westypoo Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 Hello, my name is Weston. I've been mostly a volkswagen guy in the past. A year ago now I had a Toyota 4 runner. Since I live in Durango, CO I have lots of off-road type of adventures. So having never really doing any 4x4ing before, I decided to go do a few off road passes. After that my love affair started with off roading. Fast fwd a year, I sold my 4 runner for something with more power for towing (towing the bug I have) ..... I bought a 98 ford ranger 4.0 v6 4x4 with a 4 inch lift and 33's. I've owned the truck for a year now and it's been a good truck for hauling and being a daily driver. Well 3 weeks ago I took the truck for the first time over a simple off road pass and I was horribly disappointed with what the truck could do and especially it's turning radius. Being that it's the first year the Rangers switched to IFS and rack&pinion steering, it's going to cost a lot to make the truck do what I want it to. I'd love to sas it but I've decided against it. By now I'm sure you all reading this, are now asking yourself what does this have anything to do with a Comanche..... Well I've decided to sell the ranger for a jeep Comanche mj. I've been lurking on this forum now for about a month now. And this forum has more or less convinced me that I need to own a mj. I don't like the usual cookie cutter xj jeep that everyone else has, and I need a truck. So mj it is. I want something that I can daily drive, and yet in the summer I can go wheeling cause I've really grown to enjoy it. This weekend I'm gonna go look at a 92 Comanche that seems very clean from the pictures. It has the 4.0l 6Cyl. Only down side is that it's a 2wd, but the guy says he has a front end, transfer case, and dive shafts. After looking at the process on line, switching from a 2wd to a 4wd doesn't seem too hard to accomplish. Well I just wanted to post up and say that I'm excited to hopefully be getting into the Comanche world. Here's a few pics of my bug I build over this last winter. I did all the work myself. Fabled it all, painted it... Everything in about 5 months time so I could have it done for a show in Vegas. Here's 2 of my ranger at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeepsouth Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 Welcome ,nice bug! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvd Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 You must have a stroke of luck, I figured Jimoshel (member) had every comanche in southwest Colorado rounded up! :rotf: Welcome to the club. :cheers: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neohic Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 Welcome! There's a few of us Jeep/VW guys around here. Sharp looking Super you've got there too! I'm a bit of a sucker for green Beetles as well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westypoo Posted October 17, 2013 Author Share Posted October 17, 2013 Thanks everyone. I'm heading up to junction tonight to go look at it tomorrow. Does anybody have any input on the whole 4x4 swap they can input? Anything I should look out for besides the floor pans? The Comanche is also an automatic. @neohic thanks, nice bug you get their as well. My super Beetle is a 75 LaGrande edition. It's actually the factory green that it came as. I Also made it water-cooled. I put a 2.1 waterboxer vanagon motor in it, standalone fuel management (megasquirt), and turbo'd. It's been a fun build. LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimoshel Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 Swap ya a 4WD MJ for the '92. Save you the trouble. And welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kolton Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 Good to see another RBV guy here. Sold my no where near stock Broncoii and ended up with my MJ. You won't regret it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westypoo Posted October 20, 2013 Author Share Posted October 20, 2013 Well a quick update. I went ahead and bought the 92' long bed, 6.0L, 2wd mj today. I got the truck for $1400 and the guy is throwing in everything to do the 4wd swap for another $550. I feel it's not a bad deal altogether. So after taking ownership, I got it home and have already started a few odds and ends that it needs. I put on a new serpentine belt, the oil pressure switch needed to be a gauge type. So I went to ol' auto zone and picked up a few things. So far the fuel gauge only reads up to a 1/4 tank. I filled up the tank with fuel and the gauge only went up too a 1/4 tank. Second, none of the dash lights work, nor do the turn signal lights or the high beam indicator light. Third, the coolant temp gauge reads cold all the time as well. So tomorrow I plan on pulling out the gauge cluster to see what's up with it. And fourth, the speedo isn't working. But all in all its still a really clean truck. On to the pics. I'll start a proper build thread here soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Very nice. Do your actual turn signals/high beams work? If so you've likely got a bad cluster as you probably know already. What's the build date (should be on the sticker on the driver door)? If it has a 92 build date that makes it a very nice find indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpace6a Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 temp reading cold all the time could just be a stuck thermostat. Happened on my dodge, they have a failsafe that locks them permanently open if they get too hot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westypoo Posted October 20, 2013 Author Share Posted October 20, 2013 @minuit Ya turn signals work as well with high beams. Any how to any of you know of for testing it? I'll also look on the door tomorrow and check for an actual build date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnj92131 Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Do not throw away that colum shifter instrument cluster.- Check out the parts wanted section if you want to be rid of it OR send me a PM and I will buy it working or not to experiment with. Also with the Auto, you have a 3.55 final drive. Make sure your new front axel also has the 3.55 ratio Good Luck with the truck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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