Checkin In Finally

[BustedKnuckleJK]

Hey everyone, lurked for quite awhile, finally got some time to register!

 

Name is Patrick, livin' in the tropical paradise that is Southwest Florida.

 

Longtime Jeeper, specifically XJs, had five so far [so far.. as in there's a 50/50 shot of the wife filing divorce if I drag another one home]. Had a handful of WJ's and ZJ's, and the garage currently consists of my JKU, the wife's Patriot, and a pile of a CJ-2A that I've been lugging around for 2 years without actually working on, lol.

 

The JK has outgrown daily driver duty at this point, with 37"s and 4.88 gears, Yukon lockers, it's not exactly economical. So I needed a new daily. And it came from an unlikely source. A customer of mine [I run an automotive shop] made a comment one evening about the trailer on my JK. I explained what I was doing [moving the CJ to my new house]. He said he needs to "Get that ole' Jeep outta my yard." I'm like dude, I've known you for 8 years, you never said you had a Jeep just laying around. He goes on to tell me it's a Comanche. I corrected him naturally, telling him he meant Cherokee, the little boxy SUV, because of course, there's no way on earth he's hidden an MJ from me all these years. "Nope, the little pickup truck. Ran great. Clutch gave out in 99' so I parked it in the field."

 

Mind you, I was already going to make an offer on what I thought was an XJ, but now he confirms that there's basically a unicorn at his house. MJ's for me were always the holy grail of Jeeps. My wife laughs at me for giggling like a kid when I see one at an event. So, sight unseen, with no info on it, I ask. "How much?" He laughs hard, "If you can get to it, it's yours. I haven't been back in that field for a few years. If it's still there, I know I have keys and a title for it."

 

A few months later, with the help of a friend, and cutting our way through brush for an hour, spending another hour manuring a trailer out there, using the JK winch to pull the MJ up on the trailer... I've got my last piece of the Jeep puzzle.

 

With the tech help of this forum, and some old XJ tricks, I've spent the last two months [depleting my bank account on RockAuto] getting her running and back on the road. Tomorrow I'm finishing the master/booster, then going down to the DMV to hang a tag on her. Another MJ saved thanks to you all! Glad to be a part of it!

[NHMJXJ]

Welcome!  Hope you took pictures of the approach!

[dasbulliwagen]

Awesome! Love it. We would love some pictures!

[WyoCherokee]

welcome! we need some photos of the field Recovery! and the MJ of course.

 

[fiatslug87]

Make sure to add it to the registry https://comancheclub.com/forum/28-comanche-registry/

[BustedKnuckleJK]

Thanks all. Don't have any of it buried, we were sort of on a time crunch.

 

But as luck would have it, as we were leaving, and moments after I said &quoute: "That went pretty smooth!" that was the moment I caught a piece of wood in one of the trailer tires. Luckily enough, another shop I also running at the time was nearby, so we stopped and I patched the tire. While waiting, my buddy snagged a candid photo.

 

 

She's rough, that's for sure. But like I said, it's just a daily to tool around in, and get my "real Jeep" addiction fix. That was about 2 months ago. Since then, I've done the clutch kit, [BA10/5], rear main seal, clutch master, and replaced the crushed oil pan, and oil pump.

 

Being a former Renix owner, I also replaced the usual suspects without questioning them: Radiator, coolant bottle, hoses, water pump, valve cover gasket, u-joints, coil, plugs, wires, belt, idler pulley, dropped tank and acid cleaned, rebuilt the fuel pump, and filters. My buddy that helped unearth it also recently got his first Jeep, an XJ, so I've been helping him get that running, and tossing him a few spare XJ aftermarket offroad parts, in exchange I got the like new stock tires off his XJ. Also stripped the interior, reupholstered the headliner, tore out the rusted and busted bench seat, snagged some nice XJ seats from the junkyard and sort of bolted them in for now [already have the seat bracket thread printed for the next project haha] and threw some cheap carpet in it so I can tolerate sitting in it.

 

Valvetrain and crank were SSSLLUUGGGEDDD. I spent about 3 days on and off just cleaning out as much crap as possible. Filled the crank case with 3 qts of oil, 2 qts transmission fluid, and 1 qt Marvel. Engine has had about 2 hours of total running time on that concoction. Got it all insured and registered, and hung an already beat up tag on it, matches the patina quite well, lol.

 

I drove it down to my shop for now, so I can work on it throughout the day in my downtime, instead of late nights in the driveway. It's all little things now. Changed the oil already, looks like it broke the sludge up that I couldn't get nicely, runs like a sowing machine. Doesn't get near 210*, and it's still running straight water, figured I'd do that to cycle all the crud out, then do a proper flush and add coolant.

 

Working on electrical for the next few days, eliminating ground loops, sorting/cleaning the fuse block, replacing light sockets and switches, etc. Past that, it's just bolt the seats down correctly, throw in the rest of the parts awaiting, master/booster, rear brake hose, clutch hydraulic hose, get a dang shift knob, sand down the bed and bedline, rebuild the wiper motor, and maybe find a tailgate.

 

Thanks everyone, and again, thanks for the helpful forum. Reminds me of CherokeeForum days. She'll be a great daily!

 

 

Had to throw a JK pic in there, simply because I tribute my XJs and CJ on it to piss off the JK guys.

 

 

[Pete M]

good to hear you made it     love the truck!

[bluenotenick]

Great find and I really like it in black with those polished rims.