jerpderp's 87 Sportruck

[jerpderp]

I don't think you have to worry about one til 3", and according to their website as long as that haven't changed anything in 6 years it's made for 3-8" lift

 

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Can't say I wanna go that high.. Thanks tho.

[jerpderp]

I developed a coolant leak a couple weeks ago during lunch time at work.. Started gushing out of the connection between the lower rad hose and the water pump. Drained pretty much the whole thing in two 5 minute trips. Since I get off late, I had to buy a bunch of bottled water to get home. Turns out the the water pump was super corroded/pitted where the lower rad hose connects.
 

[jerpderp]

So it was time for a new water pump, thermostat/housing, and radiator hoses. Bought an A/C upper hose so I can relocate the alternator later on. Got everything installed except the lower radiator hose, working on that, and the outlet tube on the radiator came off in my hand.  :(  I can't be too upset, it was the original radiator,  and 30 years is a good run.
 

 

[jerpderp]

At this point, I decided that it was time to convert to an open cooling system. I can't easily put into words how I truly feel about closed systems, but I will keep it short: keeping hot, pressurized liquid in a plastic container is bad and the engineer who made that decision should feel bad. :no: I went about ordering the radiator, cap, bottle, heater valve and all the heater hoses. Picked up a new CSF 2 row brass radiator, I hope this one lasts like the original. Fit was perfect. Bought an OEM heater valve cuz I really don't wanna mess with it ever again. Heater hoses were from AutoZone, had one issue, one of the hoses should be 3/4" on the heater core side and 5/8" on the valve side. The AZ one was 5/8" on both ends. O'reilleys had the right one. I ordered a coolant bottle from a 95 Cherokee. That thing was HUGE and didn't want to fit anywhere, so I dug into my stash and found a rear washer bottle from an 87 RX-7. I'd been saving this for years to make an intercooler sprayer, but it looks like I won't be buying a turbo car any time soon. I cut and bent the factory coolant bottle bracket and mounted the RX-7 bottle on there. Looks great IMO.  Now I'm really loving that I have a radiator cap. :banana:

 

 

 

[4.0forlife]

man i love a white mj.  if you still got that ax15 kicking around i have one thats missing 5th gear id love to rebuild.

[Minuit]

Thanks a lot Minuit. I've read most if not all of your build thread, you also have a nice truck. You've done a lot of work. Your oil pan/rear main seal was quite the fiasco. And that's interesting on the wheels. I have all 5 and they're in pretty good shape.

 

 

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Sorry I didn't see this. Yeah, it was a horrible experience but it turned out alright I think. As a result of it I know way more about oil pans and rear main seals than I ever thought I would :)

 

Your truck looks great. It's got that clean understated look I like and the wheels and tires suit it really well. When the time comes I'm considering those exact tires for my '89.

 

I feel exactly the same way as you do about the stupid Renix cooling system. When I went to test drive the '89 before I bought it the plastic bottle split open and sprayed me with antifreeze, so I hated it even before I bought the truck :D I have the 3-core version of that CSF radiator plus an ATF cooler in the '91 and so far I love it. I don't think I've seen the upper radiator hose temp go above 190 ever since I put the radiator in, and the temperature gauge stays put like it does in a new car :thumbsup: If the heater valve ever gives you trouble you can just delete it and run straight hose to the heater core. I broke the one on the '91 the first time I ever touched it and I really haven't noticed a difference after replacing it with straight hose. The 97+ XJs didn't even have it, so it's not really a necessity - and you can use the 97+ heater hoses in place of the valve.

 

Oh yeah, nice that you got the chance to dump the 3.07 gears quick. Maybe my 89 is just down on power but even with 27" tires I have to downshift to make it up hills. Yuck.

[jerpderp]

Disassembled my new (to me) front axle. Junkyard special, came out of a 95 XJ w/ 150k. Had a nasty leak on the passenger side, there was about 1/2" of grime stuck to the spindle. So I knew it had to be stripped. Since I was already in there, and I didn't really enjoy removing the axle shafts, I decided to replace the ball joints and U joints. I'm gonna pressure wash the axle housing and passenger shaft before installing the new parts. I did get the driver side U joint replaced. I used a ball joint press, make the whole job much easier than messing with a vise and sockets. Still couldn't imagine doing all that on the trail.

 

 

 

[jerpderp]

I also ordered an NV3550 from a junkyard in Nebraska. Wasn't too much more expensive than the AX-15s around here, has 40k less miles, a 90 day warranty and of course came out of a newer vehicle. However while looking at the pictures the junkyard sent me, the output shaft doesn't look like its flush with the rear housing. That makes me wonder if my transfer case input shaft will mesh with that. I did some research at the Advanced Adaptors and Novak Adapt websites, and both NV3550 info pages say the output is flush. BUT Novak has an input shaft page and it looks like my T case has a short shaft and the NV needs a long shaft. So I probably need to buy another t case, or buy some parts for mine and rebuild it..

 

 

[jerpderp]

So I set out to continue my refresh on the junkyard D30, it was time to remove all the old ball joints. The first one I went to remove was in there pretty good. I suppose when you're in the same location for 20 years, you get reluctant to move. After I put a cheater bar on my breaker bar I ended up with this:

 

 

Looked like I had hosed myself pretty good, was thinking I was going to have to cut the rest of it out. Luckily, there was plenty of meat on the bottom side to push on and I ended up pressing it out no problem. Moral of the story: don't force things with too much pressure, just beat the hell out of it with a hammer till it breaks free. After that insight, I was able to get the other 3 out without a hitch.

 

 

I replaced all the ball joints with new Spicer parts, replaced the 2 control arm bushings and both U joints. The spindles from the axle had some nasty chipping on the brake pad sliding surface, so I took the ones off my parts Cherokee. I looked into getting the spindles repaired at a welding shop, but they wanted $200(!) to weld a bead over the chipped areas and smooth it out.

 

[jerpderp]

List of parts for Dana 30 install:

95 D30

Old Man Emu 2930 springs

Moog coil isolators

JK Rubicon Shocks

JKS bar pin eliminators

Old Man Emu steering stabilizer

Centric brake rotors

NAPA brake calipers

Hawk light truck pads

Brake lines

[jerpderp]

Took the plunge and installed the D30 last Monday. Went pretty smooth for the major work, however the devil is in the details. Got the old beam out no problem, got the D30 hooked up and popped the springs in. Wanted to replace the original torx upper control arm bolts with regular hex stuff, NAPA only had grade 5 stuff. Hesitantly decided they would work in the short term. More on that later. Hooked up the brakes. The lines hit the shock mounts before full lock. Turns out the lines I bought a few months ago were for a 2wd. Time for another parts run. Correct lines installed, start bleeding the system, the metering block locks out the front brakes, causing me to be utterly confused. That didn't happen when I did the proportioning valve delete. That took up more time to figure out. Bleed done, get the wheels on, set her on the floor to torque the control arms. Those grade 5 bolts couldn't make it to the spec 55 ft lbs. Stripped the threads and wouldn't back off. Sadly, I was defeated for that night. Woke up the next morning and went to Tacoma Screw and got the CORRECT grade 8 fasteners. Cut off the stripped nut and installed the new bolts. Remember kids, don't mess around with low quality fasteners for super important things like suspension components. Moment of truth. She drives like a dream! Steering wheel is off, but tracks straight. The combination of OME coils and rubicon shocks is amazing. Firm, but supple.

[jerpderp]

Using the info from another thread, I measured the amount of lift the OME 2930s gave me, and it appears to only be 1.25" over 4x4 springs. :???: 9" from the frame rail to the top of the axle housing. I'm guessing its because of the winch mount, but that is only ~50# or so, I dunno. Doesn't really bother me, combined with the factory 2wd leaf springs and JKS lift shackles, the rear sits 0.5" higher, which I think is perfect. Flares measure 33"f/33.5"r off the ground through the center of the wheels. If I get an itch someday I'll buy some spacers for the front and some new leaves out back.

 

[jerpderp]

After installing the axle and lift springs, the 28mm sway bar and Warn winch mount didn't wanna play nice together. The factory end links were too short, causing the sway bar to swing forward and contact the winch mount. So I drove with no sway bar for a week. It wasn't too bad, definitely could notice the increased flex. But the truck did track funny when loaded and going over larger bumps. I felt like it wouldn't be safe in a emergency maneuver. I didn't really want to, but I had to order some longer endlinks and decided on JKS Quicker Disconnects. They are cool, I just could have spent the money elsewhere. Install was nice and straightforward, seem to be good quality like the other JKS items I've purchased.

 

 

 

[jerpderp]

Not much of an update, but I figured I'd share. I was perusing craigslist for parts and saw there was a local junkyard that had 2(!) Comanches. I had to go check em out and see if they had already been picked clean. One was a Renix that looked like it had been there a while, and most off the good stuff was gone. There were a couple Manche specific things still there: rear speaker brackets, fuel tank, rear axle, and a Draw Tite tow hitch. I am eyeing the hitch, but since the the leaf springs are removed, the hitch is supporting the truck by sitting on a stack of steel wheels.

 

 

 

The second truck, however, was practically untouched. Not quite a gold mine, maybe a silver mine, if you will. I checked the date on the tag under the hood. Sadly, it appears to be a 92.  :cry:  Some bad person out there ruined this truck with a HORRIBLE army green paint job, unaware of an invention called masking tape. :no: The taillights had a good bit of overspray, but I don't think they're cracked. Looks like that same person had the same attention to detail as far as routine maintenance goes, as the engine is kaput.

 

 

Enough of that, I scored some quality parts. I ended up grabbing the cab vents, speaker brackets and plastic gas tank protectors. I also grabbed a H.O. oil filter adapter, rear view mirror and some battery tie down bolts off a Cherokee. So now I FINALLY have rear speakers, :rock on: a rear view mirror that isn't hazy, and now my truck takes common oil filters. A productive couple days at the junkyard.

 

I do have a complaint about the H.O. oil filter adapter: the filter is not very accessible anymore. The Renix charcoal canister is all up in the way. Depending on how the next oil change goes, I might go back the the Renix adapter, but with the H.O. nipple. With new o-rings, of course. And the tranny swap will happen soon! This is my daily, so I have to plan around that.

 

[jerpderp]

Welp, since its been about six(!) months since a real update,been a bit lazy, and a bit distracted by a new project:

 

 

But now it's high time to provide the goods. I ended up swapping in the trans/t-case in early April, went pretty well.

 

 

Old and new, side by side with my friend's doggo, Big Vinny. Definitely a size/weight difference. The actual tranny swap was probably the smoothest R and R I've ever done. But as they say, the devil is in the details. Here's some photographic evidences of issues that tried to derail me:

 

 

This f#@&!^g exhaust donut had a death grip on my exhaust manifold. :mad: Neither the hammer/pry bar or hammer/chisel methods worked. Had to bring in the angle grinder/cutoff wheel to put a hurtin' on the donut. Cut out a ledge to pry on, only took about 45 minutes... :roll:

 

 

For some sadistic reason, :fs2: a Jeep engineer decided that a 19mm allen was the ultimate way to remove and reinstall your drain/fill plugs on your NV3550. What normal person has an allen wrench set that goes that high? And I thought the metric square drive plugs on the Peugeot trans were ridiculous. Of course this was at 1 in the morning when I discovered this, but I would not admit defeat. So I found a 19mm bolt and a few nuts and whipped up a drain plug tool. Put the bolt head in the plug, and use a 19mm socket on the nuts to turn it. Words cannot describe the sense of victory I felt at that moment(or was it the lack of sleep?)

[jerpderp]

After a few test drives, speedo was shaking violently, did an inspection, found that the inner cable was too long:

 

 

Word of advice, don't use tin snips to trim the cable, it'll fray. Use a cut off wheel.

 

Now that big work was done, all I had to do was rebuild and install the front drive shaft. Turns out that the double cardan is a bit tricky. It was slow going but I made good progress until it was time to reinstall the slinger. I tried using a punch/hammer and like an animal, I mangled 2 of them(the first one was worse):

 

 

I finally came to my senses a month or so later and ordered a special installer for $25:

 

 

Worked like a charm. Highly recommended if you're gonna rebuild your own front driveshaft.

 

[jerpderp]

So the Comanche was finally a 4x4. What a day that was. Took it to a stormwater drainage pit in my parents neighborhood to test it out, works flawlessly. My god, what a treat it is to drive with a proper transmission. No offense to you BA10-5 guys, but the NV3550 is night and day. Benefits: NV3550=stronger and shifts nicer, new hydraulics=lighter pedal w/ more feel, new u-joints=no more bad vibes man. Definitely changed the driving experience.

[87Chief]

How much was the nv3550 if you don't mind me asking? Also what year and make did it come from? What trade did you use and did you run into any problems with the input shaft being flush?

 

Thanks!

[Minuit]

Well you've already done way more in 3 pages than I have in 10. Love the Pontiac also. :thumbsup:

[jerpderp]

How much was the nv3550 if you don't mind me asking? Also what year and make did it come from? What trade did you use and did you run into any problems with the input shaft being flush?

 

Thanks!

The NV3550 was $600 shipped from a junkyard in Nebraska. I'm in WA. Found it on car-part.com(love that site). EVERYONE around here wants $400+ for their clapped out AX15 so I figured I'd spend a bit more for an upgraded trans. It was from a 2000 Cherokee. Tcase is an NP242 from a 91 Cherokee, short input. I talked to the guys at Advance Adapters about tcase inputs, and they said you could use long or short inputs with an NV3550. :dunno: I would prefer a long input just for the extra meat. I can take some pics if you want, there are some little differences you have to deal with.

 

 

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[jerpderp]

Well you've already done way more in 3 pages than I have in 10. Love the Pontiac also. :thumbsup:

Thanks man! Well you've got twice the Comanches to deal with so that's a lot to maintain. All the little things take the most time. Hopefully the Pontiac will get sorta daily status soon.

 

 

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