My 88 SWB

[DirtyComanche]

Last tank of gas was 430km and 58.5L to fill, tank before then was 380km and 52L to fill.  So that's about 20mpg if I converted it right?

 

I should probably check my odometer calibration based on that...  I don't think it's spot on.

[DirtyComanche]

I went for a little drive today...

 

Just off the highway on Willow North:

 

It varied from being solid (as pictured) to seriously sloppy and wet.  I left the rear unlocked in hope that if I buried it I'd be able to back out.  Turned out there wasn't anything too terrible and walked through all of it.  Ran into some dude doing a little gold prospecting on the way.

 

Grey day, but the willow is moving some water:

 

 

Went to St Marie, then figured I'd pop over to Opatcho, this is the little lake along the way to Opatcho.  Not sure what it's actually called, Otipemisiwak?  It was easy to get into.

 

Flexing out on a stump at Opatcho.  Rawr!  : :)

 

 

Opatcho was a little sloppy to get into, but certainly didn't need or use the rear locker.

 

I then figured I'd try to go to Narrow, because that's a more interesting way to get home.  I turned off into Ispah on the way, but it was probably not going to end well with 32" snow tires.  If there was another vehicle I would have gone for it though, was mostly worried I'd get down to it and not be able to get turned around and enough momentum to get back up.

 

Just before Pitoney the road deteriorated badly.  And then I ran into this guy...

 

He was screwed.  Nothing with him, was using a broken piece of a pallet to try to dig himself out.  When I took the picture I had actually dragged him a bunch already, and there was some grade there, and just that crappy wet slushy snow.  I got to the point I couldn't maneuver well, plus my towhooks suck for tugging, so I resorted to digging him out with a shovel and using a comealong to drag him back to me.  I turned around after I got him out, I felt like I could probably make it farther, but likely I would get in trouble and be unable to get through Narrow to the Bowrun FSR.

 

Stopped and took another picture at the bridge over the Willow:

 

[DirtyComanche]

Sooo...

Some things I observed.

-These tires suck for this, and running studded tires is about to become a no-no anyways.  I need some decent mud terrains or something like that, 265/70R17 or 235/80R17 probably
-The air line for the rear locker is leaking, durr
-My front tow hooks are garbage because they don't have keepers, so at least I will have to track down some keepers
-My rear bumper still looks like crap, and the hitch is seized in (not handy)
-Most of the canopy clamps fell off on the washboard
-My clutch won't disengage, ordered a new master and line for it to try before ordering a clutch...  Hasn't shown up, so I can't determine if I need to order a whole clutch or not at this point.
-Really need to get off my @$$ and build up and swap out the upper control arms, and a bad motor mount, both are super noticeable on the washboard

[DirtyComanche]

I found some used Firestone M/Ts. They aren't perfect but that's what you get for being cheap.

 

[R1.]

I put the tcase back in, which meant I had to fix the shifter.  I went through my pile of tcases to see if I had a style of arm that bolts to the tcase that would work better, and I didn't really, so I decided to make one.

 

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I put two holes in it for no reason.  If it didn't work on the top hole then it wasn't going to work.  The throw ratio is 1:1 using the stock gated shifter, which is what the upper hole is.

 

Installed:

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The rod ends are actually from some tailrotor pitch links, they aren't worn out so I'm guessing I got them from something that crashed.  The threaded rod is stainless, left over from one of the JB twinstick kits I bought.

 

Anyways, seems to work good.  It might disengage under torque, if so it's because the motor mounts are a little soft and will go on my next order.

 

Also, the random driveshaft I had hanging up on the wall fits perfectly in the rear.  Which is what I was really hoping.  Front and rear driveshafts are bolted back in so this thing is officially 4wd for the first time in, umm, ever?

 

How is this linkage working for you?  I'm getting to the point I need to do something.

[DirtyComanche]

Linkage works great. Wouldn't do it any other way at this point. Hits all the gates, doesn't pop out of gear.

[DirtyComanche]

https://youtu.be/37L9pc7thDA

 

Boring video.  But the new clutch is working well.  No idea how you embed Youtube on this forum, it doesn't use normal BBCode...

 

The transmission still moves around enough to hit the cutout in the tunnel at times, so I need to do something about that.  The rearview mirrors are still useless and stupid, I need to find another option, and the rear hitch dragged on everything throughout the day...  So there is of course more work to do!

 

 

 

There's still snow

 

[Jeep Driver]

[DirtyComanche]

So, what's the code to embed youtube? :???:

[Minuit]

Just paste the URL in the post. The forum software recognizes it:

 

[DirtyComanche]

Oh.  I know what the issue is.  I left the s in the https.  Can't embed https, http you can...

[DirtyComanche]

I threw in a set of Volvo 746 injectors today, since I wasn't really able to do anything else useful.  I guess they made some sort of a difference in regards to throttle response, nothing earth shattering there.  It did seem to clean the idle up a bit.  I popped the cap off the disty and realized I must not have looked at it since I bought it, it desperately needs a new one and a rotor, so I got those ordered.  I did the plugs and wires though since I had them on the shelf.

[DirtyComanche]

One thing I noticed with the new injectors is that if you lug the engine down way low, it is able to recover from it much better, and it has more grunt in general while being lugged.  So that is certainly a worthwhile improvement.

 

I tracked down some 2dr XJ tilt forward seats, just gotta clean them up and swap the brackets.  The guy I got them from was parting out several XJs, I didn't have much time but I did manage to snag the center console brackets out of the same rig.  My console was put in without them, basically it was just held by the screws up front and the seats.

 

IIRC the MJ rear bracket isn't exactly the same as an XJ one, but it works well enough.

 

Brackets:

 

So at least my console isn't flopping around anymore.  Of course I'm just going to have to pull it back out to replace the inner shift boot, whenever I track one down that isn't destroyed.

[DirtyComanche]

I found the pedals to be a bit slick, mostly the clutch, so I figured "Why not get some grippy 'race' pedals!"

 

So, Amazon I went, and BAM, in my mailbox:

 

The clutch and brake one went on easy enough, other than there wasn't much for flat surfaces in the right place to drill through and bolt them on.

 

The gas pedal was a different matter completely.  It wound up pretty butchered.

 

Back side:

 

I moved it around a bunch of times trying to find the best place for it.  I wound up shaving the sides down a bit, and centering it on the pedal like this:

 

It wound up being way too close to the brake pedal, and test driving it confirmed that.

 

So I flipped it upside down, moved it over, and cut one row of holes off it:

 

All in all I think I'm happy with it.  The clutch and brake pedal are good, the screws are a bit wonky because there isn't a flat spot to put them into, but I can forgive that.  I might pull the gas pedal back out and trim it some more, I haven't decided.  I also regret not looking for a matching pedal for the parking brake, but I think I can live without if need be.

 

One thing that has me puzzled is that I grabbed a gas pedal out of the shed rather than jacking up the one that was in the truck.  After I put it in I realized it sits way higher.

 

Pedal I pulled out of the truck:

 

If you look at the final picture of the pedals installed, you can see the pivot is in a different location.

 

So, did I swap a HO pedal in by accident?  It should not have been one, as it was the gas pedal that went with the clutch/brake pedals out of a parts XJ that definitely was a Renix.  Or was the original pedal in my Comanche wrong?  I compared it to the pedal in my XJ (also Renix) and it is the same as the one I swapped into the MJ, BUT my XJ has a HO throttle body on it and I don't specifically remember if I bent the Renix pedal or put a HO one in and then wound up bending it too (the floor is not normal in my XJ because there is a doubler and a NP205).  I actually had doubts if I was getting full throttle out of the original pedal in my MJ, since it sat so low to the floor to start with, but I never investigated.

 

Anyways, this was another one of those projects that should have taken about 15 minutes but turned into about 3 hours. :rotf:

[DirtyComanche]

So my 2dr XJ seats didn't work out as well as I hoped.  The driver's seat was pretty thrashed, so I planned to swap them side to side anyways.  However, when I drilled the brackets off the driver's seat I found that the rails were badly cracked.  I think I can just drill the 'stop' rivets out of the rails and swap them over too, but I'm not sure if I am that interested because the seat isn't in great shape anyways.

 

I honestly would like to pick up a set of 2dr JK seats and try to make them fit.  Somebody on here did try it (who has long since sold their truck and moved on), and got the driver's seat to fit fine, but had no luck with the passenger seat.  I am not sure why the passenger one wouldn't be able to work...  So I may try hitting the boneyard and seeing just how spendy such a pair of seats would be.

 

Anyways, I did put the passenger one in on the driver's side, which I am happy with for now.  At least I have reasonable access to back there without having to take the seats out.  It also meant I could put my first aid kit where it 'belongs' - which is on the back of the seat.

 

[DirtyComanche]

I was hoping to have a better update, but I don't.

 

The P/S box suddenly blew the sector shaft seal out completely.  As in you couldn't fill it with fluid as fast as it would leak out. :rotf:  I had two boxes in the shed, so I grabbed the less leaky looking one and threw it in.  It seems okay so far, but I will probably order some seals for this box and clean it up so there is a known good spare.  Since I was in there I finally changed the motor mounts, which turned into the usual screwing around way more than should be needed.  I had to pull the oil filter and adapter off to do the one, so I figured

it was time to change to summer oil anyways.

 

Broken stuff, I try to write what's wrong with things in a sorta obvious manner since I hate reinstalling parts that I 'knew' were bad:

 

Cut the bolt down and flipped it around:

 

Anyways, I now have a core set of OEM motor mounts if I want to get the terrible Energy Suspension poly mounts that require you to remove the cages from the rubber of another set of mounts.  I might wind up ordering them, since I don't like the engine flopping around, and the other options are rather pricey. :dunno:

 

What else?  Well, the exhaust came uncoupled where I had to cut it to do the clutch.  I'm going to try to dig up some flanges and repair it properly, failing that I'll weld it back together for now and come up with a long term plan.  Unfortunately due to shipping costs ordering an exhaust kit is quite pricey for me, but the whole system on this truck really should be redone.

 

Also I've decided I want to buy or build some long arms, entirely for ride reasons.  Unfortunately the set I had originally eyed up that were on my friend's POS Ranger are no longer available, he actually managed to sell the truck.  So I'm going to look into that...  Oh, and I realized that not only are my sway bar bushings shot, but the swaybar is actually hitting all sorts of things; I forgot to take a picture, but it's quite nifty.  Either way I need to do something about it.

[DirtyComanche]

So this mod may not make me terribly popular...

 

I needed some mirrors since the ones that were on there were crap, and well, they fell off...  More on that later.

 

Amazon to the rescue...  With YJ mirrors.

 

 

 

 

 

Install was not complicated.  I just put fender washers/nuts on the back side.  Originally I was going to weld some nuts to a piece of flat bar to make the door more rigid, and install/removal a little easier, and I may do that eventually as the mirrors shake a bit and I believe it is partially because of the door.  New door hinge bushings and strikers would also probably help.  Either way they're a million times better than the old mirrors, and being YJ mirrors I can just order more if I goof them up.  The doors are now officially swiss cheese though, as there is a ton of holes in them.  I may address that later, but honestly the body work on this thing is so bad it's pretty minor.

 

I honestly think they look better on the truck than I thought they would.  Feel free to hate them if you disagree though.

 

[DirtyComanche]

This was actually a couple days ago, when the P/S box blew up.  The mirrors loosened up really bad on the washboard and one got knocked off shortly after this picture.

 

[Minuit]

Those mirrors don't look bad at all :thumbsup:

[jeeppapa]

Really enjoying the build, good work.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DirtyComanche]

Those mirrors don't look bad at all :thumbsup:

 

 

Really enjoying the build, good work.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thanks guys!

[HOrnbrod]

Sorry Dirty, I don't like them at all. Okay on a Wrangler, any Wrangler, but not on an MJ or XJ. They look like what they are, transplants from something else. They really suck. And you need to drill some more holes in your doors.    :yes:

 

Also, could you resize your pics a bit smaller before posting? It takes me forever to download them on my crappy DSL link.

 

But I still love ya mate and am enjoying your build progress.   :cheers:

[DirtyComanche]

I still haven't figured out Imgur's resizing thing between using my phone to upload and running noscript in my proprietary browser.  The forum should be set to automagically limit the image size, but that's a display preference and I'm guessing it loads the full thing then dithers it.
 
If Photobucket would actually still work I wouldn't have this problem.  But it doesn't. :rant:
 
About the mirrors, what was on there was already a transplant (I think they were stolen from a FSJ :nuts:).   I couldn't find any cheap generic that would work well, and even took some random crap home from the junkyard and looked through the shed.  I was left torn between ordering the 97+ mirrors, Toyota mirrors (my soul would burn in hell), these, or tracking down a set of first generation Racemirrors and building brackets for them (to bolt in the stock location).  Functionally the 97+ mirrors are better than the early ones, but they're still just a little small for my liking.

 

I would have loved to get a set of the Racemirrors, but the current generation would not work as well IMHO, leaving you to track down used and rare mirrors.  That said, I may still barter for a set and try them sometime.  They are still the wrong shape to look 'right' on the XJ/MJ though, IMHO.

 

If I peeled the bondo off the doors I bet we could find more holes. :rotf:

[jeeppapa]

I still haven't figured out Imgur's resizing thing between using my phone to upload and running noscript in my proprietary browser. The forum should be set to automagically limit the image size, but that's a display preference and I'm guessing it loads the full thing then dithers it.

 

If Photobucket would actually still work I wouldn't have this problem. But it doesn't. :rant:

 

About the mirrors, what was on there was already a transplant (I think they were stolen from a FSJ :nuts:). I couldn't find any cheap generic that would work well, and even took some random crap home from the junkyard and looked through the shed. I was left torn between ordering the 97+ mirrors, Toyota mirrors (my soul would burn in hell), these, or tracking down a set of first generation Racemirrors and building brackets for them (to bolt in the stock location). Functionally the 97+ mirrors are better than the early ones, but they're still just a little small for my liking.

 

I would have loved to get a set of the Racemirrors, but the current generation would not work as well IMHO, leaving you to track down used and rare mirrors. That said, I may still barter for a set and try them sometime. They are still the wrong shape to look 'right' on the XJ/MJ though, IMHO.

 

If I peeled the bondo off the doors I bet we could find more holes. :rotf:

Or you might find the original mirrors.

 

 

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[Rockfrog]

I thought they look OK, I was actually thinking of running a set on the fender of my XJ ... solves a problem when I start my half doors. That, and even though the 2000 XJ mirrors are pretty durable ... I near killed my driverside once or twice now.

As for the MJ, I like my old 80's factory towing mirrors ... so much so, I drilled and braced the swapped in XJ doors on her now. That was a bit of a pain, but still my favourite ... And still the lowest profile mirror option (when folded) I have yet to see.

 

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