Agreen Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 Guess I'll start here as an introduction. I bought this a week ago. It's a 1986, 2wd, 2.8. The ad said it hasn't ran for 5 years and he thought it was the "points or something". He also didn't post good pictures, but for $1000 I didn't think it would be a bad investment. I messaged the guy about 30 minutes after he posted it, and he didn't get back to me for 7 hours. I figured it was gone. Comanches seem to go pretty quick these days. We'll, he did get back to me and I told him I'd be right there. I loaded it up and took it home. Then I told my wife. She was pretty upset, seeing as I have a large collection of cars. But this one has such a nice interior and the body is in original condition and only has a little ding in the hood. The previous owner cracked the corner glass while mowing his yard too, but that's easily obtainable. She isn't so mad after all. All the hard to find Comanche parts are there anyway (tail lights, tailgate, rear bumper and caps, etc) Best part? The 119,xxx miles are original. It's absolutely a survivor. So I got a new battery and tried it out. No crank. I found it had a bad starter relay. So I did what any responsible adult would do and drowned the carb bowl with gas and touched the signal wire from the starter relay to the positive terminal of the battery. It fired off immediately. It idled on 5 year old gas. Continuing my streak as a responsible adult, I decided to drive it down to the parts store for a starter relay. To my surprise, it ran almost flawlessly. Even on 5 year old gas. I got home and started checking it out. Looks like it has a limited slip D44 rear axle 3.55 ratio, so maybe it has the metric ton package? It only has 4 leafs in the pack, so maybe not. The bottom leaf is super thick, so I don't know. After a few days of driving it, it suddenly died off. I couldn't go past 25 MPH, and not for long. It sucked too, as I was coming home from work and had 26 miles to go. I figured the fuel filter was full of crap, and I was right. So, I got a fuel filter for the carb, a pre-filter (wix 33003), and a rebuild kit. Yep. The old Rochester Varajet was full of rusty junk too. Anyway, the carb rebuild went well and it's driving great. In the week I've owned it, I've met some great people as well. One of the guys I met was tonight at Sonic (scguy). Unfortunately, I can't message anyone because my post count is too low or something. Future plans: -Probably 4wd swap -I might try my hand at restoring the paint -Probably end up having it painted -That's about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ωhm Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 Nice score. Welcome to the CC forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiNi Beast Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 Hell yeah 😎. Done did good on this one for sure. Anything you do to it is a well investment. Enjoy and keep us posted on your progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiatslug87 Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 Welcome to CC and GREAT buy!! Please add it to the Registry and someone will get a build sheet for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 totally worth a grand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agreen Posted May 5, 2022 Author Share Posted May 5, 2022 20 minutes ago, fiatslug87 said: Welcome to CC and GREAT buy!! Please add it to the Registry and someone will get a build sheet for you. Oooh a build sheet would be amazing!! Thanks for the kind words everyone. Around here you aren't going to find an MJ for $1000. And if you do, it's just a shell that's beat and rusty. I haven't found any rust on mine yet, so fingers crossed it'll stay that way as I start poking around on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scguy Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 Absolutely worth the asking price. Solid truck. It was cool meeting you at Sonic, always great to have another Comanche owner in the area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NHMJXJ Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 That's what a bargain looks like! Nice find! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agreen Posted May 5, 2022 Author Share Posted May 5, 2022 So after a few days of driving it with the carburetor at full capacity, I have decided that the 2.8 is complete @$$. Which is weird, because I had an extended cab short bed S10 with the same engine, and IT wasn't. So maybe it's gearing, maybe it's something else. But around here I have LOTS of hills. Every day I drive through hills. And it's miserable going full throttle in this poor guy. So 2 options I was looking at. First I figured a 4.0 swap was the key. Then I found out that the 86 wasn't set up for that swap and it's pretty involved. Not that I couldn't do it, it just doesn't seem like the juice would be worth the squeeze. Que the 2nd option. A Mopar V8 and 2wd AX15. I have a bellhousing from a 3.9 Dakota, and I can get a 2wd AX15 for a song+dance. Maybe even just the song. Seems like it could be a lot of fun. For right now, I have a few other projects to finish, so I'll just be collecting parts until the 81 J10 project is on the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blade Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 Wow! once in a lifetime find. I like the ask for forgiveness story. I would have done the same. I vote mopar V8. 💪 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coheed Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 My favorite interior of all the Comanches by far. Fantastic score My truck's also a 2.8 3.55 combo and it's just a dog. It's even worse when you size up on tires. Honestly the 2.8 should've just come with 4.10s across the board. If it does have a D44 it was swapped in, the 86s only got the AMC20 axle for the upgraded ones. If you're near scguy you're not that far from me either. We really need to do a southeast meet up at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watchamakalit Posted June 18, 2022 Share Posted June 18, 2022 Nice find. Now if you could just burn that front license plate...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scguy Posted June 18, 2022 Share Posted June 18, 2022 We do need a south east meet up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agreen Posted June 26, 2022 Author Share Posted June 26, 2022 scguy I'm down for that. I wonder how many people would show up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agreen Posted July 10, 2022 Author Share Posted July 10, 2022 I dropped the tank today. It wasn't as bad as I expected. I got some chunky stuff out with flushes, and right now it's marinating in some CLR. I was hoping to find something with the sending unit, and I did. Man is it crusty. That might (maybe?) explain why my gas gauge goes crazy. I'll see what I can do with it before it goes back in. I also took care of the shattered corner glass. A really nice 2dr XJ donated it from the local PullAPart. So the last few things to fix after this: 1) windshield (full SC coverage will do it free) 2) Air Conditioning 3) Bleed the clutch 4) Adjust brakes 5) Go through all the grounds Not in that order, obviously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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