CONKLINATOR Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 I'm a long time Jeep guy, and have always wanted an MJ. The first car I ever owned was a 1995 YJ. From there I went to a TJ, and currently own a 2001 XJ. I have been wanting something to bash around in when I put my XJ in the shop for a motor swap, so yesterday I picked up a 1989 Comanche. It's a long bed, 2WD, 4.0 Liter under the hood, with an AW4 trans. It's got 135k miles on it and runs like a champ, although it does have some overheating issues. I snagged it for a grand. I am picking up a brand new radiator, upper and lower hoses, and reservoir for the closed system on Craigs List for 75 bucks. Hopefully that will take care of the overheating. My plans, as of right now, are just to get it in good reliable driving condition, but eventually I will be doing a 4WD swap, and mild lift. It's still just going to be a parts runner/weekend driver with my XJ being the real trail truck in the family. It has some rust above the wheel wells on the bed, but I'm hoping that putting some aftermarket flares will trim enough to get rid of it. I will keep updating as I scrounge up free cash to work on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CONKLINATOR Posted March 11, 2013 Author Share Posted March 11, 2013 Here is a pic I snapped. These pics with the bike in it are from the Craig's list ad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87Warrior Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 Good looking MJ! And beware, several of us have bought an MJ to use as a DD while the trail rig is down..... More times than not the MJ project takes the spot light and we get up DDing the trail rig until we buy another MJ, usually a 4cyl. Have fun with it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CONKLINATOR Posted March 11, 2013 Author Share Posted March 11, 2013 Good looking MJ! And beware, several of us have bought an MJ to use as a DD while the trail rig is down..... More times than not the MJ project takes the spot light and we get up DDing the trail rig until we buy another MJ, usually a 4cyl. Have fun with it! I'm afraid it may have already started. I'm already looking at how much I can dip into my XJ fund just to take care of the few things I want done right off the bat on the MJ. I have an old set of black wagon wheels and tires for my XJ, but I need a mild lift on the MJ to clear them. I'm thinking 3 inch coils, inch and a half shackles (the front sags more than the rear), new shocks all the way around, and Bushwacker flares should clear some pretty warn down 32's, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComancheKid45 Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 You must be from PA or around the area, I saw this truck listed a few times. Glad to see it has found a good home! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CONKLINATOR Posted March 12, 2013 Author Share Posted March 12, 2013 Yeah I live in Rising Sun, MD about a quarter mile from the PA line. You around Chester Co.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComancheKid45 Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 No, I'm about 20mins or so north of the MD/PA line off I-81 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CONKLINATOR Posted March 15, 2013 Author Share Posted March 15, 2013 I told myself I wasn't going to do any "un-necessary" mods to the Comanche until I get all the important stuff done first. The idle is jumping up and down a little bit, and just a hair rough, so I ordered distributor cap, rotor, wires, plugs, and throttle positioning sensor. Hopefully I can get all that in this weekend and it will take care of the issue. If it doesn't, I'll do fuel filters as well. I also picked up a mid 90's Chrysler Concord radiator pressure tank to get rid of that crappy plastic capped Jeep bottle that is getting bashed by the hood. After I ordered the important stuff, I was digging around ebay and found a set of Bushwacker cut out style fender flares. Brand spankin' new in the box. The deal was waaaaay too good for me to let slip by, so I snatched them up... Hopefully they mount high enough to cut all the rust out that is hiding behind the stock flares... I'll post up some pics once I get around to the install... Although it may be a little while because I want to do it the same time I do my mild lift... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MancheKid86 Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 making it look badass right off the bat :thumbsup: keep it up . :MJ 1: . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CONKLINATOR Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 I attempted to drive my Comanche to work on Saturday for the first time. I made it about 6 miles from my house, and she started steaming a little bit, so I busted a u-turn and headed home. I almost made it back when she overheated and shut down on me while slowing down for a stop sign. I pulled over, let her cool down for about 5 minutes, and then fired it up and made it the rest of the way home (only about a half mile). When I popped the hood, I found quite a mess. It looks like the PO had put a ton of Bar's stop leak in the radiator. The cap had blown apart on the pressure tank, and it was everywhere. I don't want to mess with trying to flush all that nasty, sludgy crap out, so I figure while I'm replacing the radiator, I'm going to update it to the newer open system. You guys think a stock radiator for a newer XJ is good enough, or is there something better I should be looking at? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MancheKid86 Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 go for the stock single core, theres a 3 core radiator but people have had alot of over heating issues with it :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Bump for flint!: http://comancheclub.com/topic/29656-standard-autozone-radiator-fl-50/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CONKLINATOR Posted May 29, 2013 Author Share Posted May 29, 2013 So I finally bought a house... Or, I should probably say; I bought my wife a house, and it came with a garage, shed, and basement for me, which means I finally got some good wrench time on the MJ. Over the holiday weekend, I put in a new radiator for a newer XJ(bye bye closed cooling system), Flowkooler high flow water pump, Flowkooler thermostat, thermostat housing, gauge cluster with senders, and fixed some leaky vacuum lines. I got her out on the road for the first legal drive last night, and everything went great. NO OVERHEATING!!!! It did get slightly hotter than I would like, but I think my fan clutch is going out, so I ordered some electric fans... Hopefully I will be able to get those in this weekend. I ended up using the Dodge Intrepid pressure tank I had bought a while back as an overflow reservoir. I have a stock XJ bottle, but couldn't find a convenient place to mount it. I tried copying the hose routing from the XJ... It didn't really work that way, but it was a good thought... Intrepid bottle overflow... Quadratec sent me the wrong thermostat housing, so I put a brass plug in for now. The temp sensor for my electric fans will go there once I get them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinkrun Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 I just bought a XJ that has the same radiator issues you have thing is packed full of crap and even after 3 flushes its still got brown chunks in it. Like the intrepid overflow bottle have to get one of the for mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CONKLINATOR Posted June 8, 2013 Author Share Posted June 8, 2013 Switching back to the stock dummy light gauges so I can put the good gauges in the new MJ... At least I've got some help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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