DrComanches Project "Frankenstein"

[drcomanche]

Little update, custom fabricated trackbar ordered. It's about time! :cheers: I expect to see it in about a week.

[drcomanche]

Track bar has arrived. :D

Got it mock fitted in there, unfortunately, it didn't come with the correct spacers, so it can't go on quite yet. I did get it painted and started to paint all of the linkages with the closest color I could find to my paint. It ended up being a bit too far off from the color, so I just had it matched in an alkyd enamel spray paint.

Should come in soon, and my new gas tank and tank straps should be in this week too. That means next week should be a real build week for me. :wrench: I hope to see a lot of progress. Just today, I got the last bit of my frame rails rust reformed, and now I'm prepping to do the front. If I manage to sell off some of my older parts, I might just be able to get my bedliner too.

[drcomanche]

Just got another present today :brows:

I'm going to get it primed tomorrow afternoon, and hopefully, when my paint gets here, I'll paint it up. I also have my misalignment spacers on order now as well. They should be here in the next couple of days, and then the track bar goes on. :bowdown: About time...

[Naterenfo1]

Well, I suffered a minor but very frustrating setback today.

 

So I knocked one off the list and subsequently added one on. Bummer...

 

2 phrases that could not be better related to jeep ownership :cheers: some key areas to watch for for rusting on these jeeps is the driver, passenger side floors, and the cab corners, I would make EXTRA sure you hit those spots with plenty of rust reformer and lots of protection. Also the rocker panels! jeep in ancient latin means rust! ;) I'm sure the PO did this, but you might want to peel back the carpet/floor covering to check out the floors. better now than later!

 

Looks like your jeep is coming together well! keep up the good work!

[lexluthier72]

Where did you order your new gas tank from? Is it MJ specific?

[drcomanche]

 

2 phrases that could not be better related to jeep ownership :cheers: some key areas to watch for for rusting on these jeeps is the driver, passenger side floors, and the cab corners, I would make EXTRA sure you hit those spots with plenty of rust reformer and lots of protection. Also the rocker panels! jeep in ancient latin means rust! ;) I'm sure the PO did this, but you might want to peel back the carpet/floor covering to check out the floors. better now than later!

 

Looks like your jeep is coming together well! keep up the good work!

 

Yeah, the cab corners are good. Rockers are good. The floors have already been replaced and bedlined, so no carpet needed. The amount of rust was really surprising small. It just has surface rust on some spots, but with all the undercoating I'm doing, it's really just preventive maintenance.

 

Hopefully, as soon as the other five or so parts I have on order arrive, it will be road worthy enough to register and drive. :cheers:

 

Where did you order your new gas tank from? Is it MJ specific?

 

Yes, it is MJ specific, and I got it off of Ebay. Some company called radiator classics.

[lexluthier72]

Thanks for the info!

[drcomanche]

Well, a very frustrating day trying to work on the truck. To start, I took the tank out to get painted, got the primer coat on and then did half of the tank in the color matched paint. Except that, as soon as I put it on, I noticed how "color matched" it was. It's a little too bright for the green on the truck, but I decided to go with it anyway. I gave the tank a full coat, and then the steering linkages. So, my neighbor picks THIS day of ALL days to mow her lawn... The resulting debris and particles? All over my fresh coat of paint. Well, that's scrapped for the day. I put it back in its box. I'll have to sand it and respray it later. I move on to the underside rear of the truck to scrape the surface rust and junk off the rails so I can undercoat them. I clear some dirt from around a manufactured hole in the framerail, and notice some dirt on the inside. So I use my finger to scrape whatever I can reach on the inside of the framerail out. I feel large chunks of metal. Apparently, my frame is rotting from the inside out, and because of limited access, I can't do anything about it... I would love to take the bed off and just sand everything, but I have nowhere to put it when I do, and the bolts are practically cemented in. Oh, and as I was putting the steering linkages away, I noticed that my power steering box is leaking. I'm a second away from punching a hole in the wall. I just packed it up for the day, which was probably for the best, considering it's about to rain, even though it wasn't supposed to today.

[drcomanche]

Haven't posted in a while, but Iv'e been working. Today, I made some minor progress. For starters, while moving around my other tranny case, this fell out.

It just happens to be exactly what I need for my case in the truck. 41 teeth, one over, but shouldn't be too bad. Installed it in my case and pulled out the old 34 tooth gear, which had a bunch of teeth missing. Now, I just need the wire that goes from that to, well, wherever it goes.

 

I have been consistently trying to paint my gas tank and straps and what not, only to learn that Rustoleum doesn't make the best undercoating... The paint still hasn't dried, and it's been a few weeks. I'm going to scrape it off and redo the paint with some spray on bedliner coating.

 

I got tired of waiting and just installed my track bar and steering linkage. I'll just have to repaint it later.

Here she is all straightened out (although it is leaning to one side. She's kind of parked on a slight hill.

 

And the final progress for the day, I fixed my key getting stuck in the column problem. I fabbed a bracket out of an old plastic piece left over from a head unit install. It fit right over the rod and held the plastic connector in place, so now I don't have to reach under the dashboard to get my key out.

Pretty good day of work, I'd say.

[drcomanche]

Well, although I don't have any pics to add(yet), I have made quite a bit of progress on the Manche, with some help from my friends. For starters, I finally got a paint to stick, and dry :bowdown: to the tank and straps, and in one go, got the tank installed and replaced all the fuel lines. Reinstalled my fender flares, and installed a license plate with a built in led so it would be legal. Later that night I tried to fire it up only to be disappointed by the results. The next night, me and a friend worked at trying to get it started. I purchased a fuel filter and a fuel strainer, in the hopes that something would give.

 

Still no luck. But we did notice that when disconnecting lines on the fuel end, there was a LOT of air pressure and every time we get it started and try to keep it with the accelerator, it instantly killed it. The next morning, I went out and tried again. After looking around, and replacing the strainer, I noticed the problem....

 

My friend connecting the gas tank had mixed up the fuel in line with the return line... :thwak: Luckily, no damage to the fuel system, but when I disconnected the line to switch it over, I did get doused in gasoline because of the pressure built up. :fs1: Reconnected them CORRECTLY this time, and viola, truck starts and runs like it had never stopped.

 

I also had a friend give me some quick disconnect mud flaps :brows: with a drop, and I'll be installing them soon. After that, its time for some historic tags and I'll be on the road.

[drcomanche]

So, now that I had a bunch of time to work on the truck, I have gotten quite a bit done. Some long nights and early days in the cold, but a lot of progress was made.

 

I looked back through some of my old parts, and found some useful ones in amongst the others. In that box I found: one passengers side manually adjustable mirror, two courtesy lights, black seat belts(to replace my ugly frayed tan ones), and some wires at the bottom, one of which looked very familiar. That wire ended up being the wire that connects my speed sensor in the tc to my wiring harness. Combined with my 41 tooth gear I found in my extra tc, I now have a speedometer. That alone was worthy of a days progress, but I also installed the one manual mirror, after painting it with spray on bedliner coating. I found out that the courtesy light wiring was shot, so I'll have to rewire it somewhere.

 

After doing a voltage test on the horn wiring circuit, I figured out that it's my horn that is broken.

 

I took apart my dash as well, just to try to sort out some of this harness to harness wiring. It was, for lack of a better work, horrendous. I cut at least 15 to 20 feet of wire, some of which had no connection to either of the wiring harnesses. I grouped some wires together and managed to (somewhat) organize it, I put the dash back together and took it for a test drive.

 

My power steering was whining a LOT when I took it around the block, but further inspection showed that it was also pretty low on fluid, so I just need a quick refill on that. The only other problem was that my passengers side front tire was really low on air.

 

I have a slight time constraint on getting this project done now, since my current mode of transportation, my Jeep Libery, is about to be retired. I have one week to get this one on the road before I need to turn in the tags on the Liberty.

 

In other news, it looks like I'll be able to meet that time constraint. i have pretty much everything I need installed for it to get on the road. Just some minor tweaks to it beforehand, and it should be fine. I really can't wait to dd this thing. :yes:

[89JeepMJ]

what would be the details on those coils spacers, if you end up selling them of course.

[Naterenfo1]

DD'ing this bad boy yet? :cheers:

[drcomanche]

Not DDing it yet, but very very close.

 

what would be the details on those coils spacers, if you end up selling them of course.

 

I still have the coil spacers, and they're yours if you want them. I don't know what company made them, but you can have them for 10 bucks. :brows:

[89JeepMJ]

what are they 2 inchers?

[drcomanche]

Guess who just made their truck a road legal vehicle? That's right. I can now torment the whole of my county with my Comanche. Should be fun!

 

As for the driving part, it seems to be relatively free of death wobble up to 50mph. At that point it's wobbling or vibrating a bit. I'm thinking that's because the tires were never balanced, any ideas?

 

I've also noticed that when I turn there seems to be some slack in my steering. It takes a few seconds to properly respond to my turn and begin to turn. I'm not sure if it's the steering box that's flexing because of the large tires or what. I may invest in a steering box brace anyways, just for piece of mind.

 

I can here a slight on off hiss after driving it for a bit coming from the front of the engine.

 

Otherwise, it's all good.

God I'm glad I can drive it now.

[cody4359]

I may invest in a steering box brace anyways, just for piece of mind.

God I'm glad I can drive it now.

 

anything over 31" should have reinforcing or a brace. mine had 35", don't know how long they were on there but i found a small crack just above the steering box. threw a quick bead on it, made a inner steering box reinforcemnet plate and added a steering brace, i still have a "pop" sound at almost full lock and i thinks its in the rail, just can't find it.

[89JeepMJ]

So any word on those spacers. 2 inchers or not?

[drcomanche]

So any word on those spacers. 2 inchers or not?

 

Sorry about the wait. I believe they are two inches, at least, but I'll check it out at some point in time this week. I've been kind of distracted by constant truck work.

 

In other news, after only a few days of driving, I experienced, for the first time, death wobble. This is unfortunate considering I got a custom made track bar for this reason, but I kind of expected that that wouldn't solve the problem. Next paychecks alotment will be going to a few parts to hopefully remedy that situation.

 

I also just recieved the mud flaps I was talking about and repainted the metal. They seem to be very sturdy. They are from a company called Lowrange Offroad, and they seem to be a just about a perfect fit for the Comanche, almost like they were made for it.

[89JeepMJ]

alright sounds good :thumbsup:

[drcomanche]

Well, after a long while of working 14 hours a day, I FINALLY got a chance to work on the truck in daylight! I've been doing quite a bit of work at night, so pictures were few and far between, but today, I got out there, wrenched a little, and took some pictures.

 

About 2 weeks ago, I got a tune up kit and installed it(of course, it had to be freezing that night, and started raining/sleeting). The install was very easy, which is quite a change from my old Porsche. Some of the sparkplugs had significant buildup on them, so it was probably about time anyway.

 

 

The engine has had a miss recently that I've been trying to diagnose, so I've been purchasing replacement sensors and what not, and today, I installed my new charged air sensor. The old one looked terrible. It had buildup on it and was pretty dirty. I also got a new O2 sensor, but I can't get the old one out. :fs1: I actually bent my wrench head with all the force from trying. It's really frustrating.

 

 

Some of the other parts in that picture are for my rear axle, which is leaking fluid from the pinion like it was made out of a colander. The seal is going (or rather gone) on it so I need to do that replacement soon as well.

 

 

And lastly, I have a new master clutch cylinder I need to install so my clutch will be a little less moody.

 

Today, while working, I noticed that the engine was particularly noisy for the exhaust, so I was looking at the gasket when I noticed this.

 

 

If you look closely at the back of the picture, you can see my exhaust manifold, and the rather large crack that run 3/4s of the way around it. Lucky for me, in all of my spare parts, there was another manifold. It's a bit rusty, but it will clean up nice. It does look different than my current one, though. The current one doesn't have those bunched up parts midway in the tube.

 

 

I also bought a kit of pedals from the store, because my old ones were non existent. It came with a new shift knob too, which is nice, because I really wasn't a fan of the 8 ball that was on previously.

 

 

I purchased a rear view mirror from a cherokee, but the metal hangar that is on my new windshield has the screw notch in a different place. :wall: I'm going to have to rig it to work at some point.

 

I've been working on putting on a steering damper, but I can't find a tie rod plate that actually fits my tie rod, so thats been put on hold for the time.

 

And here are some pics of it currently.

 

So any word on those spacers. 2 inchers or not?

 

I'm sorry it took so long to get back to you on this, work has really put me through hell lately. They are 2.5 inch spacer.

[drcomanche]

Recently, I changed out my very yellow and cloudy transmission fluid :fs1: so that's good news. I tossed in some MTL and the shifting seems to be a bit smoother, although I'm still grinding going into reverse a lot. Here's a pic of all the metal deposit on the plug, and a few of the fluid. I've heard that that means bad things for my syncros, but I can't find the article anywhere.

I also decided to take a chance and do my header replacement and gasket changes since my old header was cracked.

It turned out to be a lot easier than I thought. While I had it out, I cleaned all the carbon out of the intake manifold and cleaned out the ports a bit.

I replaced all the gaskets and the injectors while I could access them.

When I went to start it, though, it did NOT run smoothly. It sputtered and hesitated, and had a very strong gasoline smell. I spent a lot of time checking and rechecking all the hoses and wires, but nothing. Eventually, I got around to dismantling whole sections again, but luckily, when I got under the truck to look and see if I had a gap between the block and the intake, I noticed that the new gasket i just installed was wet underneath the intake ports. I removed the fuel rail again and found the problem. The injectors that were supposed to fit my model and year didn't fit at all. The nozzles on the ends were too big to properly seat into the manifold. I switched it out with my old injectors, reinstalled it all, and poof... runs like it just came off the assembly line.

I also recently installed some polyurethane bushings for my rod ends on the tie rod, which kept it from rotating back and forth. As an added bonus, it completely eliminated my death wobble. :clapping: It even survived an hour and a half trip up the road. It's still has a lot of bounce going down the road and I can feel the lack of tire balancing and alignment. But still, some major improvement!

 

The last thing I would like to say is that, because of the truck consisting of 4 or 5 major components of other vehicles, I'm changing its build name to project Frankenstein.

[raviolli]

i remember seeing this the day you posted it and my thoughts havent changed.....i want your front bumper :brows:

[shelbyluvv]

It is a Protofab. I had the same one on my XJ and loved it.

[86jeep]

i would buy the cup holders in the parts bin if they are forsale