was already a '95 H.O. conversion, so all I have to do is block the temp. sender hole on the head, and swap all sensors on to the motor plus the '97+ fuel rail, and call it good. so, realistically, I'm still doing a complete '99 conversion on this thing, as it's a H.O. I would NOT recommend trying to make a renix motor work with it.

 

on the firewall, I cut the hole for the steering column up higher, then used the scraps to weld in the old hole. for the engine to dash harness hole (where the fuse box used to be), I cut the '99 firewall out, made a small square from it, and welded it in, then siliconed the engine bay side of it.

 

For the upper dash mounts, I bought a 4' chunk of aluminum 1/8" angle iron, bent it further, cut it, trimmed it, and screwed it in both on the firewall, and through the factory '87 holes.

 

I had to drill the farthest passenger side hole for the heater box, as that's in a different spot, and I drilled the hole for the part of the engine harness that comes from the passenger side.

 

 

I had already drilled the new shifter cable hole for the '95 conversion, so that was easy enough.

 

the heater box, column support, and other bracketry for dash related stuff is installed. the dash is now in, and all i have to do is get some more zip screws to finish screwing the top of it in.

 

then I need to swap the complete engine harness etc. out

 

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You are cranking on this! If I was closer I would gladly offer my hands to help you out.

 

Check out page 11, about half way down, of the Onyx build for some pump and sender ideas. It should help clear up what we talked about today.

 

 

Thanks Bo....I was already looking at that. shouldn't be too tough.

 

 

I'll have a list of stuff ready for ya tomorrow night, so we can work some stuff out...

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the dash is just pissing me off...that was a pain in the butt.

 

That is about where I got with mine before I said screw it and walked away. That was several months ago. Too many other projects have come up since then, but I might get back to it this winter...

 

Do you have any other pictures of that angle iron piece you made?

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Ah, aluminum, that's what I meant...heh

 

It'll probably make more sense when I'm sitting inside of the stripped down truck and I look at your pictures. I think if I was able to easily mount the dash, it'd be motivation for me to get back into that project...

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well, the engine harness is out. I had modified the driver's inner fender in the past for bigger tires...so I grabbed one I had saved from a parts xj, cut mine out, and welded this one back in. ran out of gas for the welder, so I gotta grab more in order to finish it.

 

old on the left, new on the right

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hey great job man always like the new dash swap

 

thanks man.

 

 

I didn't make any more progress yet. just finished welding in the inner fender, picked up a good driver's air bag and clock spring from the junkyard, and now I'm finishing up an xj I sold for the buyer. probably won't get much more done to this thing this weekend...I have a customer coming in who needs a new motor, trans, transfercase, and 4wd swap done on his 4 cyl xj...

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got it running...

 

CEL's all over. gotta put the '97 ECM and TCU on it. required to use the '95 trans. also need to install the charcoal canister, and hook up the sending unit/modify the xj unit to install.

 

Any idea where you're going to mount the canister? Stock location on the '97+ XJs are a little goofy and every late model XJ I've owned has thrown a code or two because of dryrotted/leaking lines on those things.

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I'm not too sure yet. it seemed like a decent idea to just throw it in the stock location in the engine bay, and plumb it with stainless lines, since they're already there...

 

 

may have a TJ gas tank and gauge cluster to use in it.

 

Are the XJ and TJ gauge clusters plug-n-play interchangeable? My GF has an '06 TJ and I noticed that the cluster is very similar in size and shape - possibly even identical - and that the only differences I saw were that the TJ gauge doesn't use numbers on the smaller gauges, but a L and H for oil pressure, C and H for temp, etc. I think a couple of the smaller gauges are in different locations, too.

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.I had one HEIL of a haul today...

 

$300 takes anything I want....here's the list...

 

complete harness, front to rear.

ECU

TCU

heater box

all 5 doors (ALL MINT!..well...maybe a small dent one the pass. front door, but nothing too bad...)

both fenders

hood

valence/cowl

front clip

rear factory tint side windows

complete dash (charcoal)

charcoal kick-panel pieces

keyless wiring

all engine sensors and electronics

'99+ intake manifold

floor shifter

front carpet

front seats

rear seat

rear carpet

e-fan

1,000 mile reman np242 (sealed output) with shifter @$$'y

NEW radiator

NEW plugs

NEW alternator

NEW power steering pump

front and rear driveshafts

factory CD player (works good)

 

all that for $300.

 

I didn't have room in the truck for the rear doors, rear hatch, rear glass, rear carpet, all seats, and the np242. going back monday to grab them (and I know he won't screw me on them).

 

pics...

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well, it is running.

 

here's a video showing that.

 

 

still need to...

 

do interior wiring

hook up transmission wiring

swap '99 front 02 sensor in, install bung and '99 down stream o2 sensor

secure all wiring

swap fuel pumps/senders and figure that whole deal out.

install front end

batten down the hatches in the engine bay (cooling system)

install '99 evap system

mount random things.

install doors

install carpet

install seats

center console

headliner

trim

shocks

attach booster to brake system, bleed out

install np242 and shift gate for it

check all fluids after oil change

swap tires over from the 3800

build rear bumper

mount front bumper

paint cab and bed tan to match, temporarily.

 

oh, and here's the rest of the '99 parts...

 

 

and the xj crossover wiring to mj...

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