1986 & 1988 Mj build? Part out?

[FT-Comanche]

Just bought my second Comanche. Don’t  know which one to start on. Strongly debating on parting out my 1988 but it has the 4.0. My 1986 has the 2.8 and I'm considering swaping a 4.0 from a jeep Cherokee. I would love to get both running but the 2.8 & 4.0 I'm not sure how much work it needs. Never did an engine swap or anything. Needed some guidance on if getting a wiring harness for both and going down the rabbit whole will be worth it.

1988 is a automatic 4.0 sb pioneer 4x4

1986 is a manual 2.8 Lb xls 4x4

[Big_Mark]

Mashemup!

 

Make one good one 

[The86manche]

What is wrong with both of them? I'd try qnd save them both and get them running. Sad to see potentially good ones go to parts when they are starting to get hard to find.

[eaglescout526]

I’d build both. Toss the 2.8L and toss in the 3.4L of the same engine family and sell it to build the other one better. 

[DirtyComanche]

Build both or sell one to somebody who will.  Neither of those should be parted out.

[FT-Comanche]

14 hours ago, Big_Mark said:

Mashemup!

 

Make one good one 

Idk i feel like both have potential you know

[FT-Comanche]

12 hours ago, The86manche said:

What is wrong with both of them? I'd try qnd save them both and get them running. Sad to see potentially good ones go to parts when they are starting to get hard to find.

The 86 is missing carburetor and needs floor pan and tailgate tail lights new dash 

88 needs new floor pan and wiring harness and ecm.  
i want to get both running just don't know where to start. I need to buy the wiring harness for both and fund pictures of both 2.8 and 4.0 engine bay to make sure i can find all parts. I have a few dashes i pulled of Cherokees and cowls and odds and end. Yall know where to get ajy if that. Ecm. Wiring harness and pictures of engine bay

[cruiser54]

Keep the 88 and sell the 86 to someone who will fix it up. 

[The86manche]

8 hours ago, FT-Comanche said:

The 86 is missing carburetor and needs floor pan and tailgate tail lights new dash 

88 needs new floor pan and wiring harness and ecm.  
i want to get both running just don't know where to start. I need to buy the wiring harness for both and fund pictures of both 2.8 and 4.0 engine bay to make sure i can find all parts. I have a few dashes i pulled of Cherokees and cowls and odds and end. Yall know where to get ajy if that. Ecm. Wiring harness and pictures of engine bay

I wouldn't say q tailgate is q necessity in repairing these trucks. It's nice to have but not really needed per say. As for tail lights if you have the housings key parts makes lenses to glue onto the housings to restore them.

Floors are fairly easy and cherokee floor panels will work with very minor tweaking. The carb for the 2.8 is easy as it's just a verajet 2 carb. i may have one in my garage.

Check out kody Kilmer, he will have all the other pieces you need for the 88.

Or post up a wanted post and someone elseqy have things on here.

All in all they don't sound like hard projects. Id keep them seperate and fix them both up.

I can also get you photos of the 86 2.8 engine bay as mine is an 86 2.8 as well. Whatever photos you may need. 

[FT-Comanche]

10 hours ago, The86manche said:

I wouldn't say q tailgate is q necessity in repairing these trucks. It's nice to have but not really needed per say. As for tail lights if you have the housings key parts makes lenses to glue onto the housings to restore them.

Floors are fairly easy and cherokee floor panels will work with very minor tweaking. The carb for the 2.8 is easy as it's just a verajet 2 carb. i may have one in my garage.

Check out kody Kilmer, he will have all the other pieces you need for the 88.

Or post up a wanted post and someone elseqy have things on here.

All in all they don't sound like hard projects. Id keep them seperate and fix them both up.

I can also get you photos of the 86 2.8 engine bay as mine is an 86 2.8 as well. Whatever photos you may need. 

This is pretty much what I'm looking at for the red 86

and the black 88

I'm taking one to my brother in-laws warehouse abd working on it there and having one at the house. I might ask him to get two spots in his warehouse to have both next too each other but idk yet. Its a 30 min drive for parts and what not. I'm considering buying a 88 Cherokee tomorrow and pulling odds and ends from it so we will see. Just hope the harness will work and 4.0 is good in it for later down the road doing a swap

[The86manche]

4 hours ago, FT-Comanche said:

This is pretty much what I'm looking at for the red 86

and the black 88

I'm taking one to my brother in-laws warehouse abd working on it there and having one at the house. I might ask him to get two spots in his warehouse to have both next too each other but idk yet. Its a 30 min drive for parts and what not. I'm considering buying a 88 Cherokee tomorrow and pulling odds and ends from it so we will see. Just hope the harness will work and 4.0 is good in it for later down the road doing a swap

The 88 cherokee harness will work just fine for the comanche, providing they are both the same trans type. Auto or manual. 

As for the 86 I don't see anything out of the ordinary as far as wiring and such goes. There are some added wires but everything else looks pretty good.

What's wrong with the carb on it?

[watchamakalit]

4 hours ago, The86manche said:

The 88 cherokee harness will work just fine for the comanche, providing they are both the same trans type. Auto or manual. 

As for the 86 I don't see anything out of the ordinary as far as wiring and such goes. There are some added wires but everything else looks pretty good.

What's wrong with the carb on it?

Thats not entirely correct. Auto harness will work with manual trans. Manual harness won't work with auto trans.  I have an auto trans harness in my manual truck.

[The86manche]

5 hours ago, watchamakalit said:

Thats not entirely correct. Auto harness will work with manual trans. Manual harness won't work with auto trans.  I have an auto trans harness in my manual truck.

True I didn't really think about that. I was thinking the other way around haha

[Eagle]

On 3/24/2022 at 12:54 PM, eaglescout526 said:

I’d build both. Toss the 2.8L and toss in the 3.4L of the same engine family and sell it to build the other one better. 

 

Do both. If you just have to "build" one (which for me translates into "carve up"), build the worse one and restore the better one to as close to original as possible. For the 2.8L, as eaglescout suggested, swap in a GM 3.4L (from a rear-engine car). It's the same block, so it will be a bolt-in swap for a much better engine. The only thing to watch out for is that the 2.8L is externally balanced -- it has a weight on the flywheel. The 3.4L is internally balanced -- no eccentric weight on the flywheel. If you can't use the 3.4L flywheel, take the 2.8L flywheel to an automotive machine shop and have them neutral balance it.

[FT-Comanche]

16 hours ago, watchamakalit said:

Thats not entirely correct. Auto harness will work with manual trans. Manual harness won't work with auto trans.  I have an auto trans harness in my manual truck.

Thanks for that I'm going to be on the look out for all the wiring of the Comanche for both 

[FT-Comanche]

5 hours ago, Eagle said:

 

Do both. If you just have to "build" one (which for me translates into "carve up"), build the worse one and restore the better one to as close to original as possible. For the 2.8L, as eaglescout suggested, swap in a GM 3.4L (from a rear-engine car). It's the same block, so it will be a bolt-in swap for a much better engine. The only thing to watch out for is that the 2.8L is externally balanced -- it has a weight on the flywheel. The 3.4L is internally balanced -- no eccentric weight on the flywheel. If you can't use the 3.4L flywheel, take the 2.8L flywheel to an automotive machine shop and have them neutral balance it.

After a lot of thinking i think I'm going to build both out fir sure. It will take me time but I'm starting on the 88 4.0. I just gutted the engine bay and cab if wiring. The last owner did some piss poor job at it and just did dumb dumb fixes. Like a metal steak straight threw the harness. For what reason i don't know. But now I'm looking at finding the engine bay wiring and cab wiring. Or rebuilding them.  Theres about 2,000’ of wire from all the harnesses that were botched. 

[Eagle]

You can use a Cherokee wiring harness. The stop and taillight portion will be different, but that's easy to fix with the wiring diagrams, which can be downloaded from the Comanche Club site. OR -- personally, I have never liked the fact that the Comanche's rear lights are set up so the brake lights use the same bulbs as the hazard flashers, and the brakes override the hazards. The Cherokee has dedicated hazard flashers that are independent of the brakes. If I were starting with a clean slate, I would use the Cherokee setup, put amber bulbs in the backup light sockets and use those for the turn and hazard signals, and wire in some low-profile LED floods as back-up lights.