Project “CommuteChe”

[WranglerMangler]

11 hours ago, ANOTHERJEFF said:

Those do look sharp. I wish I could have found buckets that nice when I was doing mine.

Thank you. I was very lucky to have found such nice parts. I’m so glad you sent me that picture. I’ve been debating on what carpet color to get. Definitely sealed the deal on Black. Thank you. Your interior looks amazing. Good job. 

[WranglerMangler]

9 hours ago, NorthwestMJ said:

I’m dying! Super funny! So if you find 3 random other MJs with three independent people and you have 6 MJ’s does this mean you have the same amount of MJ’s as 6 regular people? 

Depends on the Definition of “Regular”

On average, the regular MJ Owner, according to the NHSTA, Bureau of transportation and Statistica, own 1.3 MJs in their lifetime. 
The number drops significantly to .00005971 MJs owned when you introduce the “regular” person into the equation. 

So wouldn’t the math be 6~1.3? =4.6 regular MJ owners? 

 

 

 

 

[NorthwestMJ]

8 hours ago, WranglerMangler said:

Depends on the Definition of “Regular”

On average, the regular MJ Owner, according to the NHSTA, Bureau of transportation and Statistica, own 1.3 MJs in their lifetime. 
The number drops significantly to .00005971 MJs owned when you introduce the “regular” person into the equation. 

So wouldn’t the math be 6~1.3? =4.6 regular MJ owners? 

 

 

 

 

Well played WranglerMangler. Well played indeed. 

[JeffK]

On 5/20/2023 at 12:09 PM, WranglerMangler said:

Thank you. I was very lucky to have found such nice parts. I’m so glad you sent me that picture. I’ve been debating on what carpet color to get. Definitely sealed the deal on Black. Thank you. Your interior looks amazing. Good job. 

Thanks. Good call, the back carpet looks best with those door cards IMO. 

[WranglerMangler]

38 minutes ago, ANOTHERJEFF said:

Thanks. Good vall, the back carpet looks best with those door cards IMO. 

Definitely agreed 👍

[WranglerMangler]

Threw on some used stock XJ shackles last week. Leveled out the truck pretty nicely. Can’t say I noticed a ride difference or anything else but it definitely looks better. Worth it for leveling out the 2WD MJs imo. 
 

MJ left, XJ right

 

XJ bolted up 

 

Longer stock MJ

 

How she sits now. 

 

Did not take before and after pictures or measurements. Assuming about an inch drop in rear. 

[Pete M]

be super careful when maxing out the suspension (such as on a car lift).  the shortness of the XJ shackles can cause them to invert on the longer MJ leafs when it comes back down on the ground.  (meaning the shackle folds forward and ruins the main leaf)

 

looks good though.  

[WranglerMangler]

1 hour ago, Pete M said:

be super careful when maxing out the suspension (such as on a car lift).  the shortness of the XJ shackles can cause them to invert on the longer MJ leafs when it comes back down on the ground.  (meaning the shackle folds forward and ruins the main leaf)

 

looks good though.  

Good to know. Thank you for informing me. 

[WranglerMangler]

Friday night, my buddy who lives in Cle Elum (about 70 miles away) sent me this picture, 

 

Out running errands today (Sunday) and I passed the same truck going the opposite way, needless to say, I chased him down. Lol. Super nice guy. Matt was his name. 
88, 4.0 full 97+ swap including axles, didn’t get the vin again, sorry FiatSlug.

His dad has a super beautiful 2wd sporttruck as well. Will hopefully find it soon enough. Think I need some more magnets to pass out. 

[Pete M]

sweet!

 

I just got more magnets in.  

[WranglerMangler]

On 6/3/2023 at 4:50 AM, Pete M said:

sweet!

 

I just got more magnets in.  

I’ll definitely take some!!

[WranglerMangler]

CommuteChe got her Dana 44 swap this last weekend. I had been cleaning up the XJ donor Dana 44 for a while now and had nothing better to do this last weekend. 

I sourced a rear sway bar and mounts off an ‘04 WJ Dana 35 I have laying around. 

Tuned out pretty good. I had to fiddle around finding the proper length of sway bar end link to clear everything but pretty sure I got her figured out. Ended up with the shortest of the bunch. 

The rear shocks were totally shot so I replaced them with used but still good and way better condition shocks off the XJ. 

Now we’re just a Detroit TrueTrack, Disc brake conversion and Chromoly axles away from having a really nice street rear end. Just the expensive stuff to go. Lol. Just more future posts I suppose. Want to stay around 3.54:1 gear ratio. 
 

I am honestly impressed with the braking improvement over the Dana 35 drums. However the Dana 35 did have a weeping wheel cylinder so I’m sure that contributed to the poor brakes. 
 

I was screwing around with the spare tire winch tonight as well and noticed  how clean the cable is. Looks almost new. Soaked her down with WD-40. Figured I’d share. Crappy picture but, shiny  

Truck 144,500mi

D44 161,000

[AverageJoe10]

Sweeeeeet upgrade man! I'm very close to getting a D44 swapped under mine as well!

 

Have you driven it since it's been swapped? How's it feel with a rear sway bar?

[WranglerMangler]

It honestly handles way better. I have a local corner that I’ve been railing just for this comparison. Lol.

I started with the stock truck at 55 mph hitting this corner, made it through fairly uneventfully, next time was 60mph, sun glasses went flying across the dash and it was pushing it. 65mph was about as fast as I was willing to tip her into this corner, that’s both hands on the wheel, paying close attention and concentrating on the line. 

 

Just before “the corner” is a good little twisty bit that was another 55mph section for me.
On the first test drive with the Dana 44 and sway bar, I went through the twisty bit at 65 with ease and wished I had been doing 70. Got my confidence up a bit so I hit “the corner” at 75mph and wished I had been doing 80mph. Haven’t been back through yet for my 80mph hit but will soon enough. Kinda getting to the limits of the cheap tires now. Need a lower profile tire and a bigger rim. There are also aftermarket rear WJ stiffer sway bars  with poly bushings available that I’ll probably look into in the future. As well as upgrading the front, it’s stock for now. Highly suggest rear sway bar for a road truck. 👍
 

 

[AverageJoe10]

4 hours ago, WranglerMangler said:

It honestly handles way better. I have a local corner that I’ve been railing just for this comparison. Lol.

I started with the stock truck at 55 mph hitting this corner, made it through fairly uneventfully, next time was 60mph, sun glasses went flying across the dash and it was pushing it. 65mph was about as fast as I was willing to tip her into this corner, that’s both hands on the wheel, paying close attention and concentrating on the line. 

 

Just before “the corner” is a good little twisty bit that was another 55mph section for me.
On the first test drive with the Dana 44 and sway bar, I went through the twisty bit at 65 with ease and wished I had been doing 70. Got my confidence up a bit so I hit “the corner” at 75mph and wished I had been doing 80mph. Haven’t been back through yet for my 80mph hit but will soon enough. Kinda getting to the limits of the cheap tires now. Need a lower profile tire and a bigger rim. There are also aftermarket rear WJ stiffer sway bars  with poly bushings available that I’ll probably look into in the future. As well as upgrading the front, it’s stock for now. Highly suggest rear sway bar for a road truck. 👍
 

 

Awesome man! Sounds like she's handling really well. She's ready for some track time like the street Comanches  

[WranglerMangler]

24 minutes ago, AverageJoe10 said:

Awesome man! Sounds like she's handling really well. She's ready for some track time like the street Comanches  

Oh yeah definitely. That’s kinda what I’m going for. Just the unsuspecting truck that can rail some corners. I have a 2WD WJ front end I plan on swapping in here shortly. Will be a big improvement as well. Then hopefully it will handle better than a street Comanche. 

[WranglerMangler]

Recently installed rear driveline U joints. Luckily went smoothly enough. 

The stock exhaust has been broken right where the exhaust pipe enters the muffler for a while now. The muffler rattles around on the pipe. I’ve been planning on getting a full new, stainless, cat delete exhaust installed so haven’t addressed it. Tonight I finally welded it together because I’m tired of listening to it. We’ll see how soon a new exhaust happens 

[Pete M]

been there, done that.  sometimes ya just get sick of dealing with a thing and fix it even though an upgrade is on the horizon. 

[WranglerMangler]

I’ve had a clunking for a while now, seemed to be coming from the back, have been under the back of the truck grabbing onto things trying to replicate the sound but have not been able to find it.

This upcoming weekend I’m planning on doing the rear main seal so I started to remove some things to try to make the job go quicker on Saturday. 
 

While laying under the front, I noticed the passenger side sway bar end link bolt was loose. It’s a T55 torx bolt which I hate to deal with, I removed the bolt and end link, replaced the old cracked bushings with used but still good bushings. Replaced the Torx bolt with an actual hex head bolt. 
 

Also noticed my front bump stops were rotted away too. Decided I was going to replace them with used but good, “new” bump stops off the XJ 

 I’ve had WJ and ZJ springs sitting around for a while now. Decided I was going to play around with the ride height a little bit. Ended up going with the WJ springs for now. They are STIFF!!

MJ coil springs

WJ coil springs 

 

Drove her to work today, no rubbing or bottoming out with the new lower stance. 

[WranglerMangler]

This drooping upper radiator hose has bothered me since I put it on. I know it’s the wrong one. I know. But I didn’t realize until I got home that it was the A/C hose and said screw it. More coolant capacity is how I justified to myself leaving it on. Plus I’ve had a few non A/C hoses in the past that are “tight” and ride dangerously close to the fan.

 

This is how I solved my little OCD problem. 
 

Found this old shock sitting around:

 

Cut off the piece I wanted: 

 

Split it in “half”: 

 

Found an old piece of flat stock that was powder coated and had a hole in one end already. Ground the end until it fit the hole on the dummy A/C pulley bracket, put a 90 degree bend in it right below the hose then welded the piece of shock to the flat stock. 

 

 

Now that it’s not going to be rubbing on everything, I took off the 2 side protector looms. Think it cleaned up pretty well. 

[AverageJoe10]

Neat trick for the hose holder! Crazy that little things like that make the engine bay look so much cleaner. Great job 

[WranglerMangler]

1 hour ago, AverageJoe10 said:

Neat trick for the hose holder! Crazy that little things like that make the engine bay look so much cleaner. Great job 

Thank you. How is your Dana 44 swap going? 

[AverageJoe10]

1 hour ago, WranglerMangler said:

Thank you. How is your Dana 44 swap going? 

Put on hold for the moment since I just moved but I'm hoping to get to it soon after I'm settled in!

[WranglerMangler]

The rear main seal has been leaking on CommuteChe since I started driving her. After going through tip 15, Rear main seal diagnostics on Cruiser54s website, (everything was leaking too) I was still leaking badly. 

My oil pan has been dented in badly as well like somebody had jacked the truck up off the pan. I have wanted to get a new pan for the RMS job and harvested the pan off of the XJ I recently parted out. It was in much better condition than the dented MJ pan. I cleaned the crud out the inside and painted the pan. 

I’ve removed oil pans off of probably 10 different 4.0 engines and this one was by far the most difficult one to remove in my experience. Luckily I wasn’t planning on reusing it. 
 

Both sides of the rear main seal were rock hard. Not surprised at how badly it was leaking. Once I got the upper half of the seal removed, I noticed there was still some of the seal stuck to the inside of the block. 
I used a .22 caliber Hoppies Boresnake to remove all the debris out of the channel. It actually worked better than I anticipated. 
 

While the pan was off, I checked the timing chain, it was much looser than I was hoping to see. Appears a Cloyes double roller is in her near future. 
 

146,175mi

[WranglerMangler]

I missed the June 20th anniversary of one year driving to work. Almost put 30,000 miles on her this year. Started driving her at 117K miles, as of last Monday she was probably around 145,5xx. (Despite the fact I posted a picture on June 20th of a picture saying 144,444.4 miles, never mind that. Lol) 

 

No major problems, one break down, lots of upkeep, couple of upgrades, good memories, friends made, pure enjoyment to drive. 

I need more Comanches.