88 MJ Chief

[88AKChief]

Hello, I'm a longtime lurker here on Comanche Club and recently I was able to purchase my very own. I have some plans for this little truck, I don't want a show quality rebuild but I do want a nice reliable pickup truck to drive as a daily driver/ weekend crawler.

 

The funny thing about this truck is I wasnt looking for it at the time, I was talking to a buddy of mine and I told him man if i could find an old jeep comanche pick up I'll buy it on the spot. and about two days later I ran across one for sale right down the road from me and Ill be d*mned if I'm called a hypocrite.

 

anyways here she is..

 

this is how I bought her

The truck I bought sight unseen, I was deployed when i found it on craigslist, i talked to the man over the phone and pulled the trigger

 

a pretty straight body all the replaced body panels line up well, just a few cosmetic issues on the front,

 

not a whole lot of rust on the exterior

 

interior on the other hand:

left a little bit to be desired. however those are stock captains chairs with all the associated bracketry. you can see in the photo its missing the center console that was found in the bed.

 

unfortunately thats the best photo of the interior detailing the rust I had taken a few more unfortunately my phone dumped them before publishing.

 

Stay Tuned

 

--

Jeff

[Comanche County]

Cool truck, Roll bar and Turbines, that's a win IMO. 

 

Are you at Wainwright?  I was there from 98'-00'.

[88AKChief]

yeup I'm at wainwright, be here for a couple more years. Yeah I definitely lucked out with the turbine rims. I do like the roll bar too! I ran into some issues posting more pictures. the floor boards on the driver side were rusted pretty bad, but it was a pretty easy fix. the passenger side was mostly surface not a big issue to fix up.

[Comanche County]

The front bumper has me at a loss...what is it from?  Fits well.

[jbain]

Nice find.... looks just like mine. Very Cool......

[88AKChief]

The front bumper has me at a loss...what is it from?  Fits well.

I think it is from a cherokee chief. not sure the year, the front end was cobbled together before i got it.

 

Nice find.... looks just like mine. Very Cool......

Thanks, your build was one of the first i read on here! And this trucks hood cable snapped the day i got it home... it must have taken me about three hours before I realized I could just reach up and grab the release rod, lol then i got on here and saw the sticky for the hood release... thats a good tip.

 

 

As for the bumper i'm not entirely sure, the header/grill and two fenders are from a cherokee so I just assumed it was as well. The bungee cord is literally the only thing holding it up in that picture. it has since been removed, unfortunately whoever did the front end did not reinstall the vacuum canister, and just about every line has been plugged with a screw... so it has a few vacuum issues but it starts right up and idles fine albeit a bit rich. I think if the muffler and cat were not completely rusted out it probably would not idle as well as it does.

 

Right now I'm just sorting out the rust issues, cleaning out the cab i've been digging into it piece by piece, mostly the interior was already torn apart and there are pieces for it all over the place. trying to stick to one area at a time, once i get this cleaned up i'll move into the engine compartment.

[88AKChief]

Trouble with Pictures Saved for future edits

 

Edited 17 Dec

[88AKChief]

So Excuse the crappy welding... I am new and quite frankly i probably should not have attempted to learn how to weld on mostly rusted through very thin sheet metal. lesson learned. it did come out fairly decent. I do have some more before pictures of the rust however i lost them when my SD Card decided to take a dump so this is what I'm left with. the drivers side wasnt too terrible. you can see the patches i welded in on the left side and the right side. I started with the patch all the way on the left closest to the seat and went right from there.. the one up on the tunnel turned out pretty good but truth be told the metal was a little thicker there as the rust was not as bad as on the left side of the floor. I also replaced a huge section of the front firewall up behind the parking brake pedal. You can see the fiberglass mesh this picture was right before I applied por 15 I added fiberglass to sections of the floor to stiffen it and also help waterproof it as best as possible

 

 

 

Interior is not in too bad a shape.

 

here's the passenger side, mostly surface rust, that was all the way up to behind the seat, the grinder with a flap disc made quick work of this.

 

 

POR 15 Applied, you can see where I added the fiberglass, two reasons for that, one is I felt it would help to waterproof the seams of the patches and to also stiffen the remaining floor where it had rusted but not all the way through

 

Passenger side

 

 

I didnt do the entire tub, I wanted to save the POR 15 for other areas of the truck that needed it as well, the rubberized undercoating that was applied to the frame is flaking off in alot of places and I figured when I get the bed off I can use it on the areas that are prone to rust. I also already have plans to monstaline the tub, as soon as thats done the interior will go back in.

 

So since I didnt before what I have planned for the immediate future, is mostly just to put it back together. this weekend I installed some ACOS Coil Spacers, which I am super impressed with. They added about an inch and a half of lift to the front and leveled the truck out pretty nicely. I'm hoping to have the front end straightened out this coming weekend and reapplied its missing alot of hardware but so far I havent had too much trouble finding anything other than the headlight adjusting spring! I still do not know what the bumper came off of. it does fit pretty well so I am looking to see if I can come up with some sort of bracket for it to mount back on to the truck so that i will at least be able to drive it.

 

Most of the parts I have are in pretty good shape and just need to be cleaned up.

 

For the future, which right now is looking like next summer when its warm enough to paint. I plan on Flipping the axle and adding some 4.5" RE Springs up front. I want to replace the clutch and throwout bearing since its starting to pop out of reverse. I'll probably just end up pulling the engine at the same time, that will let me sort out the vacuum mess get a good luck at the front end parts as well as clean up the engine bay for paint which id really like to do at the end of the summer. I was leaning towards Metallic Black with silver accents, but lately ive been leaning more towards the original slightly different shade of red with the black trim. I really haven't decided yet.

 

Anyways looks like I owe some pictures of the ACOS Spacers, and the trouble i had with the wheel studs!

[benjy_26]

Cool truck and a great start!

[88AKChief]

So last week when i went to do the ACOS install, I ran into the issue of stripped lugnuts and sheared wheel studs.. Unfortunately I marred the finish on my almost Pristine Turbine Rimes I guess theyre going to need to be refinished.. Any Suggestions??

 

Headlight Spring Showed up today(Thanks Kkilmer87) I got the new grill installed new turnsignal housing and upgraded the wiring harness to a relay driven harness from PUTCO. I had purchased Halogen Upgrades but i managed to order the wrong ones.. I guess thats my sign to upgrade to LED!

 

I live in Fairbanks AK. The normal quantity of Lugnut studs that Autozone stocks is 1ea. that includes for the cherokee's as well. we have two stores in Alaska I went ahead and punched all of them out and cleaned up the mating surface It took me ten days to get all five studs.

 

All Cleaned up

 

Just waiting on that last one...

 

In the process of installing the grill I found it... the damage from the front end collision.

 

I think with a little bit of heat, and a little bit of persuasion ala hammer style I should be able to straigten it out enough, for some custom frame Tie-Ins for the front bumper I will eventually install.

 

Got the headlight doors in...

 

 

Of Course I had to take a little break and get back to my normal day job:

 

 

And a little bit of an action shot. the MJ is once again driveable and on its own weight!!!!

 

I also received some other goodies, a NOVAK shift cable (Thanks PFCliest) and the MonstaLiner kit for the Cabin Tub, Hopefully my next update will show a Lined Cab!! After that its just a matter of reinstalling the interior.

 

here it is as it sits the inside! I don't think I have posted a picture of the seats, I have two captains chairs and both are in fairly good shape I can't complain a whole lot!

I am currently still on the lookout for a set of springs to build a bastard pack for the spring over axle I have planned in the summer.  that is also when I plan on painting it. the current idea for a paint scheme is a Dark Mettalic Silver, with Raptor on the Rocker Panels.

[Comanche County]

Its coming along nicely.  :thumbsup:

[buxmj]

Nice work, keep the pics coming.  

[xjrev10]

Why would you wait for wheel studs? Why not just replace the whole hub?

[88AKChief]

Short answer, because there's nothing wrong with the hub. Wheel studs are super easy to replace. If I wasn't in alaska it wouldn't have taken so long to get them.

 

Also this isn't my daily driver and there's a couple other things before this truck is road worthy so I'm not in a big hurry. Like the seats out of the cab...

[dunnc1991]

Why would you wait for wheel studs? Why not just replace the whole hub?

Last I checked, wheel studs are a hell of a lot cheaper then a hub

[88AKChief]

 

Why would you wait for wheel studs? Why not just replace the whole hub?

Last I checked, wheel studs are a hell of a lot cheaper then a hub

 

Thats a fact. less than ten dollars for all five.

[xjrev10]

 

Why would you wait for wheel studs? Why not just replace the whole hub?

Last I checked, wheel studs are a hell of a lot cheaper then a hub

By all means.

[88AKChief]

Well Merry Christmas! I had some time on my hands today and figured I would update, I wrote before that I received the Novak Shifter for the transfer case. I got the new brackets installed then realized they needed to come out for the Monstaliner application

 

Well here's the anchor bracket installation.. a 9/16th ratcheting wrench and removal of the floor plate for the transfer case shifter makes quick work of installing the anchor bracket to the transfer case adaptor.

 

new linkage and brackets ready to go in! the bracket on the left installs right where the old bracket was mounted utilizing the same four holes in the transmission tunnel

 

A little bit of last minute prepwork prior to the monstaliner

 

I used an Acid Etching primer over the scuffed up POR 15.

 

Little bit of taping

 

After the first coat

 

I was able to achieve four coats total to the gallon! I installed the transmission tunnel shifter plate while still tacky I guess mostly to seal it up

 

Finished

little nitrogen action in the bed.

 

 

And after opening the garage door to air out a days worth of fumes I'm greeted by a fresh coat of powder!! and more on the way!

 

 

Merry Christmas!

[88AKChief]

Looking pretty good, night and day difference

 

[88AKChief]

Better pictures of the Novak Cable Install. I found that the shifting cable was much stiffer than I realized and routing it was kind of a pain in the neck. start with it adjusted all the way out, then shorten it as necessary.

 

 

 

 

I found that the instructions were lacking severely. the anchor bracket is bolted to the front side of the transfer case using the 11 o'clock and 9 o'clock bolts.

 

when the cable is installed it is very(very) stiff, i checked and made sure the routing i chose that the cable would still travel smoothly. after hooking everything up I found that I had to adjust the turnbuckle out about a half turn to ensure a firm engagement in 4Lo. I didnt have any issues with operations in the other ranges.

 

Hope this helps

[88AKChief]

Finished putting the inside together, going to need to figure something out for the center console. besides not fitting correctly due to the lack of carpet underneath its also cracked in a few spots and at the mounting holes. All in All I am very impressed with the Monstaliner. The kit came pretty quick, and included everything but the disposable paint liners.. which i totally suggest getting. i rolled mine out of a Tupperware bowl :nuts:  because it was Christmas day and no self respecting paint shop was open.

 

On monsta-liners website it lists it as included in the kit, but it is only included in the two gallon long bed kit.

 

And today was spent glueing these little guys back into place

 

seems whoever took the front end out off the donor cherokee had no idea what he was doing and just ripped the front header panel off :fs1:

 

a little cleaning up filled the hole with 2 Ton Plastic Epoxy and Voila... fixed for the next 100k Miles

 

Speaking of 100k Miles, I just got in to look at the Odometer and this truck only has 119K on it. Surprisingly less than what I had originally assumed were on it.

 

I also spent a little time with the torch: :banana:

 

and managed to mostly straighten out the passenger side frame rail.. enough i believe to at least accept a set of front bumper tie-ins. for now it should be enough to mount the temporary front bumper on so i can get down the DMV and finish the registration.

 

 

 

I've found this mostly to be an exercise in detail it seems every time i turn around i'm finding something not quite right. I guess I should have known from the beginning. It is shaping up to be quite the nice little truck. Now all thats stopping me from driving it is that I need this little part or that little part. Oh and the back window put back in... speaking of Ive been trying to find a write-up on the back window but haven't had luck searching it. :hmm:

 

---

Jeff

[danbyrambler]

Google search - - Lotsa stuff

 

site:comancheclub.com rear window install

 

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=site:comancheclub.com+rear+window+install

 

:wrench:

[88AKChief]

Google search - - Lotsa stuff

 

site:comancheclub.com rear window install

 

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=site:comancheclub.com+rear+window+install

 

:wrench:

Thats a neat trick!

[88AKChief]

Well I got a few things at the PnP today! and found a pretty good selection of XJ's with a pretty good selection of parts!

 

 

and looking pretty good installed, was even able to get the heater duct, though I forgot the lower dash heater duct when I pulled it so I guess I am going to need to go back..

 

 

 

 

---

Jeff

[88AKChief]

Well where to begin, The truck ran really well, however it seemed really rich, which i had attributed to the vacuum canister not being installed. while inspecting grounds and deciding on whether or not I want to replace the vacuum harness. the good news is all of the harnesses seem to be in great shape. However, I found what can only be described as catastrophic failure of the Egr Valve.

 

 

while waiting for the valve i decided to tackle the turn-signal parking lamp issue.

 

When headlights were turned on id get the solid blinker I checked the fuse panel which is pretty clean and not corroded I cleaned and swapped the flashers around. then moved on to the parking light connectors. the wires on the passenger side were corroded slightly so i figured id replace the connectors and be done with it.

 

before picking up new ones at the auto parts store I went ahead and checked the headlight connector behind the drivers headlight.. and lo and behold I'm sure i found the biggest culprit to my lighting issues.

a little bit of solder,

 

some time in the thinking chair, which makes a convenient soldering chair. just the right heighth for the header connector delete

and while i had the harness apart i chose to remove the extra headlight connector and added a ground to the headlight harness at the header panel.

I also removed the factory fog wires from the header connector and put it into a weather proof connector for future use.

 

 

 

and last but not least I was able to get the truck out to stretch its legs!! I couldn't believe what a difference the EGR Valve made in the idle! no more rich fuel smell it doesn't cough and sputter when putting it in gear. It purrs like a kitten. If only i could say the same for the BA10/5  to say it doesn't like reverse is putting it mildly.

as far as maintenance goes now i just need to get the bumper attached, and the window put in!

 

 

Happy New Year CC.

---

Jeff