Any Ideas????

[tay-manche]

What do I do next.... I have an 88 Manche 2WD 4Cyl 5 speed The body is alright and the engine is fine, I am thinking either converting it to 4WD and making it a pretty serious machine or buying another manche and keeping this one as a daily driver with 20 MPG.... What do I do? ? ?

[500 MJ]

If you could find another one that is already 4wd and the body not in the best of shape, I'd make that into the offroad machine and keep the nice one nice...

[tay-manche]

I forgot to mention.... I found another Comanche at the junkyard that is four wheel drive, nice body, 5 speed tranny, but there is one problem..... No engine! haha! There is a Cherokee right next to it with a decent 6 banger. Would you say that a four banger has enough power to get me where I want to go, or would you say definately go for the bigger 6 cylinder. Also, what about tranny's! I'm thinking automatic would be an ideal. One more thing if you know... How would one determine what gears they have?

[Eagle]

If you could find another one that is already 4wd and the body not in the best of shape, I'd make that into the offroad machine and keep the nice one nice...

Ditto.

 

Nice ones are already hard to find, and getting more so. There are ALWAYS clunkers you can make into "machines."

[JeepcoMJ]

well, that nice one...if it didn't have the gm 2.8 or the good 'ol 2.5 in it, it will basically have to have a 6 cyl 4.0 in it unless you want to do a custom engine swap with custom tranny install...or a complete swap to 4 cyl engine and drivetrain.

 

I would get a 6 cyl auto if you're looking for a hardcore wheeler

[DirtyComanche]

Hardcore wheeler... I'd get one without a motor.

[500 MJ]

From my experiences:

 

My Dad had a '99 TJ with the 4 cyl and my bro presently has a '94 YJ with the 4 cyl. Dad's got lifted and had 35"s on it and once that happened you couldnt use 5th gear if you wanted to. My Brothers is still stock and he gets the same mileage with his YJ as I get with my 6 cyl MJ... Therefore, I'm not a fan of the 4 cyl. Some guys like it but I'd just rather not deal with it.

 

That being said, look for a 4.0L. They are abundant and one of the best engines ever made in my opinion. Before '91, they were non HO. I had an HO in a Cherokee and it was backed with an (AW4) Auto. I got about 15 mpg highway with it. With the non HO and manual tranny in my '88 MJ I presently get about 18 mpg highway. It doesnt have as much pep, but the torque is still there in the non HO...

 

I'm not really a fan of automatics...

 

If you go manual, stay away from the BA-10, it'll only cost you more $$ down the road after it implodes on you. AX-15 is the way to go with manuals.

 

To find out what gearing you have: jack the rear axle up so that one tire is still on the ground. Mark the tire in relation to the bedside fender (tape works good) and then mark the driveshaft in relation to the pinion. Turn the driveshaft one whole turn and make sure you see how far the wheel turns in relation to this driveshaft turn. Take the amount of wheel turns and multiply it by 2 (because there are two wheels) and that is your gear ratio.

 

Or you could pop the cover off and count teeth to find out.