92 Comanche - Dream Truck!

[James92]

 

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🛠️ 1992 Jeep Comanche Build Thread
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🚙 Model: 1992 Jeep Comanche (Base) | Built: 01/23/92

🛞 Drivetrain: 4.0L | AX-15 | 4x4 | Short Bed | Dana 44 rear

 

📖 Background:

Hey all! I've been meaning to start this for a little while to document the progress on my Comanche.

 

Growing up in New York, my family always had Jeeps — a 1995 ZJ 5.2, 1998 ZJ 5.9, 2002 WJ Overland 4.7HO, 2007 WK 4.7, and now a 2018 WK2 Hemi. While the Grand Cherokees are great family trucks, I was always obsessed with the boxy styling of the XJ. And as a big fan of small pickup trucks, the Comanche was the obvious dream rig.

 

Unfortunately, in NY, MJs have been off the road since long before I had a driver's license. You just don’t see them - rust and time took almost all of them (as most of you are very familiar with). I looked on and off for a few years but eventually gave up.

 

Then I moved to California. The cars here are incredible. No rust, clean frames, and original paint everywhere. How is that possible? People out here don’t know how lucky they are. With new hope (and a better climate), the MJ search began again.

 

I’ve had too many project cars I was only half-invested in because they weren’t exactly what I wanted. This time, I promised myself I’d hold out for the right one, something I could build and keep long-term. The target: a 1991-92 Comanche short bed, 4x4, 4.0L, 5-speed.

Turns out that spec is rarer than hen’s teeth. Once again, I figured it wasn’t going to happen.

 

Then one random Sunday evening, I opened Facebook Marketplace, and there it was. The exact truck I’d been dreaming of. I couldn’t believe it. I messaged the seller immediately, and by Monday afternoon I was there with cash in hand. One quick test drive later, I was totally sold.

 

 

It's a base model MJ that I picked up in very solid shape. It's almost completely original and very clean. It even still has the factory rubber plate under the engine bay! There isn't any major body damage, the worst thing is a couple minor door dings. The Carfax shows it never left a 20 minute drive from the town it was sold in! The original owner checked off some great options, especially the factory Dana 44, 3.07 LSD, and A/C. My plan is to keep it reliable, useable, clean, and enjoy it. It's been a blast to drive so far. I took it up the Sonora pass (pictured above) at 9600' elevation and it didn't skip a beat. The 3.07s are great for highway driving, and the truck cruises easily at 70. 

 

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📅 Completed Work
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✅ Krustyballer Tow Hitch powder coated and installed  
✅ Rear bumper straightened + powder coated  
✅ Spare tire carrier installed
✅ Single DIN Android Auto head unit with backup camera
✅ Replaced bent up front bumper with junkyard unit
✅ Rear main seal replaced (fun...) 

✅ New sway bar end links and bushings 
✅ Fixed play in tilt column 

✅ New cat-back exhaust with SS Magnaflow muffler

✅ Fix seat mounting brackets

✅ Coolant Flush

✅ Transmission Fluid Change

✅ Replaced cracked fender flare

✅ Replaced cracked exhaust manifold

✅ New valve cover gaskets

✅ Power steering pulley replaced

✅ New lower radiator hose

✅ New O2 Sensor

 

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🔧 In the Pipeline
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🧰 Transmission fluid change  
🧰 Transfer case fluid change

🧰 Front & Rear axle fluid change

🧰 Fix broken odometer

🧰 Redo headliner

🧰 Fix water leaks in cab

🧰 Install carpeting

🧰 Replace transfer case output shaft seal

 

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🙌 Thanks for Reading!
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I'll try to keep this thread updated as I knock stuff off the list and I'll be posting more pictures below. Any advice or suggestions is greatly appreciated!

[89 MJ]

Looks like a super nice truck!

[James92]

On 6/13/2025 at 12:09 PM, 89 MJ said:

Looks like a super nice truck!

Thanks!

 

This weekend I had to fix my seat bracket. The previous owner did a really hack job installing the XJ buckets, which I didn't notice until I sat down the other day and the seat was very loose. They had cut off the stock mounting bolts and drilled a hole next to the OEM one to put a threaded rod through it. Since there wasn't any room, they just put a threaded rod through the hole with some washers and a nut. The washers had tilted and the nut ended up clamping against the brake line!! I don't have a good picture of it, but this is the threaded rod, and you can see a little bit of wear on the brake line where the washers had worn against the brake line...

 

 

I ended up drilling out the factory threaded rod and tapping the stock welded nut. I filled the hole that the PO drilled with JBWeld StickWeld. I know this isn't ideal, but the brake lines are RIGHT there, so I couldn't weld it closed.

 

   

 

For the other side, I got some threaded rod, cut it to length, then welded a washer to it.

 

 

Then, I welded the washer to the floor pans in the stock location. I know my welds aren't great, but I'm working with what I got! It'll hold for now.

 

 

I grinded down the welds and painted it so it wouldn't rust. Again, I know the red looks terrible, but it was what I had on the shelf. It'll eventually be under sound deadening and carpet, so I don't really care. 

 

 

Bolted down the seat with Krustyballer's seat bracket and now it's not loose anymore! Much better.

 

[watchamakalit]

I would recommend treating the rest of the floors with some rust stop. The surface rust that is there won't get any better under carpet. 

[James92]

On 6/15/2025 at 5:20 AM, watchamakalit said:

I would recommend treating the rest of the floors with some rust stop. The surface rust that is there won't get any better under carpet. 

Thanks, I'll definitely be cleaning up the floors before I put in the sound deadening and carpet. Not sure if I'm going to paint with POR15 or just grind down the rust and repaint red, but we'll see. 

 

I'm in Minnesota now visiting a friend and we swung by the junkyard. There was a really sweet loaded maroon on maroon 92 XJ there. 

 

 

 

I pulled a few parts that I should be able to fit in my luggage or ship back. I got a spare gauge cluster (to hopefully fix my odometer issue), the dual note horns, cruise control(!), the brackets to mount the center console, and an underhood light. I wish I was local, I would've pulled the power seats and interior. Maroon is sweet! The original chrome grill and headlight surrounds were in great shape too, and the chrome door handles. But I think I prefer the black plastic look personally. Hopefully someone else can grab them and make good use of them. 

[ghetdjc320]

On 6/21/2025 at 2:24 AM, James92 said:

Thanks, I'll definitely be cleaning up the floors before I put in the sound deadening and carpet. Not sure if I'm going to paint with POR15 or just grind down the rust and repaint red, but we'll see. 

You can still paint the red over the POR15 if you want to keep a factory look. The por15 will really be your friend here if you want to preserve as much as possible

[pizzaman09]

Absolutely awesome find.  Extremely similar story to mine, where the original owner checked the same awesome options and it never left the town it was purchased in.

 

AX-15, 4x4, 4.0L, Dana 44 with LSD is the dream drivetrain.  

[James92]

Well, labor day weekend was busy for me. I decided to finally take a crack at the exhaust manifold. It was pretty straight-forward. It seems like most people report that all exhaust manifolds crack eventually, even the fancy Banks headers. So, I bought the cheapest ones on ebay and threw them on. I used a nice Remflex gasket, which worked great.

 

 

The worst part, of course, was the rear stud was broken deep within the head. I had to get a new tool, right hand drill (oh no what a shame more tools!), and luckily enough that took it right out:

 

 

Along the way, I found the power steering pulley had a chip in it, and the lower radiator hose was barely held on by the hose clamp. Whoever replaced the water pump last put the hose clamp on the very very edge of the hose. I'm lucky it didn't blow off. I ended up replacing the hose and flushing the coolant while I had it all apart. Also, the heater control valve was extremely brittle and snapped apart while I was manipulating the hoses around. And I figured I'd replace the valve cover gasket and clean it up. So all in, new: exhaust manifold, valve cover gasket, power steering pulley, serpentine belt, lower radiator hose, heater control valve, and fresh coolant. 

 

After all this work, I took the truck for a test drive... and the CEL came on. Code 51 - lean mixture. Very disappointing. I checked all the vacuum lines and the manifold bolts. Nothing. Checked the O2 sensor wiring - also fine. So I bought a new O2 sensor and diagnosed the old one. Grounds all checked fine and the heater wire was getting 13V. The signal wire seemed a little off potentially, but it was hard to tell. So I swapped in the new O2 sensor, and so far no codes! The O2 sensor I took out still had the original Mopar PN on it, incredibly. I don't quite understand how it's possible that before all this, there were no codes. And after all these issues were fixed, now I get a code? Weird... 

 

Here's the crack, pretty gnarly!

 

The truck is a lot quieter now, and it always feels nice finishing big jobs like this. After 30+ years of 4 owners, you never know what's going on under the hood. Each job makes you more familiar with the truck, giving you a little more piece of mind that things are done right. 

 

Happy Jeep up in the mountains:

[James92]

... and that wasn't all I did last weekend. I decided that wasn't fun enough, so I took apart the doors and replaced all the weather stripping. The old felt was pretty brittle, and the window scrapers were almost non-existent. The Precision Replacement Parts kit was great. It's pretty cheap and fit very similar to OEM. 

 

Out with the old...

 

 

And... oops.. I don't have any pictures of the new. I'll grab some, but you get the idea. It looks a lot better now. 

 

One of the big things I was looking forward to with this job was finding the build sheet inside the door panels. Unfortunately, no luck. This is all that remained:

 

Thanks for reading!

[Red Mistress]

Nice looking 92 and my favorite color :)

[Salvagedcircuit]

Awesome work! 

Man I'd love to find a '92 in California and drive it east then never take it out in the winter months.

I am curious, if you do any electrical work soon, let me know if you find duct-tape crimps.

Duct tape crimps are multiple wires pinched together with or without a brass ring and then just duct-taped over.

There were 30-40 of them in my wiring harness. They are factory. Yes, factory.

I asked a friend of mine who was a chrysler master mechanic for ~25 years about duct-tape crimps. I told him I replaced 30 or so of them on my MJ.

His response: That's it?
FML 

I think duct-tape crimps ended in 1989, but I'm curious if that's 100% true or not.

[89 MJ]

1 hour ago, Salvagedcircuit said:

Awesome work! 

Man I'd love to find a '92 in California and drive it east then never take it out in the winter months.

I am curious, if you do any electrical work soon, let me know if you find duct-tape crimps.

Duct tape crimps are multiple wires pinched together with or without a brass ring and then just duct-taped over.

There were 30-40 of them in my wiring harness. They are factory. Yes, factory.

I asked a friend of mine who was a chrysler master mechanic for ~25 years about duct-tape crimps. I told him I replaced 30 or so of them on my MJ.

His response: That's it?
FML 

I think duct-tape crimps ended in 1989, but I'm curious if that's 100% true or not.

For what it’s worth, I haven’t seen any on my January of 89 built 89. 

[James92]

1 hour ago, Salvagedcircuit said:

Awesome work! 

Man I'd love to find a '92 in California and drive it east then never take it out in the winter months.

Thanks! And let me know if you're serious! I'm from NY originally. About once a year, a couple of my friends fly out to visit me for a week or two (usually around Christmas) and we buy a couple cars and drive them back east. It's a hectic trip and a lot of fun, but it's absolutely the way to go. I just saw a sweet white 92 eliminator sell for like 3k (4.0, ax15, 2wd though)... I wish I could save them all 

 

I'll keep an eye out for the duct tape crimps. That's pretty wild. I don't think I've seen any before. I'll ask my dad about them too - he's been working on mopars since the 60s. 

[Big_Mark]

REMFLEX FTW!!!! 

The last manifold gasket you will ever need 

 

Nice MJ as well

[James92]

4 hours ago, Big_Mark said:

REMFLEX FTW!!!! 

The last manifold gasket you will ever need 

 

Nice MJ as well

Yes! Thanks! I'm glad I saw the recommendation on here. I also had a felpro on hand, and it doesn't comlare to the Remflex. Much much nicer!

[Big_Mark]

1 minute ago, James92 said:

Yes! Thanks! I'm glad I saw the recommendation on here. I also had a felpro on hand, and it doesn't comlare to the Remflex. Much much nicer!

Especially if you're running headers, the 1/8" Remflex gaskets fill the irregularities nicely, and keep em filled!

[James92]

A couple of pictures I took this weekend on film. Thought they came out pretty awesome!

 

 

 

 

[Salvagedcircuit]

Nice Turnaround

Portra 400?

[fiatslug87]

Altamont?

[James92]

8 hours ago, Salvagedcircuit said:

Nice Turnaround

Portra 400?

Noo I have yet to get a roll of Portra 400. This is just basic fujifilm 400. Which is rumored to be rebranded kodak gold now. I do really want to try Porta 400 though. 

 

8 hours ago, fiatslug87 said:

Altamont?

Yep, the parking lot of Brushy Peak.

[Billy Darson]

Inspirational! Awesome find, and great work so far! 

[pizzaman09]

On 9/5/2025 at 11:31 PM, James92 said:

Thanks! And let me know if you're serious! I'm from NY originally. About once a year, a couple of my friends fly out to visit me for a week or two (usually around Christmas) and we buy a couple cars and drive them back east. It's a hectic trip and a lot of fun, but it's absolutely the way to go. I just saw a sweet white 92 eliminator sell for like 3k (4.0, ax15, 2wd though)... I wish I could save them all 

 

I'll keep an eye out for the duct tape crimps. That's pretty wild. I don't think I've seen any before. I'll ask my dad about them too - he's been working on mopars since the 60s. 

My friends and I did that in 2017, that's how I ended up owning my first Comanche.  We flew to LA with cash to buy Craigslist cars and then drive them home to OH/PA.  It was an epic trip and I'd love to do a trip like it again.