Pseudosport’S 1988 Eliminator

[Pseudosport]

Picked up a 1988 Eliminator about a month ago because I needed a truck and always liked Comanche’s. I have one before a few years ago but I over complicated that project and it never really worked out so I’m starting fresh with this truck. New truck is a 4.0L 2WD with a 5 Speed. Current plan is to swap in an AX-15 / NP 231, fix all the little things, and drive it. After that who knows.

 

Here is a picture from when I first saw the truck on Craigslist. Paint doesn’t look that great but it as bedsides, rockers and cab corners! Add said the truck runs and has a new fuel tank and pump but the clutch slave was leaking. Figured it sounded promising so I drove up to Manchester NH to check it out. In person the paint and interior was worse then I expected but over all it was pretty solid so I decided to buy it.

 

 

Since I don’t have a garage my friend has been letting me work on the truck at his place in NH. Originally I was going to replace the clutch and swap in an AX-15 in a weekend. I dropped the BA10 and found the lines from the clutch slave were rusty and leaking. I tried ordering a clutch kit locally from 2 different places that showed they came with the slave but none of them did. I ended up getting a kit from Ebay but the whole thing set me back 2 weeks since I can only work on the truck once a week. While I was waiting I also ordered a new clutch line from the master just to be safe. Here’s a picture of the clutch being installed. Main reason I took the pic was to remember the position of the trigger wheel at TDC incase I go with MegaSquirt later on.

 

 

AX15/NP231 installed. I still need to pick up a D30 from the junkyard. Comanche needs to be up and going so I can get its own parts so the 2WD axle is going to stay for now.

 

 

Some quick engine pictures of the rest of the truck.

 

Engine is crusty but complete.

 

 

Interior smells like mouse poop but the bucket seats are in good shape. Found a mouse nest under the center console.

 

 

Truck came with a set of snow tires on it but the front were pretty worn and were not holding air. One of my friends had some 30” mud tires on Jeep wheels he said I could have.  2 have very low miles and the 3^rd has 75% left but the tread it feathered. Decided to move the 2 good snows to the front and run a pair of 30’s in the back just so I can move the truck around. I’ll figure out wheels and tires later.

 

 

So the truck runs and drives but the brakes felt like crap. I was hoping to just clean them up and bleed them but the master turned out to be junk. Blah, truck is going to sit at my friends house for while I track down some brake parts. Instead of ordering a master cylinder I found someone selling a 95 XJ booster with master on CL for $30. It even came with the proportioning valve and lines. The following week I pulled the master and found this:

 

 

Glad I picked up the XJ stuff.

 

Swap was strait forward since I’ve done this in the past on my old XJ. I drilled out the whole in the new booster to 5/8” and made a flat spot for the brake light switch.

 

 

Bolted the booster in and made up some custom brake lines. Bleed the brakes and should be finally ready to test drive the truck.

 

 

Bleed the brakes and should be finally ready to test drive the truck or so I thought. After the booster swap the truck decided to crank and not start. I started to wiggle wires under the dash and found the connection to the ignition switch was poor. I cleaned the contacts but the switch was still pretty corroded. And the turn signal switch contacts were pretty bad too which would explain why a bunch of other stuff didn’t work. Sigh… decided to pull the column and bring it home with me to fix everything since it would be another week till I see the truck again.

 

Here is the new switch compared to the old one.

 

 

[Pseudosport]

New turn signal switch and ignition switch installed and column is back together. Cleaned the contacts in the connectors and got everything back in the truck and it starts up fine. Now on to getting the brake lights to work. They worked when they felt like it before the booster swap but now they only come on if I push the pedal down as hard as I can. I can feel the switch move like it should when pushing the pedal by hand so I’m guessing there might be a poor contact inside the brake switch. I knew I should have just replaced it when I had it out last. If you look at the pictures above you can even see how rusty it is.

[Pseudosport]

Fixed the brake lights (enlarged the hole in the brake rod so bushing fit with no resistance) and a bunch of other small electrical problems and finally got the truck on the road.

[Pseudosport]

Tracked down a 1998 XJ Dana 30 for the front yesterday. While I’m swapping axles might as well lift the truck while I’m at it right? I bought new spring perches to do a SOA with an 8.25 in the back and I picked up a set of 4.5” springs for the front. I might need a small spacer to balance things out in the front but I’ll have to see how it sits once I’m done. New axle is fairly rusty but its been coming apart ok. Already replaced the wheel joints and moved on to the ball joints. Found a good deal on some Spicers for $84.36 shipped for all 4. Still need to press them in, remove the rust, and give the axle a coat of paint.

 

[Pseudosport]

Since my 135I is in the body shop after being forced off the road by a drunk driver I’m currently daily driving the Comanche. That has put the lift on hold for now but sped up some repairs I’ve been putting off.

 

 

-Replaced turn signal switch so left turn signal works again and then now cancel

-Replaced head light switch so dash light work again.

-Replaced clutch master cylinder

-Installed radio

-Found out only one speaker worked so new ones are on order

-Aimed headlights so they actually point at the road

-Replaced blower motor and cleaned mouse poop from heater

-Replaced stuck open thermostat

 

Mainly I’ve been using it for house projects and didn’t care about the other stuff till I had to deal with it every day.

 

 

 

 

In the mean time I ordered some 265/75R16 Cooper Discoverer A/T3 tires and reproduction Rubicon wheels

[Pseudosport]

Didn’t take any pictures but I upgrade to a closed cooling system. Swap was pretty straight forward. I flushed everything and replaced the water pump while I was in there too. Only thing left is to add a read over flow bottle.

 

For a few months now I’d smell fuel every now and then but could never find a leak. I checked the lines and tightened the clamps on the temp repair of the return line but found nothing. As it has gotten colder the smell became stronger and I finally found what’s wrong. 2 injectors are leaking where the plastic and metal body meets. As the truck was idling the rear injectors was leaking bad enough where fuel was now puddling on the intake then leaking onto the exhaust where it would then smoke and burn off. Since I’d like to avoid a fiery death I’ve parked the truck for now and pull all the injectors so I won’t try to drive it.  Jeff gave me a bag of injectors labeled Jeep but it turns out they were a random set of 30lbs for the XJ-R and not stock remix ones from Dave’s old jeep like we hoped. I ended up ordering a set of Volvo 4 hole 19lbs injectors on eBay. Hopefully I can install them next weekend if its not too cold out or snowing.

 

 

 

Since there was nothing else major I could fix at this time I decided to see how the new wheels and tires would look before the lift and D30 swap. At stock ride height the back would be close but but the front would rub everywhere which is what I expected.

 

 

 

 

[Pseudosport]

It was above freezing today so worked on removing the XJ perches from the 8.25 and started tacking on new ones for the MJ. Hopefully I can MIG them on tomorrow and remove the shock mounts.

 

[Gnarmanche]

nice wheels ;)

[ComancheKid45]

Nice work  :thumbsup:

[Pseudosport]

Hover conversion almost complete.

 

 

While I was under there I pulled the pan to fix the leak then decided to do the rear main seal too. Seal wasn’t leaking but with my luck as soon as everything when back together it would start. Of course I instantly regretted it since it took half the day to remove the old one. Whatever, it’s done now and I installed a rust free pan.