1992 Jeep Comanche "Maria"

[pizzaman09]

2 hours ago, MariaManche said:

 

 

Thanks for the information! I am not in any rush to get some new shoes but once she is more roadworthy I plan on selling these and grabbing some 35 12.50 A/T. 

 

Do you work engineering rubber parts for the automotive industry? Just curious because I am an engineer at a plant that manufactures crankshaft bearings.  

I'm in aerospace.  Specifically helicopter rotor elastomeric bearings, so products like the bearing that holds the blade to the rotor or a rod end that is used to apply pitch to the blades or on the end of a lead lag damper.  My twin brother is an engineer in heavy duty diesel engines for the most well known independent diesel engine manufacturer.  Crankshaft bearings are a fun topic, I understand it's challenging to beat the performance of a leaded bearing.

 

The 35 inch tires will be a nice upgrade, less diameter will produce a nice gear ratio improvement.

[MariaManche]

On 8/22/2023 at 7:47 AM, MariaManche said:

Thank you sir!

 

While in college, I rushed into a Comanche build and ended up buying two really worn out Comanches with the plans to build one good one. After college I moved away and sold those Comanches and they are now stored at a private junkyard in my hometown. I am planning to visit the guy I sold them to and buy some parts off of them. Especially the Dana 44 eliminator rear end. I will post pictures of them in the following weeks and get the information for the Comanches registry. 

Junkyard Guy Update

Finally got ahold of the guy with the private junkyard that I sold my previous two Comanches to about 5 years ago. He informed me that he has not done a single thing to them and probably never will but has no interest in selling them nor parts......  One of the two Comanches I sold him was an eliminator with a dana 44 rear end that I drug out of a field for 250 bucks. 

These are the two I sold him.

 

Brakes Update

Comanche rear brakes are coming along. The wheel cylinder bolts on both sides stripped immediately.... Tried using my PROTO extractors with no luck. First time I have seen this bolt extractor sockets not work. Ended up using a cut off wheel to remove the bolt head.

 

The brake lines on both side also twisted in half from the fitting being seized onto them. Made new brake lines for the rear with my tubing bender and flare tool. 

 

Now I just need to put the shoes and springage on. 

 

 

 

[MariaManche]

Rear Drums brakes have new shoes, springage, wheel cylinders, brake lines, and drums. I thought about not doing this job because I have plans to swap the dana 35 out for either a dana 44 or Ford 8.8, but I am not sure how long it will take for me to find a good swap candidate. 

 

Cleaned up the stickers on the camper shell. I am not a very political person but I can not get my self to take a razor blade to the Clinton sticker. Just fits the era of the truck and looks nostalgic. My wife thinks otherwise. Added my Comanche Club sticker that Pete hooked me up with!

 

 

 

[MariaManche]

Deep cleaned the bench seat with my wife’s carpet shampooer. Threw the seat bake in to Break in the new rotors.

 

Followed the Powerstop directions with doing 5 45mph to 10 mph stops, 5 35mph to 5mph stops, and then drove without braking for around 5 minutes. 

 

I removed the back bulky rubber bumper stops, the rusted out grandpa steps, and the CB antenna that’s no longer needed.
 

[WranglerMangler]

She looks great! Good call not removing the stickers, where else are you going to see a Dole for President sticker! Keep up the great work! 

[MariaManche]

Having some issues… A couple days ago I accidentally let my battery die, due to leaving the key on for a couple days. 
 

I charged her up and went for the previous mentioned drive to break in the new brakes. 
 

today while driving to autozone I noticed my speedometer wasn’t working, turn signal arrow on dash will come on solid but no blinker action, and the battery light came on. I pulled a U-turn and headed back home, she died as I was pulling into the garage. 
 

while pushing the Comanche the rest of the way in the garage I noticed when my wife pressed the brake, even with the jeep off and Keys out, the brake lights come on. Is this normal? 
 

any ideas on these issues? I’m going to test the alternator tonight but that doesn’t seem related to the other problems. 

[MariaManche]

Disregard the Information about the brake lights coming on. They are suppose to. 

[jdog]

Check the alternator, check the fuse box. Lights are supposed to come on

[WranglerMangler]

I was having the same issue with the dash cutting out and “one” blinker coming on, on the dash. I would reach up under the dash and tap the fuse box with my foot and usually everything would act normal after a few taps while driving down the road. Dealt with it for years, until I finally figured it out. 
 

I bet your dealing with this: 

 

 

Most of my fuse terminals were not making full contact for obvious reasons. Just throwing it out there buddy. Good luck. 
 

Grab some really fine needle nose pliers or a pick and pull a fuse or 2 and see if you can “tighten” the connector by pushing them inward towards the fuse blade, mine were breaking off when I tried so I knew they were rotted. 

[MariaManche]

thanks for the advice WranglerMangler! I’m going to check that out. 
 

Battery seems to be fine, and when I charge it completely, everything works like it’s suppose to. While running, it is not getting a charge at all. Just slowly drops in voltage. 
 

Found both 60 amp alternator fuses blown… last night I went ahead and pulled the alternator. New alternator, belt, tension pulley, and fuses are on the way from Rock Auto. 
 

[1987Comanche]

It might be worth having Autozone, Advance, etc. test the current alternator.  If it's bad you have a smoking gun.  If not, well at least you'll know.

 

[pizzaman09]

On 11/21/2023 at 8:54 AM, MariaManche said:

Cleaned up the stickers on the camper shell. I am not a very political person but I can not get my self to take a razor blade to the Clinton sticker. Just fits the era of the truck and looks nostalgic. My wife thinks otherwise. Added my Comanche Club sticker that Pete hooked me up with!

 

 

 

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I'm not a very political person either but I do agree the sticker is wonderfully vintage.  A few years ago I saw an 80s vintage beige Mercedes diesel driving on the highway in Ohio, it was a rusty car in terrible shape.  What was amazing about it was, what was clearly a Regan Bush sticker in the rear window that had been there since the 80s.

[watchamakalit]

I'd leave a vintage sticker too. Regardless of your politics it's a reminder of a bygone era.

[MariaManche]

A mechanic at work is offering to sell me a ford 8.8 out of an explorer. 3.73 ratio, posi, disc brakes. 

 

Is the $300 a good deal for this?

 

Also, I will need to re-gear the front dana 30 to match. Does anyone have suggestions on ring and pinion manufacturers?

 

I really want to keep this Comanche as "original" as possible.....but I really like the 35" tires and 300 bucks seems like a better route than building up the original dana 35. 

[GrandBoost98]

See if hes got any wiggle room. I picked up an 8.8 with 4.10s for $200

[MariaManche]

Another 8.8 swap question.. I have been reading some member write ups on the swap and I see that people are saying with larger axle tubes of the 8.8 you will increase your lift about an inch. I really do not want to lift the back of my jeep any higher than it already is....

 

I also saw that using Cherokee rear leaf shackles will drop you an inch. After comparing the two shackles on rock auto, I do not really see a big difference. Is this - 1in drop with the Cherokee shackles true?

[GrandBoost98]

Because of the thicker tubes, if you run spring over axle, you will gain in height the difference in thickness. If you run spring under axle, you would lose that much height. Also depends on the leaf spring perch you use, some have a taller shoulder than others which will add to the difference

Ive read that xj shackles can drop you 1/2"-3/4", but I havent done it myself

[WranglerMangler]

12 hours ago, MariaManche said:

Another 8.8 swap question.. I have been reading some member write ups on the swap and I see that people are saying with larger axle tubes of the 8.8 you will increase your lift about an inch. I really do not want to lift the back of my jeep any higher than it already is....

 

I also saw that using Cherokee rear leaf shackles will drop you an inch. After comparing the two shackles on rock auto, I do not really see a big difference. Is this - 1in drop with the Cherokee shackles true?

 

MJ left, XJ right. About an inch shorter. 
8.8 backing plates and brakes also work for the rear D44 disc brake conversion. $200 is definitely better than $300! 
Buy the axle for the brake parts then find an XJ or MJ D44 for that beast. 
44s are easier to work on in my experience. 
Plus you just might get lucky and find a D44 with your proper gear ratio. 
Either is better than a Dana 35 and doing something is better than doing nothing at all! 
 

[MariaManche]

On 1/6/2024 at 1:09 AM, WranglerMangler said:

 

Thanks for the info WranglerMangler! That is much more of a difference than I was seeing on Rock Auto part pictures. 

[MariaManche]

Starting pulling the dash last night to remove any mouse feces and troubleshoot my radio that hasn’t worked since I bought the truck. Found a blown 7.5 amp fuse located on the back of the radio. 
 

[MariaManche]

UPDATE

 

ALTERNATOR

Installed the new alternator and 60 amp fuses. Removing/installing the alternator was more painful than I thought it would be. 

 

RADIO

Fixed some speaker wiring that was chewed up by the previous mouse residents and replaced the 7.5 amp fuse on the back of the radio. The wiring that was chewed up created a short circuit that blew my radio fuse. After that, the radio came alive again. Although the radio was finally on and functional, it would not find a FM station. I found the the antenna plug by the passenger floorboard was broken. I plugged it in and secured it with some electrical tape and I am now picking up FM stations. I need to find a permanent fix for this antenna plug. 

 

To fix my wiring issues, I have been using these low temp solder heat shrink connections off of amazon. 

 

 

DASH 

Now that the alternator and radio is behind me, I can continue to focus on cleaning all the mouse debris from the dash.

 

When I first test drove the truck and turned on the AC, all kinds of mouse nest material came blowing out of the vents. Is there an easy way to clean this out?

 

 

 

[WranglerMangler]

13 hours ago, MariaManche said:

Is there an easy way to clean this out?

I found myself blowing compressed air through all of the vents with a long reach nozzle and the fan on full blast. Remove the vents to get better access too. You may want to remove your blower motor if you think it’s real bad. 45 degree long reach pliers helped pull all the crap out from the windshield vents. Once you think you have it all, more will come. Good luck Sir. 

[MariaManche]

48 minutes ago, WranglerMangler said:

I found myself blowing compressed air through all of the vents with a long reach nozzle and the fan on full blast. Remove the vents to get better access too. You may want to remove your blower motor if you think it’s real bad. 45 degree long reach pliers helped pull all the crap out from the windshield vents. Once you think you have it all, more will come. Good luck Sir. 

The more I dig, the more mouse damage I find… I almost have the whole dash out of the Comanche. 

 

I am finding a lot of droppings, and wires chewed up. I think the plan is to remove everything, bag and tag, clean/fix and reinstall. 

[MariaManche]

On 2/5/2024 at 9:27 PM, WranglerMangler said:

I found myself blowing compressed air through all of the vents with a long reach nozzle and the fan on full blast. Remove the vents to get better access too. You may want to remove your blower motor if you think it’s real bad. 45 degree long reach pliers helped pull all the crap out from the windshield vents. Once you think you have it all, more will come. Good luck Sir. 

Good call…. I think this was a good part of the smell. 
 

[jeff351]

mine looked just like that. I posted it a year or so back! And yes, mouse nests are pretty smelly