Comanche Trailhawk: DD and Mild Wheeler

[87Chief]

Good plan with the second 4.0. Good luck

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[sinkrun]

Whats sucks is I just junked a couple 4.0`s that needed rebuilt I would have gave you one. My guy will gladly just machine hes getting older semi retired mainly just does chevy race engines now but if hes in a good mood he will do others. He charged me around $450.00 to bore, deck the block,hot tank,check rods for twist and press on new pistons,check and polish the crank,new freeze plugs installed. Also he installed the rings, pistons and bearings I did the rest. I had a head that I bought already rebuilt. Theres a shop in Warriors Mark that wanted double this.

 

One thing I started dong on the 00 or 01 manifolds is using a stud and nut on the back couple bolt holes  at least you can feel what to do.

[Trailhawkmj]

Oh nice, I may hit you up in a few months when the time comes.  I might be leaning towards picking up another parts cherokee.  My yj-7 would really like the fuel injection and transmission from it while the truck would benefit from the block and a few other parts.  Just kind of depends on what I can find.

[sinkrun]

Theres a couple parts ones on facebook market place ones in Altoona and ones in houtzdale where I am.  I hunt up some links

[Trailhawkmj]

So today I got brave and went for a longer shakedown run.  I threw a bunch of tools and fluids in the bed and met my friend with his tj.  I really need to get a toolbox in the bed for all of my stuff but preferably one that sits completely below the bedsides.

 

Stopped to fill up the tank then drove at highway speeds til we hit the forest roads.

 

 

 

 

I decided to undo my swaybar and try to get on a for real rock... only to realize that I forgot to mount my swaybar disconnect post things to the inner fender and I also didn't have any zipties.  I just popped the one link off and let it dangle a bit.

 

 

 

This rock is still pretty weak but I didn't want to get super twisted up on some of the bigger ones without setting up the bumpstops.  Plus there was lots of broken glass and charred wood with nails around the bigger rocks.  Driving an automatic onto a rock was WEIRD 

 

Our little drive was around 25 miles and 3 hours long.  I also went up to 65mph for a little while.  Everything worked well and I"m really pleased with how it rides and drives.  A few issues did pop up though but nothing major.  I blew up the one front shock and it was puking fluid.  At speeds over 60 cold air blows out the foot vents.  Castor and alignment could use some tweaking.  Last but not least, it's really dirty and the paint didn't sparkle.  

 

One major thing that I'll be looking into in the near future is gearing.  My yj on 32's with 3.07s was worse but this setup isn't a whole lot better.

Overall though I'm very happy and feel this huge relief that everything came together and pretty much worked.  Pretty huge win.  We also got home before the salt trucks came out for the snow tonight.

[sinkrun]

This just showed up in altoona low miles if your still looking,

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/177149123067990

[Trailhawkmj]

On 2/17/2018 at 12:33 PM, sinkrun said:

This just showed up in altoona low miles if your still looking,

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/177149123067990

 

That would be perfect but I don't have the budget for it for a bit

 

In truck news,  I've been slowly knocking things off of my list to get this wrapped up.  I drove it to work for the first time since the conversion.  I finally washed all of the body work dust off of the underside and cleaned up the rest of it.

 

 

Spent some quality time on Valentines day installing the zj steering, coil spacers, and amber leds in the front.  I hate using coil spring compressors.  Springs are too long and droopy otherwise.

 

 

I got my .75 inch spacers on and my new bumpstop cups in.  Got the wrong size bumpstop as I had no idea they made 2 and 1.5 inch varieties.  Drilled and tapped the perch for some pucks then measured for shocks and pucks at droop and stuff.
 

 

 

 

The spacers made the stance perfect.  It sits a little under 1.5 inches higher in the rear which is right where I wanted it.

 

 

New headlights are in, led turn signal bulbs in, headlight relay harness in

 

 

Was getting a driveline vibe under acceleration.  Started inspecting things in the rear and found my ujoint strap bolts were backing out on the one cap, even though they were snug and I used loctite.  It didn't make much sense until i started taking the straps off.  It wasn't that the bolts were coming out.  There was way too much scale and rust along with gobs of chassis saver in the cradle of the yoke where the ujoint sits and it was enough to space the straps out away from the yoke and I didn't catch it on install.  Driving it squished or flaked the paint off some and created a gap allowing play.  When I tried removing the bolts, 2 of them snapped off immediately. Fun times.  I decided to drill them out then drill the yoke out for ubolts instead of straps.  It was working out until the last little bit left to drill and the whole side of the yoke split off.  Wasted all that time drilling and struggling just to have to replace the yoke anyways.

 

Found that my tie rod just barely touches the disconnect end while turning right.  I moved the link to the other side of the swaybar mount for now and will raise the mounts up in the next week or 2.

 

 

Glass guys came to do the windshield and put in my rear slider.  Took a little bit to find a company willing to put a 97xj windshield in an 88mj when the book told them it was different but these guys were willing to give it a try.  Got the slider in with minimal gaps.  Well worth the couple bucks to have them install it instead of myself.

 

 

Front windshield was a bit of a different story.  Whoever put the last one in didn't prep it or use any primer at all and it was surface rusted all of the way around.  They didn't want to put the new windshield in until I cleaned it up.  Took a few hours with various sanders and wire wheels with lots of metal and cardboard shielding to protect the paint in the area but I got it all clean and down to bare metal.

 

 

Now I'm just waiting on them to find the time to come back and finish it up.  This afternoon I'll be installing some hockey pucks on my spring perches and swapping out my yoke.

[SatiricalHen]

I don’t know if I missed it, but what’s the reason for the new windshield? And why put in a 97 windshield? Just curious.


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[Trailhawkmj]

51 minutes ago, SatiricalHen said:

I don’t know if I missed it, but what’s the reason for the new windshield? And why put in a 97 windshield? Just curious.
 

 

It was cracked and slowly growing into the driver's vision area was the main reason.  It also had several scratches and was foggy in the corners.  97+ has the rubber trim which I liked better than the chrome trim.

[Trailhawkmj]

Hope they are watertight!  It's been raining the last few days and forecast to rain til Monday.

 

 

 

Getting the glass in was the last major thing to cross off of the big list.  Still have some small things to take care of here and there but the conversion chapter of this is pretty much wrapped up.  

[jbain]

Nice work!

[Stump]

Great looking truck!  I like the rubber windshield trim.  Always wondered if that would work on my 89.  

[KANTANKRUS]

Which part of this build was the toughest (as in time consuming) and would you do it again? If so, would you suggest it, to others?

[Trailhawkmj]

Been a hot minute since I've updated the build thread.  I went back through and fixed all of the pics hopefully.  

 

I still have the truck and I still drive it around on occasion.  It's due for a bit of a refresh and will probably be put back into daily driver status. This is pretty much how it sits now, minus the rocksliders.

 

 

I'll keep it to the cliff note version of the last few years.

I have about 45,000 miles on it since my last post.  Swapped out the engine several years ago for another 4.0 due to cracked pistons.  Now the engine I swapped in also has cracked piston skirts.

 

Pretty much on daily driver status for about 6 years with a few trips into the woods here and there.  I had my YJ7 for my more serious offroading.

 

 

 

 

 

Five years ago I got brave and regeared to 4.10s myself.  Probably should have gone to 4.56s but the 4.10s have been doing ok.  A few years later my commute got longer so I picked up a 2015 JK and stopped daily driving the comanche.  My Yj was rusting out pretty bad in the frame and body mounts so I was pretty much forced to retire it.  I decided I would make the MJ my wheeler and began pulling parts from the YJ and putting them on the MJ.  Started with the 35s and a set of flat flares.  I also tossed on some rocksliders and built a hidden winch mount.  To round it out I installed the IRO 3 link kit up front and ditched the drop brackets and short arms.

 

 

 

The truck was in this configuration for 3 years.  I never really wheeled it hard since I didn't want to mess up a fairly straight truck.  I also didn't have to commute as far any more and missed driving it so I moved the winch, sliders, and 35's over to another recently acquired project and put the street tires back on the MJ.

 

My other project is pretty much 99% complete and I'll be able to put more attention on the MJ.  My other jeep truck project for those that are curious:

[EUREKA]

How do you like the iron rock off-road 3 link? Any noticable improvement in handling or just suspension articulation? 

[Trailhawkmj]

On 9/23/2025 at 9:38 PM, EUREKA said:

How do you like the iron rock off-road 3 link? Any noticable improvement in handling or just suspension articulation? 

It did improve some as the bushings in my lower control arms were pretty shot and it felt like they were always in a bit of a bind.  I was running drop brackets with the short arms so the ride change probably wasn't as drastic as going from stock geometry and the same lift to the 3link. With the swaybar unhooked it is way better than the drop brackets bombing down forest roads and trails. Overall the whole setup does drive down the road better than my 2dr JK.