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Lee's "What the hэll am I doing" Comanche


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Well i finally had enough time & Was bored enough to start a build thread!

 

My first car when i was 16, was a '86 comanche X 2.8l, Had a 3" extremely budget lift on it.

After a few years of driving that, around 2012 I got hooked up by a friend of a friend, And got my hands on a '86 longbed that the PO had already swapped a '95 4.0 into. For $500. Although it did have a good amount of problems with it.

 

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First of all, the guy drove it into his driveway to show me it & It wouldnt start again. Thankfully he had a hydraulic bed we could throw it on & he dropped it off at my house. Ended up just needing an electrical tune-up.

 

 

 

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Thankfully the PO had removed all the interior when he had it, As he was working on a farm & there was mud/manure all over the inside. Pretty much ended up taking a hose to the floor/soap then sealed it with paint.  Put some noise dampening material down & threw the almost new carpet back in. 

 

Then over the next year or so, Due to lack of funds and time, I hadn't really done much to it.. Other then basic maint that it desperately needed as it had sat for a few years. All brakes were shot, Rears didnt even work at all. Had to bypass the Valve in the back to get them working again. All the ball joints were just completely gone, One of them was basically able to be pulled out of its housing by hand. All tie-rods were worn out too. Brake lights were never hooked up when he did the wiring swap, Which was a b*@$£ to figure out with the 95 steering column.

So anyways, After finally getting it back into proper working condition again, I ended up with a little spare cash again & Started Stockpiling the parts needed to lift the truck (Killed two birds with one stone, The suspension in it was pretty much completely broken)

 

Ended up going for a 5.5" lift , Which Alexia had made a parts list for, Plus I snagged a set of Control arms off a WJ. Thankfully my brother in-law helped me with it, Since I wasn't comfortable enough to do it by myself without @#$%ing it up. Ended up taking us two days to do the complete lift.

 

 

Unfortunately, I don't have many pics left of back then since my phone containing them all broke awhile ago.

Here's a Pic of the rear, Before the lift.

 

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And After:

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Full pic of truck after lift:

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After the lift, I decided the tires were way too small now, And bought my first set of offroad tires!

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33x12.5" Goodyear Wrangler Mt/r With Kevlar.

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After this point, It was the beginning of the end of my bank account.

 

Ordered and installed a pair of Hella h4 housings with a putco wire harness & 80/100w bulbs.

 

Bought a set of bumpers & rock sliders from nates4x4:

 

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After all that, My d35 decided to be... well... a d35 and start to fail. So a quick trip to a guys house from C'List later:

 

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Ford 8.8 out of a 98 explorer, With Disc brakes and 4.10 gears with a posi.

 

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Out with the old.

 

In with the new:

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Unfortunately, After doing all that work & Spending all that money for the swap kit / etc. I found out the pinion bearing & gears were absolutely @#$%ED. Thanks random guy on c'list!

 

Ohwell, I had always planned on putting a real locker in the rear, Just not that soon haha.

 

So i ordered Yukon 4.10 R&P & Timken master install kit, And a Yukon Grizzly locker. Dropped it off at the shop, And the axle was back to new.

 

Some forklift flex pics:

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Alright, That was long. You guys always ask for pics, hope thats enough of them haha.

 

Future plans:

Ordering Cut-Out Bushwhacker fender flares next week.

Bump stops coming in the mail next monday

Not exactly sure what I'm going to do with the front axle, Probably 30 spline shafts & another grizzly locker.

Really need to fix the interior, Its got pretty beat up lately.

Skid plates!

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I'm loving the truck looks great.

Thanks man.

 

Most of the lights in my instrument panel decided to burn out this last week, Finally got around to replacing it just now.

Since the PO swapped the 95 steering column in with the engine/dash, There was Absolutely no clearance to take the dash apart, to get to the cluster. Ended up having to drop the entire steering column just to pull the plastic trim off the dash, to get to the cluster :/

 

Essentially spent over an hour doing a ten minute job...

 

Ohwell, I can finally see how fast i'm going at night now, So I'm happy.

 

 

Got my bumpstops today, Hope to get them in tomorrow if i'm lucky.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Lee, whatcha think of those kevlars?

 

I love them so far.

 

They're a bit pricy, but work great offroad.

The ride quality on pavement is pretty much the same as all terrains, They're super smooth on the streets.

Haven't had a chance to try them out on ice/snow yet, But they've worked great so far on mud/rocks/forest trails.

If i had to get new tires again, I'd deff go with the same kevlars.

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Lee, whatcha think of those kevlars?

 

 

I love them so far.

 

They're a bit pricy, but work great offroad.

The ride quality on pavement is pretty much the same as all terrains, They're super smooth on the streets.

Haven't had a chance to try them out on ice/snow yet, But they've worked great so far on mud/rocks/forest trails.

 

If i had to get new tires again, I'd deff go with the same kevlars.

Good to know, thanks! Oh and cool truck!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got pulled over today on the way back from the mountain.

 

Wasn't paying attention to the speed limit in that area, Ended up going 45+~ In a 25mph zone :/

 

Somehow got let off with a warning.

 

Still have yet to get a speeding ticket, Got super lucky >_<

 

 

Got some Good Gopro vids @ the mountain, I'll see if i can upload a few here.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My steering gearbox has been slowly going out over the last few months.

 

Did a little searching around, And figured i might as well put in a gearbox from a durango.


Unfortunately i didnt get any photos because i was covered in PS fluid & didnt want to damage my phone.

 

 

Bolted up just fine, Just need to tweak it a little i don't quite have full steer lock going right.

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BOOM! Glad to see you finally got a thread going! 

We gotta link up on some projects!

Yea, Like i said lmk when you tear into that xj. I'll give you a hand with it.

 

My next big thing on my comanche, is getting a d44 front.

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Nice! I love my D44.

I kicked things off on the XJ last night (I'll update my thread soon).

It's optioned-out with grey leather buckets, wood grain and power everything. I'm not interested in most of the interior (plus I use a bench seat), so you've got first dibs on pieces.
 

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Nice! I love my D44.

 

I kicked things off on the XJ last night (I'll update my thread soon).

It's optioned-out with grey leather buckets, wood grain and power everything. I'm not interested in most of the interior (plus I use a bench seat), so you've got first dibs on pieces.

 

Yea, I really need new seats & a new driver side seat bracket, Mines in 4 peices lol

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  • 2 weeks later...

Spent the day messing with my AC compressor, Turning it into a air compressor.

Put a 11 gallon tank in my toolbox, With a T one line going to the pump, Other for filling tires/air tools/etc.

 

Didn't quite finish it before the sun went down though. Still need to run the line under the truck, to the pump & etc.

Also still need to order some high-temp air hose & a pressure switch.

 

I'll try to get a few pics tomorrow to post.

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SCORE! You'll have to show me how! I've got a compressor sitting around to use.

Issue i'm having with it atm, Is i keep cracking the line filter / water seperator because of the heat of the engine :/

 

 

Also; was stuck for about 4 hours at the river today.

 

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