Project Motörcharge 2.0

[Motorcharge]

Some of you may recognize me from over on JF or Pirate, but I figured this deserves a build thread here too. Here's my old one if anyone is interested: http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f177/project-motorcharge-1378970/

 

Drove 15 hours round trip down to Asheville, NC to pick this up last night.



I'll add more details and pictures later on today but here some basic info for now.

Paid $1500. Actually, I paid more for this thing than I did for my other 4 XJs combined. :laugh:

91 Comanche Eliminator 4WD Short Bed
4.0/AW4/NP231 with 158k on the clock
Dana 30/Dana 35

Came with a rear D44 out of an Isuzu Rodeo but I think I'm going to get rid of it for something else. Front 44s are crazy expensive and I've already got wheels and tires for this thing so I don't want to buy new ones to accommodate the 44 being 6 lug.

Only issues the PO says it has are torque converter shutter and a leaking rear main seal. Hoping the shutter is something simple and the rear main leak is no big deal. I figure worst case I can pull the trans out the XJ and swap it right over. Looked it over a bit when I got home last night and don't see much else obvious other than some cosmetic issues, but hey, it's a 20 year old Jeep.

For now I don't plan on anything crazy. ~4.5 lift, swap my wheels/tires/bumpers over, clean it up, get the uniframe and body undercoated to keep it in the shape it's in, lockers, OTK steering, ect. Plan on keeping this one fit for DD duty. Not entirely sure what I'm gonna do with the XJ, probably parts donor for now, but I might keep it for a trail rig since it's paid for and not costing me anything sitting there.

[Motorcharge]

Found the owner's manuals are still there and the a/c actually works. Looks like the PO had just had the oil changed, new tstat, rad hoses, water pump, and a coolant flush done which is great because I hate messing with the cooling system. Found a big chunk of the power steering pulley is gone so that's on the list to replace ASAP. Drove it around the farm a bit and it feels fine, gonna have to slap my truck plates on it later and run it down the road to see what's up with the trans.













I think I'm gonna pull all my LEDs and the H4 headlights out of the XJ in a bit and throw them in the MJ too.

[Motorcharge]

Need to order some stuff from Napa when I get to work tomorrow. I'd do it today but we get like 30% off through work.

Power steering pulley, idler pulley, spark plugs, wires, cap, cap rotor, wiper blades, air filter, ect.

Andddd THIS is why I HATE drop in bed liners.



Cleaner, but I'm gonna pull out the power washer in a bit and do the whole truck. Doesn't look like the outside has been cleaned in years.

 

Getting a good chunk of cash at the end of the month and need to find someone other than Rusty's that does full leaf packs for MJs. I think I'm gonna go ahead and order some Monstaliner for at least the bed and the rockers if not the inside of the cab floor too. I'll put the carpet back in over it but the rust protection can't hurt. I'm thinking Pyroclastic.

[HOrnbrod]

You can get stock, metric ton, or lift MJ rear leaf packs HERE (Hell Creek Suspension) and HERE (General Spring). Both companies are good and offer discounts to Comanche Club members.

 

BTW I think your 91 Elim was well bought.  :thumbsup:

[Motorcharge]

I don't see anything for Jeep on the Hell Creek page. Just Chevy parts? I could be missing it but I checked under all the pages and didn't see anything Jeep outside of customer photos.

 

Saw the other brand when I was searching. Forgot to specify I'm looking for 4.5" springs, not stock replacements. I could work with 3" as well and go with a bit longer of a shackle to compensate but I don't want to do an AAL on 20 year old springs or go all shackle. I don't want to go over 4.5" lift either so that pretty much rules out an SOA swap.

[HOrnbrod]

On the Hell Creek site click on the SPRINGS button in the Product Line window, then the NEXT button until you get to Jeep.

[Motorcharge]

Well now don't I feel stupid lol

How does the discount from here work? Probably going to be a couple weeks before I can order, but yeah.

[HOrnbrod]

Call Tom Laher @ (662) 538-5676 and tell him you're a CC member. He's a member here too. Pretty sure it's a 10% discount.

[Motorcharge]

Swapped the steering wheels around between the XJ and MJ on Friday and installed a new head unit and some speakers I had laying around. I'm gonna replace the steering wheel with an aftermarket one soon but I wanted something that didn't suck in there for now. The one that was in there was literally held together by one of those stupid aftermarket covers.

 

Hard to get a decent picture in the cab with the phone that close to all the lights. They're not as obnoxiously bright as they seem in this picture.

 

[dustyinthedirt]

looking good man. thanks for posting  :thumbsup:

[Motorcharge]

Waiting on some brown santas now.

Just ordered:

RE 4.5 coils
IRO OTK steering
IRO double sheer track bar
Bilstein 5100s
Hell Creek 4.5" leafs
Nate's MJ rear bumper

I was going to just get Nate's mounts, but the bumper is about as cheap as I could buy a 2x5 for anyway and he ships free so **** it. Hell, by the time I bought shackle tabs it probably would have been more expensive to build my own anyway. With the 10% code I only paid $180 shipped. Wish I was always this hood rich.

I'm glad I Googled discount codes for the 4 places I ordered from. I saved like almost $400 through them.

 

edit: I don't recall if I said it in this thread or not but I'm taking the 33" MT/Rs off the XJ in my avatar and putting them on this MJ after I get the lift on.

[Motorcharge]

Parts are starting to come in. :D

Coils got here today.



IRO shipped yesterday and so did my shocks. Haven't heard anything at all from Nate's but I kinda expected that.

[Motorcharge]

Got a text alert the shocks got delivered. Didn't get home til about 20 minutes ago, no shocks. Nice creepy walk through the dark *** woods to the empty house behind me and they were sitting on the porch. Way to go UPS.

[Motorcharge]

Forgot about these.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008RIEQXY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Have to have license plate lights in VA. Wasn't sure how to do that with the aftermarket bumper. Figure I can weld a little flat bar where the license plates hole will be, drill through both sides of the bumper, tap the front for these to screw in and run the wire through the bumper and wire it into the stock license plate wiring.

[Motorcharge]

I haven't even started wrenching yet and I already broke something. Two of my damn toes. :laugh:

Dip****s at Amazon didn't tape the bottom of the box my RE springs came in. Picked them up for this picture and they fell out the bottom about 3 feet directly on my toes on my left foot. :mad:

[Alexia]

Toes are useful for picking up tools one has dropped. :D Cleaning out the bed after removing the liner was the worst vehicle clean up I have ever done.

[HOrnbrod]

Almost as bad as when our stupid cat took a dump in the basement right next to it's cat box. I tried to dropkick it, missed and broke four toes on the concrete wall. Damn, that hurt for weeks.    :dunce:

[shelbyluvv]

What are the part numbers for the shocks? Are you staying with the factory rear shock configuration? I have been looking for some shocks to replace the crappy shocks on my truck.

[Motorcharge]

http://www.seriousoffroadproducts.com/Suspension-Lift-Kits/Bilstein-Shock-Absorbers/5100-Series/Bilstein-Shock-Absorber-10.171?zenid=0bc6d84db9837865ccf6386f22e78579

 

That's it if I remember correctly. I couldn't find hardly any info on rear shocks for MJs. They were open eye on both ends with the right lengths I needed so we'll see how they work out. I plan on keeping the shocks mounts stock but I'll modify if I need to.

[HOrnbrod]

What are the part numbers for the shocks? Are you staying with the factory rear shock configuration? I have been looking for some shocks to replace the crappy shocks on my truck.

 

You have any lift Bo? I have some p/n's for various OME shocks that fit well on the rear MJ if you want. Those 5100 Bilsteins ride too hard for me.

 

[shelbyluvv]

I have a 4.5" lift Don. I don't want a stiff ride either. I'm looking for OME smoooveness!

[HOrnbrod]

I have a 4.5" lift Don. I don't want a stiff ride either. I'm looking for OME smoooveness!

 

When you get a chance, please measure the actual "at rest" distance between the upper and lower shock mounting pins. Assume you plan on using the stock mounting pin setup?

[shelbyluvv]

Will do Chief.

[Motorcharge]

Leaf packs came in this week. Hopefully getting the lift, steering, and tires/wheels on on the 20th. I'm not overly impressed with Hell Creek. If I'd paid more attention and noticed they're just rebranded leafs I've have just ordered from the their vendor directly or gone with Rusty's who's packs were half what HC's were. Oh well, still excited to get this stuff on.

 

 

 

Went and picked the bumper up from FedEx (as usual they wouldn't deliver without a signature) last night. They plastered the damn thing in stickers and tape so I can't paint it today because I've got nothing here to remove it with.

Thoughts so far on the bumper:

Bad: Didn't come with hardware like it's supposed to so I had to drop another $15 on that just to attach the bumper to the mounts.

I had no idea the mounts attach to the outside of the frame and not the inside so now I have to lose my trailer hitch which I'm not wild about and if I'd known I wouldn't have deleted the receiver on the bumper.

Good: CHEAP. I spent $180 shipped for this thing so I'm not all that bent out of shape about not getting the hardware. I'm sure Nate would ship it to me, but I don't want to wait a week for him to respond so oh well.

Quality welds and grinding. I've heard bad things about the weld quality before but they look damn good on this bumper. All the visible welds are ground down well and it doesn't look like the welds failed to penetrate adequately anywhere.

I'm not real wild about having to bolt the bumper to the mounts and it only being two bolts per side. However, both mounts are plenty thick and I've got grade 8 9/16 bolts so I doubt I'll have any issues though I might weld the mounts together anyway. The frame mounts bolt in 6 spots per side so I don't really see any issues there though I'm gonna replace the stock bolts they use with grade 8 hardware.

For $180 I'd buy it again despite the small issues but I'd get the receiver next time since I can't use my hitch with the bumper. But I couldn't have bought the steel and tabs and built the same thing myself for what I paid so you can't really beat that. I built basically the same bumper for my XJ and it cost me more than this did.





Went ahead and sprayed the mounts so I can get them on while the bumper dries tomorrow at work. Hopefully I'll have time to get this thing on. I don't see any problems as long as the hitch bolts come out though they are pretty rusty.



hard to tell from the picture but those mounts are about 2' long.

[Motorcharge]

Hours, years, whatever. I have no patience.



First of all, I'd like to punch a Jeep engineer and whoever put the hitch on in the face.

The engineer that decided a 15mm bolt was needed directly above the leaf eye where it's I'm-****ing-possible to get a socket or wrench in can go **** himself. Luckily a 5/8 spark plug wrench fits well enough and the backside of that socket will take a box wrench so I was able to work them out.

The guy that did the hitch decided the 10+ bolts that hold the hitch on the frame and factory bumper weren't enough and decided to weld god damn angle iron to the frame and and hitch. Luckily he sucked at welding and didn't bother to paint anything so my fat *** jumping up and down on the bumper after I took the bolts off was enough to break his welds. :laugh:

I haven't wrenched on the ground in a couple years. Definitely thankful I've got lifts at work because that **** sucks.