92 The TowManche

[iimafa]

I welded the front diff over the weekend and took it out for the first time to haspin acres, And oh lord was it impossible to steer (as expected) when it was locked in, so I kept jumping in and out locking and unlocking one of the hubs. 
 

all went well on the shake down run. Heard a noise a few hours in so I jumped under it and found the rear drive shaft bolts were loose so tightened them up. Later on I pressed the start button and she went completely dead and found I blew one of the main 150 amp fuses, no biggie, I swapped it out and no other issues. 
 

the next step is hydro assist, looking at the 1.75”x8” PSC ram, hopefully I’ll be ordering it in the next few weeks. There’s a few little things I need to be addressed before this build can be considered “finished” and I will attempt to address those over the next few months and those include
1. tail lights 

2. front winch solenoid 

3. front tube fenders 

4. New batteries

5. organized tool box
6. Overhead speakers 

7. Bed tool box

8. paint the boom 
 

after that, it’s 5.38s and ARBs when the funds allow…. That will be the true finish line…. Until it’s times for a drivetrain swap, thinking an OM617 with an AW4 and an atlas 4 speed… or that might just become a different build all together… 

[iimafa]

Took the rig out a few more times and have only done a few small things to it like clear coating most of the body, fixed an oil leak, and fixed the CB. The trip out was super muddy but she ran great, A/F hold perfect under boost and it sounds cool and not super loud. Only thing is the lack of power requires a lot of rpm in the mud so that lead to some higher temps which required me to stop a few times to let her cool off. No problem though, cooked off in minutes and back to moving. 

 

one thing I’m finding which kind of sucks is the rear boom control is kind of a pain to get to and has to be put away to move again. It’s not terrible but it’s not very convenient.
i was looking at these controls on Amazon. Thinking I could tie the front winch in with it and eventually have the rear boom cylinder on it also. (They have them with more buttons for almost the same cost) Still just a thought because I plan to wheel it how it is for awhile. 
 

the biggest thing I’ve done to it since the last update was adding tail lights. These are the dodge dakota lights which don’t fit perfect but they will work, $25 a light is much better than actual lights made for a Comanche which run about $125 a piece. It should hurt much less when I break these on a tree. 
 

When flipped over, they are very very close to the same size 

I have a 45” brake light bar coming also that I will mount under the tail gate, so hopefully it’ll turn out pretty good and I’ll have some good reverse lights directly behind the tailgate. The light bar up top works well, but leaves a huge dark zone about 10 foot from the rear bumper which is not ideal. 

[Pete M]

yup, they are most certainly good enough for a wheeler.  

[iimafa]

On 1/10/2024 at 11:50 PM, Pete M said:

yup, they are most certainly good enough for a wheeler.  

That’s exactly what I was thinking, considering the amount of tail lights I’ve gone through on my Cherokee, I would be a much poorer man if I tried to do that with genuine Comanche lights. 

[iimafa]

Had a pretty heavy snow day here in Indiana so went ahead and drove the rig to work. Cruises down the road very very nice. Before the turbo it struggled to maintain 50-60 mph on 33s, but I was rolling that with no real issue on the 41.5s!! Very impressed. I wired the wastegate shut the other day because the bolts keep backing themselves out. This caused some massive boost spikes, a few times it touched 13-15 PSI…. Which is not what I want but geez the 2.5 felt like it had some power. It very easily runs away with the AFR now so the stock injectors need to be swapped out for some larger ones. Either 4.0 injectors or mustangs, I’ll get to that soon.

 

i also found a steering box brace for $100 on Amazon so grabbed that and went to install but found it didn’t fit at all with the 2.5 radiator. So chopped it up and made it work. Turned out pretty good though.
this is how it looked out of the box

chopped and welded before grinding the welds smooth

after paint 

this shows how the radiator hangs between the frame rails. This is the main reason it doesn’t fit, the 4.0 radiator is squeezed between the core support and doesn’t come this low. 
this is wit it installed  

this shows how it fit around the pitman arm. Does a very nice job of holding the box. 
 

I went ahead and mounted another fire extinguisher on the rig. I see way too many videos of rigs burning down and don’t want that to happen to mine or any of my buddies.

Very very simple mount, it uses zip ties. The idea was to have it out in the open where anyone could get it if needed. The mount will most likely break if it’s ripped off but that’s just fine. It’s a single use system anyways. 
this is my hornet finally making its way in the garage, honestly I think everyone needs a vehicle with a boom. This rig has helped out so many times. 

[iimafa]

No real update on the rig except that I’ve been using it a lot around the house and shop, still waiting on funds/deals for new tires and wheel, gear and ARBs, and hydro assist. 

[ke3ves]

How's it been doing?