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88 short bed 4wd and ho conversion


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Hey I've had my 88 Comanche for 3 years now it was a 4.0 2wd swb. I loaned it to my sister last fall so she could drive it untill she had enough money for a car. Unfortunately she had a habit of forgetting to check the oil and my truck had a slow oil leak which led to the crank bearings getting cooked. The truck had almost 400km on it anyways so I don't really blame her lol. It gave me an excuse to swap it to 4wd since I would be pulling the motor out anyways.

 

Here it is 4bc100519c7059d48f88f3af21522437.jpg

 

I wish I had more pics but that was last fall after we did the box sides and with fresh paint. Just single stage international harvester red from car quest

 

Here is the donor a 91 4.0 ho 4wd with only 136km on it.

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Swapping the axles and getting the motor in was actually the easy part. Wiring was a different story lol. I didn't realize that nothing was really the same between the two harnesses. So I swapped the complete harness to make it easier along with the rear axle to keep the gearing the same.

 

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The donor axle is a Dana 30 hp. The spring buckets where rotted out so we fabbed up new ones

501e05b0a287dcf6fe63c784fefd9b0b.jpg471a3c9327665a755a2d9bcc98b7db97.jpg385c28a284ca8c0f798a1f6722cd9435.jpg59f9bfbf2f638704ff9c94a458845b38.jpg97893fc30896c99cc28956bc2156e7b8.jpg

 

Next was the interior my dash was all tore up and I wanted to use the donor gauges since I just had dummy lights in mine. I also swapped my bench for buckets and the full console and console shift along with the steering wheel. I changed my heater core while I was in there it was well worth it. Truck blows amazing heat almost to much for the little cab lol.

951a38e81fc95125a5a1cd69658c8963.jpg385b679f6e35aff0a6e27c12180839f6.jpg1678cd377b60d0ef24b015b9ee0dd5d0.jpg

 

Now that it's rolling again it's time for the motor and drive train.

 

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First test drive made it to macdonalds worked a-1

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Here it is today I also put a 2" spacer up front to level it out but I have a 3" lift I'm putting in it in the spring and planning to run 31's cc3c135aac3681d4603fac540394d12d.jpgf0f67bf84bd8c0366b8ea91b8d52fd65.jpg

 

It was a bigger job than I planned but I learned a lot this summer about the truck and where everything is and how it all works so I am happy with it and amazed I was able to do it !

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