1990 Comanche Pioneer

[joester1908]

I installed an Engo 12 inch light bar. Saw it at a swap meet, thought I'd give it a try. I am really happy with it actually 

 

We also went up to Walker again, my first time after doing the axles, lockers, and suspension. I am really happy with the Jeep! This was taken just after the rock gate. It is no longer a problem with the lift, bigger tires, and lockers. 

My buddy Spencer did get a bit of damage on his 4Runner

Because he was stuck there, Carter tried to go around him in the rover but couldn't get out of the ditch. Now they were both stuck. (NOTE, they were just figuring out what to do, there was no tension on that winch cable.)

More shots of the MJ

Group photo

Great shot of my buddy's Rover getting flexed out over the gate

[joester1908]

So I went wheeling in eastern WA. I'm pretty happy with the gear ratio in low range, but it's like 3k RPM at 70 MPH...Hopefully 35s will fix that. The area we went to is called Manastash Ridge. It is about 4 hours east of me. I love how much stuff I can pack in the MJ

Here was the entrance in Green Water

We ran the old wagon trail. Very cool experience 

We also had a completely stock JK keeping up with us. I have wheeled with countless JKs, but I was surprised how well it preforms when its under the control of an experienced driver, even in stock form on street tires.

My sway bar was still connected and there was a washout in the road. I was pretty much fully flexed to get over it and my quick disconnect popped off and lodged between the Y link steering. I couldn't turn the wheels, so I pretty much had to lock both diffs and see how far I could make it. No problem, but inconvenient to say the least.

We found a great spot right near Moon Rocks to camp. Such a beautiful area. And the MJ is just so practical 

This was the view from our camp site

The next day, we headed towards Moon Rocks, but not without the photo op

We finally arrived at the legendary Moon Rocks. I've been told it's the closest thing to Moab without being Moab

We played around there for quite some time

Then we decided to head home. I wanted my sway bar on for the drive back, but I lost the pin that holds the sway bars on. Solution? 

 

 

One issue I did find is that I leak oil at that speed. I think I overfilled my transmission and its coming out the vent or something....After the trip I noticed this

[joester1908]

I bought a Warn 8274 from my neighbor. He gave me a super good deal. My dad and I custom built a bumper for an 8274 a few years back that was on his Cherokee. Once he got rid of the Cherokee, it just sat in the shed. Its painted with POR15 and then black, it's extremely heavy duty, and a little bulky. But it makes the MJ look mean :thumbsup:  

First things first, gotta straighten out my unibody.

So it wouldnt go past this point, those triangular brackets were holding it back.

Once I got it mounted, I took a trip to the local 4x4 shop. Got synthetic rope and an aluminum farelead  

After that was all installed, I was ready to test it out. We took another trip up to Walker Valley

It was a good, easy day on the trails. Small group of us. No major damage, besides my factory horn hah

[88whitemanche]

Nice!

The truck is looking mean!!!!

[joester1908]

Nice!

The truck is looking mean!!!!

Thanks!

[A-man930]

Subscribing. 

Really dig the professional quality work and attention to detail!  Keep the pictures coming!

 

Oh, and I'm stealing your switchplate idea :yes:

[joester1908]

Subscribing. 

Really dig the professional quality work and attention to detail!  Keep the pictures coming!

 

Oh, and I'm stealing your switchplate idea :yes:

Thank you! 

 

Go for it! it was my dad's idea in his Cherokee! Super easy to do. They just melted the 2 piece together. All I did was got a drill bit and drilled out the spots they melted, then broke off the tabs to vent the air. Then I cut my vent to hold the switches (I found snap together rocker switches on eBay) and then used self tapping screws to hold it in place. 

[joester1908]

Well, I had friday off school and work, so it's time to go wheeling with some friends! 

 

Orrrrrr so I thought...

I was going down hwy 9 at about 55 mph and heard what sounded like i picked up a golf ball size rock and it was bouncing in the fender. I immediately pulled over and started looking under my Jeep. I wasn't sure if something came loose or I ran over something. I gave it a quick look over and didn't see anything, so I looked in the road. I didn't run over anything. So I decided to look at my steering and I notice this...

:doh: luckily for me, I was only about 5 minutes from home, and not an hour away up on the trails. Ever since I installed the axles, I have been hearing a tick-tick noise that I thought was coming from my front driveshaft, it was a Tom Woods built about 2 years ago for my dad's Cherokee. I was planning on dealing with it at some point. I didn't even suspect an axle shaft. They're chromoly shafts built again, about 2 years ago for my dad's Cherokee. He and I assembled the joint, it was a heavy duty Spicer one recommended by our local 4x4 shop. 

Anyway, I was about 500 feet from a parking lot so I drove in there and called my dad. We decided that I had already destroyed the ear on the stub shaft, and I had no other way to get it home besides drive it. It's not like I could do much more damage. So I drove it on back roads home and then my buddies gave me a ride to the 4x4 shop we got the parts from originally (Olympic 4x4 in Snohomish for us Washington guys). 

He hooked me up with a new stub shaft (Chromoly, not cheap...) and 2 u joints. I figured if one went, might as well do the other side.

So i got home and my friends helped me tear it apart. 

Here's the carnage:

I have a Ten axle seal. When the u joint went it spun it in the housing. Wore the ridges off and scored the inside of the housing. As for the driver's side stub shaft, it may be usable, but I don't want to risk it. I'm going to keep it as a spare for the trails. But I don't want to DD it with the amount of abuse it took.

So then my friends and I pulled off the 2 remaining caps.

I had never done an axle u joint by myself. I called my dad and he explained a lot, and I also watched a helpful YouTube video on replacing them. Went pretty well. Made sure to grease them up (apparently, they only have assembly lube in the cap, you need to grease them).

Here's another shot of the stub shaft. Definitely not usable. 

Then I primed and painted it (Does chromoly rust? I hate rusty axle shafts, and I love them red)

and I called that a night. Let the paint dry.

 

This morning before work I pulled the passenger side apart and inspected the u joint. 

It felt smooth, it wasn't worn out or anything. I decided screw it, I'm not gonna replace it and I'll just keep the second u joint as a spare. Maybe I should have replaced it, but I'm tired of messing with it in the pouring rain. The 4x4 shop opens at 9 am, so I went down there at 9 and talked to Dana about replacing the Ten axle seals. Well $90.00 for a set?! They're 50 with free shipping on eBay, but he has them today. And, these are the TJ/JK ones, the one's I have and found online were TJ only. Hence the extra 40 bucks. Wrangler tax I guess...

I decided I would put some more diameter on the old one and a little extra silicon. Feeling pretty broke right now! But Dana said that sometimes if axle shafts sit for a long time, the u joints will wear a dead spot in them and go out. Remember that picture from earlier? 

My dad and I inspected the u joint and I saw wear in the u joint from the needle bearings. (Seeable on the right side). Could this be the reason my u joint went out after only 2 years? Dana says he replaces his every year, but he puts a lot more miles on it than I do and wheels a lot more often and harder than I do. Seems overkill to me. 

Anyways, I put a tarp up and reinstalled the passenger side. I still need to grease the Ten axle seal, but other than that, that side is done. Cold, wet, and ready for a shower, I called it a night. Tomorrow after work I'm gonna do the other side. I did take this opportunity to cross rotate my front tires though..... I'll keep you updated. 

[joester1908]

Ok, fixed the MJ last night. Luckily no rain. Went together easily. Taping the Ten axle seal worked fine. Glad I can finally drive it again hah

[Minuit]

:bowdown:

[daking]

good looking build. I may steal some of your ideas 

[joester1908]

Thank you!

 

For my friend's birthday, he wanted to go 4 wheeling in eastern Washington. My family and I have camped in an area called Lion's Rock. There are some decent trails around and its a great spot to camp. Here is our trip

We headed out mid day and got to Love's in Ellensburg in the early afternoon.

Camp site

Friend's parents brought their Rover and Air Stream

Day 2 we set out exploring early in the morning. The views up here are breathtaking 

We met these 2 super cool older dudes with old Jeeps. They showed us where some trails were in the area

Lunch time

The hardest part of the day was the last trail we decided to go on. There was a washout that cut the road diagonally. I was leading, and I put it in low range, first gear and crawled straight up it. I made it over without spinning a tire. The guy behind me didn't get on it perfectly straight, which caused him to spin a his tires. This chewed it up for the rest of the guys, and I had to end up winching all 3 of them up

The mud was sticky and nasty

We got back to camp right about dark. Ate dinner and went to bed early.

Before we left for home the next day, I definitely wanted to take a photo of the truck

My friends parents took the easy way down the mountain because they had the trailer. My friends and I decided to take logging/ORV roads all the way back to Ellensburg. My tire grabbed a rock and threw it at my mirror

My friends aired up with my compressor and we went home

[joester1908]

I picked up a set of 4 35x12.5R15 KM2s to replace my 33x10x.5R15 KM2s. I'm geared at 4.56, so 35s should be perfect!

 

I stayed after work until 7:30 PM (Off at 5:30) to dismount the tires from the 15x10 wheels and dismount my tires from my wheels, then mount the 35s on my wheels. Then of course I decided to wash it, because why not?

Here they are all mounted up.

First thing I noticed is they rub pretty good when turning. The winch/bumper put quite a bit of weight on the front end, making it sag a little, and it wasn't level when I first lifted it. 

I'm cutting all that out when I do my sliders, so I have no problem taking an angle grinder to them. 

They fill up the fender wells a lot better than the 33s did 

Of course, flex test is in order. This is fully flexed with the sway bars connected. 

The rear doesn't even touch 

The front doesn't rub with the sway bar connected, but I'd bet it would if I turned the wheel. Once I level it out (hopefully this saturday?) It won't come close 

[earl*t]

Very impressive progression Joe! Keep up the good work.

[joester1908]

Very impressive progression Joe! Keep up the good work.

Thank you!

[joester1908]

Also, I bit the bullet yesterday and got a speedo gear. My chart said 37 tooth, but Dana said 36. I went with the 36 and it seems to be accurate.

[joester1908]

So a few members here helped me decide what size metal to use for my rock sliders. Both of my rocker panels are completely smashed, so I'm going to cut them out and weld in 2x6. I decided on 3/16 wall. My dad called Everett Steel for me, over 15 bucks a foot!  :eek:  Luckily, I found a small auto recycler that sells the same stuff for $9/foot.

I bought 20' and they cut it in half for free. I'm not sure on an exact length yet, but with the extra i have a few projects in mind...

[joester1908]

I'm sure all of you guys noticed how much rake my Jeep has. It wasn't perfectly level when I first lifted it, but it didn't really bother me. After installing the 8274 and winch bumper, it nose dives. We had some TeraFlex 2 inch coil spacers I decided to install on Saturday, and I wanted to do some bump stops. 

Got out there bright and early and tore the front end apart. After installing my 35s, my tire rubbed on the back of the fender. Leveling it out will definitely fix that. but while we had the coils out, we decided it would be a good time to flex the tire up and see how far I should let it go before it rubs. We jacked it up and noticed right away that the tire was too far back in the fender, my caster was off a little bit, and my coils had some ark in them (which we knew). We decided we should push the front axle forward and fix the caster, which should make the ark in the coils go away.

So my dad started taking off the control arms to adjust them while I finished mowing. He called me over to show me this:

My upper control arm was pretty badly beat up. The metal ring was taco-ed, which stripped the threads and then let the whole joint come apart, prematurely wearing the rubber out too. So we took a trip down to the 4x4 shop. We talked to Dana and he said it was fairly common to see those blow out. And it's usually due to improper installment. I don't know how you can install them wrong, it's pretty straight forward. Then my dad figured it out, over the summer I went wheeling in eastern Washington. I hit a stump pretty hard and it knocked my steering out of adjustment. That sideways pressure probably flexed the joint and destroyed it.

 

Rough Country doesn't sell the joint themselves, only the rebuild kits, which were a week out. We thought about going to 4 Wheel Parts or something, but I decided I'd rather just upgrade them. He had some Currie johnny joints that fit perfectly. I paid 37 bucks a piece.

Here they are if you're interested: http://www.currieenterprises.com/cestore/Product.aspx?id=1262

 

I did not install lower johnny joints from Currie, I kept the RC ones because they weren't damaged. But these are the same size as the Rough Country lower joints. But the Rough Country ones had quite a bit more thread. I don't know if these would fit, but that is my guess if you're looking to upgrade: http://www.currieenterprises.com/cestore/Product.aspx?id=2629

 

So I got home and my dad and I installed the Currie johnny joints in to the RC control arms, and adjusted my caster. Went pretty well and I was pretty happy with where the wheel was in the fender. So next I wanted to work on my bump stops. We figured we needed about 4 inches worth of bump stops. I had 2" pucks in the garage, so i needed 2 more. We went back to the 4x4 shop and I picked up a set of Rubicon Express extended bump stops. While we were out, I picked up some bolts for the 2 inch bump stop puck and a tap and correct size drill bit for the hole.

I got home and tried to install them, they didn't fit in the bump stop bucket. You just pulled the old one out with your hand and pushed the new one in. But they were nowhere close to the same size. BACK to Olympic I went. Dana said they only have 1 size, so an employee and I went in to their junk yard and compared my bump stops to an XJs bump stops. Same with my MJ, different size. Then we looked at a TJs bump stop. Perfect fit. So Dana gave me 2 buckets from a TJ. 

 

Here's what I have on the bottom (which I got used, so I had to buy the bolts): http://www.4wheelparts.com/Lift-Kits-Suspensions-Shocks/Front-2-Inch-Bump-Stops.aspx?t_c=1&t_s=101&t_pt=9030&t_pn=R%2fERE1380

Here's what I have on the top, which again, you will need the TJ bucket to install these: http://www.quadratec.com/products/16311_434.htm

 

The XJ/MJ ones take a pipe wrench to get off, while the TJ ones have a bolt inside. They swapped over without an issue. Here's my old one.

Swapped over easily. Then we put some grease in them and pushed it in with the floor jack and a piece of wood. Pretty easy install! Then we put it all back together and put the tires on. Sits perfectly level! (I'll post a photo of it later). But now, because I pushed my axle forward, my sway bar links hit my coils, so I'm leaving them disconnected until I have time to deal with that...

Here's the Currie Johnny Joint installed

 

Went on my second annual birthday run to Walker Valley. Here we are meeting up in the parking lot

Group shot

Getting flexy on the Expressway

 

A few weeks later, my uncle drove his '14 JK Rubicon he just bought up from California. We purchased a Metalcloak lift and 35s and helped him install it, then decided to hit up Walker Valley again. Here is a before picture of his JK

Me working on it

And an after picture, after the alignment. The next day we made the drive to Walker

It was the first time he had taken it off road, and the first time my friend Jordan took her JK off road

That JK followed everywhere I went with no problems

Group shot

Thankful for a tailgate once again

Most dirty his JK had ever been. We had such a blast, and working on the new JKs is just as easy as our MJs

[A-man930]

I'm looking forward to the rocker replacement

[joester1908]

I'm looking forward to the rocker replacement

I'm planning to start installing my sliders the last weekend of November! I'll keep you guys posted for sure. In the meantime, (hopefully this Saturday) I'm going to cut them to length and box the ends.

[joester1908]

So I started my sliders. To start out, I made a template with 4 2x6 pieces of 1/8th inch steel to make the caps. Here it was when only 2 were cut. 

Then I used the bench grinder to round the edges off

Here's one of the pieces of steel I bought. 10 footer. Gonna have to cut it to the right length, but as for now, just welding on one of the caps. 

They sat outside at the steel yard, so they're a little rusty...

The ground clamp for my welder is pretty small compared to the box steel. Simple solution:

Ok, I just wanna say I'm not the best welder. I've done a bit here and there, but I'm definitely not a professional. For these, I want to grind them down smooth and have it look like it wasn't even welded, so I was going for strength, not pretty welds, haha. You've been warned  :thumbsup:

Tacked..

I was running a little too hot for the line speed so I had to go back and fill in. Oh well, like I said, gonna get ground down smooth..

After I was happy with it, I ground it down with the more aggressive disk. Still gotta go over it with a flap disk.

Ok, now time to make the cut. My dad and I used a square to get a pretty good idea for the angle that the fender is. My goal is to match the angle of the fender, and continue it down in to the slider. We set the saw for slightly less than 15 degrees. We measured from where I wanted the sliders and figured approximately 76 1/2 inches long. I want them a little bit inside of the fender for plenty of tire clearance...

Then I did the same, welded the cap on, ground it down smooth, then I took the flap disk to both sides of it. There were small gaps that I wanted to minimize so i decided to put a little bit of filler in them

While I had the saw out, figured I might as well cut the other slider. Plus, the filler had to dry before sanding. 

Then I rounded the edges on the 2 other caps and sanded down the filler, which I didn't take a picture of. Then cleaned up. 

We took a trip to the hardware store and I picked up a few cans of self etching primer for the sliders. I want to prime them up for the side that will be hidden under the body. More to come...

[joester1908]

Also, I finally got a new CB and Coax. I'm running a Firestik antenna mounted on the roll bar, 18 feet of Firestik Coax, and a Midland CB. I got a short in my last Coax, and it fried the radio. Well now I hooked this new setup up and I can't get my SWR right. I'm getting about 2.0:1 on channel 1, 1.1:1 on 19, and 2.1:1 on 40. That's about the best I can get it. I was reading that it could be from lack of ground plain? But I thought the cab of my truck did that? I don't know, my old CB tuned ok. So I put my dads 4 foot firestik on and they were all between 1.1:1 and 1.4:1 so I'm leaning towards my antenna being bad. I guess I gotta figure that out...

[MuddFoot]

nothing beats a good old 6ft whip..

[joester1908]

nothing beats a good old 6ft whip..

That's really what I'm leaning towards right now! hahaha

[joester1908]

My birthday was last week, so my friends, dad, and I went up to Walker Valley and went 4 wheeling. I blew out the driver's side lower Flex Joint. Guess it's time to look in to the Currie....

 

But my dad bought me some Kleinn air horns for the Jeep! They have the solenoid on them, so all you have to do is hook up air, power and ground. Really excited to get those working!