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A College Students V8 Comanche


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It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update since I haven’t been near my truck since January. I have been collecting parts for it though so I can start to replace some of the worn out appearance parts. I scored a nice non faded set of taillights that look a lot better than the ones I have as well as a nicer set of Comanche emblems. I found a factory radio that I want to put in to replace my 1990 era cheap radio since I like the look of the oe one much more. I also got a different style of side mirror that isn’t the breakaway style from a 93-96 cherokee since mine arnt in the best shape. I’ll be able to start putting some of these parts on it this weekend. I hope to have time to change out the rear flex brake line as well as finish putting the passengers door back together and fix the turn signals

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1 minute ago, eaglescout526 said:

Holy cow! Those taillights have mirror reflection to them! That's a score to make some jealous. Did ya find them in a junkyard?

I actually found them from a guy who was parting out a comanche in Michigan.  I didn’t pay junkyard prices for them but I also didn’t pay more then I’ve seen hazy sets sell for. They are still shiny and very clear unlike my other set

 

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19 hours ago, Pete M said:

most of the hazy ones can become shiny again with a bit of work. :L:  

I’m sure mine can probably be made shiny again but I got a deal I couldn’t refuse on these so I’ll probably just keep the other set as spares. I do also have a third imperfect set that has some age cracking but I don’t think there’s anything that can be done to fix those

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I simply cleaned this pair and hit them with some clear coat.  it may not be the best route for ones that can actually be brought back to perfection, but they look dang good from 10 ft. :D 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I got my coolant reservoir mounted today which was one of the last things I had to do to my truck. I’m back home on spring break so I hope so get it insured and registered on Monday so I can take it to get a tuneup and allignment before I have to go back to school. I need to try to find a different upper radiator hose tomorrow since the one I have is very very close to hitting the belt and I’d like to do a few things to the interior 

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Today I got a new upper radiator hose installed in my truck that clears the belt much better as well as the ac compressor (which currently is bypassed). I also thinned out the factory engine bay harness and removed all of the wiring that I didn’t need anymore. In doing so I found a mess of splices and junctions wrapped in duck tape which may explain some of the electrical gremlins that I had. It looks much cleaner now and it’s much easier to find and trace wires. All of the splices got soldered and heat shrink tubing so I hopefully won’t have any more issues

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finally got my truck registered and insured after owning it for 3 years which was a pretty big milestone. I also made the discovery that the front accessory drive that I have on my engine hits the hood when I install the ac compressor. I had a bypass pulley on it and had never tried the actual compressor until a few days ago. I’m going to source another one from a 94-95 Chevy truck with the 5.7 which I know will clear the hood. The 4.3 Chevy blazer set up that I have on it now is getting sold to my dad who wants to use it on another project. I also got the truck tuned up and figured out that the carburetor was messed up again so I had the shop install a low mileage pretty much new one on it just to get it back on the road. I plan to do throttle body efi at some point after I get the rest of the truck dialed in but I’d rather use that money on the ac components that I need right now

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1 hour ago, 88mjsally said:

I finally got my truck registered and insured after owning it for 3 years which was a pretty big milestone.

 

indeed it is! :applause: there are a bunch of MJ owners familiar with that feeling. :L: 

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My dad took the truck to get aligned last weekend while I’m at school and he says it drives much better. I also picked up a new to me toolbox that was cheap but needs a little cleaning up. I’ll be back home working on it more this coming weekend so I can finish up a few more little things and possibly drive it back to clemson for the end of the semester. I need to change out the instrument cluster, fix the seat belt buckles, fix the floor, tighten the drivers wheel bearing and adjust the almost worn out rear drum breaks

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  • 1 month later...

I’ve been working on the truck again this weekend since I just got finished with school until the fall. I got the rear drum brakes replaced since they were worn out and I didn’t want to mess with a disk brake or axle swap right now. A ford 8.8 is coming soon but until I fix some other issues I am going to hold off on that and just drive it like it has a dana 35. My dad has been driving the truck around a lot and it’s doing pretty good other than some speedo bouncing issues, no windshield wipers and a horrible windshield that is very scratched up and needs to be replaced. I’m going to try to troubleshoot the wipers today and maybe do a few other small things

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I have started finishing up the interior recently including fixing the wipers, installing door panels and adding courtesy lights. I picked up a xj third brake light from the junk yard and I’m planning on trying to adapt it to fit in the back window so I have one

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  • 3 weeks later...

I’ve been fighting a few issues with my truck recently but I think I have most of them worked out. It sputtered and died on me last week when I drove it home from work. At first I thought it was out of gas but I added gas to it and that still didn’t fix it. Then I put in a new fuel pump since the old one wasn’t running anymore which also didn’t fix it. At that point it was dark so I had it towed home and I ordered a fuel pump relay harness for it. After installing that on Thursday afternoon I was still having issues which I traced back to a bad fuel pump ground. I’m running an aftermarket fuel pump and I made my own ground but apparently it wasn’t good enough. It’s running good now and I used it to tow a 21 foot trailer home so I could wire it. Now I just need to fix the bouncing speedo which I hope to get too today

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15 minutes ago, Pete M said:

glad the fix turned out to be cheap.  :L:   how are classes going?

Well it was kinda cheap.... I went ahead and put the new fuel pump and relay harness in so I didn’t have any other problems with it. Classes are going pretty well. I have two more years left before I graduate

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  • 2 weeks later...

I’ve been driving the truck more in the past week and am really putting it to work today hauling all of the scrap from past projects. It’s still doing pretty well and I’m planning on working on fixing the small amount of rust in the floors this weekend so I can insulate and put down new carpet

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4 hours ago, Pete M said:

I assume you found the water leak that caused the rust?

Yes I did, the vent windows were leaking a little bit so I replaced those and it was leaking under the dash around the heater box so I fixed that as well. It’s rained a lot here recently and I haven’t seen any water come inside 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I’ve been working on repairing the rust in my floors over the past week and have it all cut out and patched now. I decided to use plug welds to weld in the new metal then seam sealed the edges like factory. I have also put down insulation on the floor and the back of the cab. I’m hoping to put the carpet in today and get the interior back together. I’ve also been fighting a ping in the motor at wide open throttle. I’ve had it in and out of the shop that I had tuning on it and they haven’t gotten it figured out yet so I bought a timing light yesterday so I can try to retard the timing and make it run a little better

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The carpet has finally been installed in my truck and the interior is all back together for the first time since I started the motor swap. It looks really nice and the new carpet fit very well with only minor trimming needed. I also got new rugged ridge floor mats to keep the carpet looking nice

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