RuBacon Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 I've been wanting to add the right Comanche to the Jeep collection for 10 years or more, but have struggled to find something nearby that wasn't completely chopped up, rusted out, or both. My amazing wife has an incredible knack for finding just about anything, and lucky for me, that superpower extends beyond the things I've misplaced around the house. She spotted a listing for an 89 Comanche with a 4.0 engine, 4 wheel drive, and a manual transmission just after it was posted and sent me a link. It was priced reasonably given the current market, but as I chatted with the owner I found out it was a rust free California and Nevada truck and he had a collection of spare parts for it that made it seem absolutely worth the asking price and a 70 mile drive to check it out. After a quick test drive and a thorough once over, we knew this was the one. We exchanged cash for keys and spent the next hour loading up everything the previous owner had collected before we hit the road. Almost 70 miles later at speeds up to 70mph we pulled into our driveway as the buyers rejoice set in and it has only been increasing with each day that I've been working on it. There's a lot of tinkering ahead, but with the wealth of knowledge shared here, I'm confident this Jeep can be everything I want it to be and more. Looking forward to sharing my progress with you all and reading through more of your motivational builds and technical help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knever3 Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 Looks great! Even though it's a Western truck check under the carpet. These leak from everywhere and the water rusts out the floor pan while the entire truck is otherwise rust free. Those rims look excellent with that truck. It looks like it was painted at some point, the door striker is red. Good luck with the project! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 love it! welcome to the addiction! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWheeler331 Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 Awesome little truck you found. I recently found one nearly identical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuBacon Posted March 1, 2022 Author Share Posted March 1, 2022 Thanks for the kind words guys! Got some more time to go over everything and I now have the makings of a rather healthy to-do list! Good eye on the respray, it had been done years ago and luckily they did a half decent job, but it could've been masked better in places and has definitely faded badly. The current plan is to prep and respray the original red at some point, but I'd like to make sure everything else is worthy first. A bottle of gear oil had spilled under the seat at some point, so the carpet had to come out. It had been cut up a bit around the transmission tunnel and was in pretty rough shape even without the odor, so it was taken out to the garbage can in pieces. As I started my detective work, it seemed like someone was interested in caring about this truck a decade ago or so. Some of the ground wires have been questionably upgraded, a set of Volvo injectors were installed, the AX15 has an external slave cylinder, and the Dana 35 has been converted to disc brakes. The floors were also cleaned and coated with some black paint. I've had to replace floor pans before, and these look decently clean and original and seem to be structurally sound. I like the bench seat, and if I can find one with headrests at some point I'll likely go that route, but some nice Cherokee buckets (no tilt forward mechanism) showed up on the local classifieds and I couldn't resist. Got the mounting brackets swapped and the seats test fit. They need some cleaning, but they're in great shape overall and will certainly work for now. After finding this wire in place as the main power feed to the starter relay and so many other questionable connections, splices, and sections of wire, I've decided that a full electrical refresh is definitely topping the to-do list. It'll be a great chance to apply all of Cruiser54's electrical tips and will hopefully prevent an electrical fire from taking another Comanche off the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuBacon Posted March 8, 2022 Author Share Posted March 8, 2022 As I investigated further and found a never ending supply of crumbling wire loom, cracked and failing wire insulation, and my first experience with duct taped factory wiring splices, I soon realized there was no way I'd be able to close the hood and forget what I'd seen. Upon disconnecting my C100 connector at the firewall, I was greeted with a brown, gooey mess of leaky clutch master cylinder fluid and 1980's wire sealant. Thanks to the wealth of knowledge on this forum, I soon had a complete wiring diagram and C100 pinout printed off and I was searching catalogs of 30+ year old General Motors electrical connectors. I found all the weather pack and metri-pack 150, 280, and 480 terminals and supplies that I could ever want at customconnectorkits.com and placed my order. I was lucky enough to find an early 90's Cherokee with an automatic at a local junk yard and spent a long lunch break pulling the power steering pump with adjuster bracket and the engine wiring harness complete with relay/fuse box, C100 connector (free from leaky clutch fluid), and the interior fuse panel. The unlucky part came when I got home and realized nearly every wire had changed color between '89 and '93, but the components I could use now and for future upgrades were worth every one of the $23 spent. I pulled every wire from my junkyard C100 connector and found that a combination of soaking with WD-40, agitating with a toothbrush and pick, rinsing with electrical contact cleaner...and frequently repeating, got the desired effect. With the interior half cleaned, I transferred my wires one by one, employing the same cleaning method and referencing the connector pinout to learn which wires were going where. I made sure each terminal retention tab was bent out far enough to keep the wire secured and checked for any damaged insulation as I went. I'm definitely pleased with the results and looking forward to getting the engine bay wiring cleaned up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knever3 Posted March 9, 2022 Share Posted March 9, 2022 Great Job!!Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 most impressive a job that many MJs need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiNi Beast Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 What do you do when you get bored? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuBacon Posted March 10, 2022 Author Share Posted March 10, 2022 Much appreciated guys! It's been a fun process to work through so far and it's giving me plenty of time to decide on an overall direction for this build. 19 hours ago, MiNi Beast said: What do you do when you get bored? Ha! I think that's usually when I start searching for another Jeep project... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuBacon Posted March 11, 2022 Author Share Posted March 11, 2022 I didn't really like the main wiring bundle running through the grill area, so I decided to re-route everything along the firewall. I had a number of damaged wires near various connectors, and this change in routing freed up some extra length allowing me to cut the damage out and add new terminals. I realize this particular Comanche led an easy life in California, but I haven't found a sealed connection yet that was significantly corroded. Because of this, I decided to just freshen up all the original weather pack connections and continue using them, even though there are some better options available. All of the unsealed relay terminals and Packard 56 connections are a bit worse off though. Even the duct taped splices were in surprisingly good shape! They still got cleaned and properly sealed though. I also decided it might be interesting to attempt a rebuild of my leaking power steering pump instead of buying a parts store rebuild. The old lip seal on the pump shaft was so hard it just crumbled when I removed it and that certainly explained the leak. The whole process was pretty simple and didn't require any specialized tools other than a pump pulley puller. The only problem I ran into was the square cross section o-rings on the inner and outer plates that had been replaced by standard circular cross section o-rings in the rebuild kit. The new o-rings didn't allow the pump to reassemble properly, and I couldn't find suitable replacements, so I pulled a dry steering pump from the junkyard and ended up just needing the inner plate o-ring to complete my rebuild. It was a messy process, so I didn't get as many photos as I would've liked. When I first drove the Jeep home my clutch pedal and brake pedal were nearly touching each other making smooth shifts quite the challenge! I removed the pedal assembly and found the plastic bushings in the pivots had been worn out for quite some time. Listings for Jeep replacements seemed to run about $10 for a pair, but further searching turned up a Chevy set of 4 for $12. It's amazing how much slop can be taken out by having the right plastic bits in place! While I was repairing the reverse light switch wiring, I noticed something didn't look quite right with the transmission mount. It looks like some sort of adapter plate was used and it's causing the transmission to sit higher than it should be. From my initial searching, it appears that the correct mounting plate should have a step in it and the cross member should be moved back instead of sitting directly under the the four mounting bolts on the transmission. Looks like the proper offset mounting plate is hard to come by, so I may have to fabricate my own solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuBacon Posted March 17, 2022 Author Share Posted March 17, 2022 Most of the engine bay wiring is complete and wrapped with Tesa tape, just waiting on a few more terminals to show up before I finish wrapping and routing things. After running the Jeep a few times to make sure all of my new connections ended up in the right place, I noticed that my radio was occasionally staying on after removing the key from the ignition. Thanks to Cruiser54 and HOrnbrod's expert diagnosis on a few other posts I'd recently read through, I knew to head straight for the ignition switch on top of the steering column. Sure enough, the brown wire was melting the connector at the switch, so I got a replacement ordered for both and I'm hopeful my wiring upgrades will prevent it from happening again. I also got the new headlight relay wiring cleaned up and mostly wrapped as well. I also sleep a lot better at night knowing that my power steering fluid's cap has been properly sealed for my protection... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted April 8, 2022 Share Posted April 8, 2022 gonna be a whole new Jeep! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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