AreWeThereYet Posted January 16 Posted January 16 On 12/31/2025 at 9:04 AM, James92 said: Alrighty, been a busy few months. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! Hope you all are enjoying the time with friends and family. I'm a big fan of Sears (RIP), so I couldn't resist a photo op at this Sears Auto Center. Most of my garage time has been taken up by the Barracuda recently, but I did get a chance to replace all my *original* heater hose with really nice Gates green stripe heavy duty hose. I bought 50' of it on Rockauto for all my projects. Now I kind of regret it. The stuff is almost too nice! It's so thick that it's very hard to route it around curves. But I was able to get it all to work well. Finally, I'm very excited to report that I found a set of Eliminator wheels while home for the holidays. I've been looking since I bought the truck and wow these wheels are hard to find. The ones I bought aren't in the best shape, but I think I will try to bring them to a wheel shop to see what can be done. I got them all packed up and shipped out last night. Will also need to find some center caps... That's all for now! I love those wheels, I had an 89 XJ with them for my first car. Truck looks great!
cavalier Posted January 17 Posted January 17 It’s not letting me reply to your for sale listing, but I’m in Pasadena and would love the new black grille and light surround.
James92 Posted January 17 Author Posted January 17 Thanks all for the kind comments. This group is the best. On 12/31/2025 at 9:56 PM, Salvagedcircuit said: I really dig this photo. What year was it taken? You'll never know Hehehe Haha I know right! I should've taken it on film, would've been even better. 4 hours ago, cavalier said: It’s not letting me reply to your for sale listing, but I’m in Pasadena and would love the new black grille and light surround. Thanks, I replied to your PM.
James92 Posted October 10 Author Posted October 10 (Part 1/3) Oof, where has this year gone? Time for a much needed update. Picking up where we left off, there's been lots of updates! 1. February: Well, I know I just went through all the work to ship those Eliminator wheels across the country, buuuut of course a slightly better set comes up for sale about an hour and a half away WITH newish KO2s on them for a price I couldn't turn down. How could I say no? 2. March: Took the truck on the first of many awesome camping trips. Got to finally use the 4wd and new trailer hitch to move a tree out of the way that had fallen over the winter and was blocking our camp site. Everything worked great and the truck did very well. 3. April: I managed to score a set of factory XJ tow hooks from an absolutely beautiful 97 2 door, 4x4, 5spd XJ with relatively low miles. It was tragic that someone scrapped it, but at least I was able to salvage the hooks for my truck! (Look how little wear there is on this clutch!!) 4. June: Unrelated to wrenching, but I scored some absolutely killer deals at a garage sale. Two Yamaha Zuma 2 stroke scooters. Both with less than 1k miles! And an old REI tent that just so happens to fit perfectly in the bed of the Comanche. I'm going to stop here and separate July off into another post as it was a big month. Thanks for reading and I hope you all have been well!
James92 Posted October 10 Author Posted October 10 (Part 2/3) Alright, continuing on... 5. July: My first smog in the truck was due and it unfortunately failed NOx at 25mph pretty bad (measured 1027 ppm, max 609 and average only 200). After a bit of digging, I discovered I overlooked replacing the spark plugs. The truck had been running fine and I hadn't given it much thought. Unfortunately, lesson learned. They were probably 25 years old and completely destroyed. Chunks of the ceramic insulators had cracked on 5/6 plugs and were eaten up by the engine - probably looong before I got it honestly. And cylinders 5 and 6 are buuuuuuurning oil. (How was this even firing still?) Unfortunately, the inside of the engine doesn't look great either. Lots of vertical scoring and some visible surface rust. Well.. I figured I didn't have much to lose at this point and decided to throw all the snake oils at it. I did a Berryman flush where you pull the plugs, fill each cylinder up with B12, rotate the engine all the way around and let it soak for a few hours, then repeat. I did this probably 2 or 3 times, then replaced the oil with some supertech. Then I moved onto phase 2 - poured a can of seafoam oil additive in the fresh oil and then also ran a seafoam top end clean through the intake. I drove the truck hard about 2-300 miles on the seafoam, then dumped the oil and installed fresh Valvoline Restore and Protect and a new wix filter. After all this work, I did a before and after compression check and scope. Compression greatly improved and the truck was running noticeably better with the new plugs. Unfortunately, cylinder 6 really looks like it's burning quite a bit of oil. This is the plug after only those 2 or 300 miles. Finally, I figured now would be a good time to check the fuel pressure and replace the filter. Pressure checked out good and new fuel filter installed. The old one looked like it was probably from the late 90s! It was marked Fram, but also had an OEM P/N on it. Well, I figured at this point I may as well bring it back in and see what this work has done for my emissions. And... passed! With flying colors. NOx went from over 1000ppm down to a whopping 18 ppm. Factory catalytic converter is still there and working great! *Knock on wood*. I don't really know what I'm going to do about the state of the engine, but as long as it passes smog and keeps running, I guess I'll just leave it be. To reward myself and the truck, I snagged a crazy good deal on some basically new KO3s in a bigger size. The KO2s I got back in February were only 195s and looked way too small on the truck. These are 235s, which is what was on the truck when I got it! Much better. Additionally, while mounting the tires, I decided to strip the clear coat on the wheels and clean them up. They were looking very dull. Luckily my friend had some old methyl chloride paint stripper laying around. Job was still tough, but at least doable. They still need a little bit more elbow grease but MAN they look great! (Before and after) Thanks for reading! Still a few more updates to come.
James92 Posted October 10 Author Posted October 10 (Part 3/3) Hopefully this is my last update needed to catch up to present. I'll try my best not to get this far behind in the future! 6. September: I finally got around to the front and rear differential fluid flushes. After digging around here a little, I learned of the awesome Lube Locker gaskets. My least favorite part of this job is cleaning all the old paper and/or RTV from the sealing surfaces... and this solves that issue! Heck yeah I threw them on. Idk if yall have seen the Torque Test Channel's video on counterfeit products, but man it's scary. Lube Locker seems to be suffering from it. There's fakes a over ebay. So I bought them straight from their website. A little more expensive, but I want to make sure my money is supporting their factory in the US and not some counterfeiter... anyway rant over on that. Interestingly, I noticed my rear diff cover is stamped from 1988... I'm fair sure this axle is original. Most of the bolts under hear look like they were never turned, it's still got the original little metal tab specifying limited slip fluid, and the LSD Dana 44 is on the build sheet. I'm wondering if either the cover got swapped at some mechanic down the road, or if Chrysler just had ordered a bunch of these in 88 and since it was a relatively uncommon option on MJs, it just took awhile to make it into my truck(?) I dunno! The rest of September was super fun. I took the truck on two huge camping trips, covering over 2000 miles. One up to Crater Lake and back through the Lava Beds, Eagle Lake and even did some minor off roading out to Bowman Lake. Then just a few weeks later, we did another trip out to Yosemite! This truck looks so awesome and it just does everything I ask. It's just as happy cruising 85 on the highway as it is off roading. 7. October: Only a few days in and it's been a busy month! I managed to snag a very rare factory short bed skid plate locally from another comanche enthusiast. Earlier on this year, I also got the transfer case and radiator skid plates from a junkyard XJ. I borrowed another friend's nutsert tool and got all the factory skid plates installed! Still haven't done the tow hooks yet, but that is on the list to do soon. (This one I technically did back in January but forgot to include it) And, finally, I hit the yards last weekend and scored some goodies. A complete factory fog light harness (for an 89.. I hope it works on my 92) Underdash lighting! Map pockets Underhood lamp This one made me sad. A full R134 conversion, except it was on an 89 and wouldn't work with my 92. Dangit. And thats it for now!! With rainy and cooler days coming, I've got a few big projects planned. First, I can't do another summer with no A/C. I got a gage set and vacuum pump last weekend and started diagnosing my existing A/C system. It's got a very slight leak and I noticed metal glitter in the compressor oil. I think I'm going to take out the checkbook and do new compressor, lines, condensor, receiver/drier... Additionally, I've started attempting to track down some of the cabin water ingress leaks. They seem to be coming from everywhere along the firewall. I might be looking at pulling the whole dash. Especially to replace the foam seal at the HVAC seal... we'll see! Always more to get done! If you actually read this far, thank you and I hope you are having as much fun in your Comanche as I am!
Eagle_SX4 Posted October 10 Posted October 10 49 minutes ago, James92 said: Your height adjustment brake rod should be positioned vertical and not horizontal. Good work on everything and keeping the truck alive.
James92 Posted October 11 Author Posted October 11 21 minutes ago, Eagle_SX4 said: Your height adjustment brake rod should be positioned vertical and not horizontal. Good work on everything and keeping the truck alive. Oh wow, thanks for pointing that out. I bolted it back together exactly how it was when I took it apart, so it must've been wrong for a little while. Easy fix, thanks!
fiatslug87 Posted October 11 Posted October 11 The wiring for that underhood light is different between 89 and 92 (changed in 90) the light has one power wire, your harness will have a blue two wire connector. The connectors are also different for the footwell lights.
James92 Posted October 11 Author Posted October 11 1 hour ago, fiatslug87 said: The wiring for that underhood light is different between 89 and 92 (changed in 90) the light has one power wire, your harness will have a blue two wire connector. The connectors are also different for the footwell lights. Dang... I did see in one of the other threads that the fog light harness potentially changed in 90. Thanks for confirming. Maybe I can repin it or build a new harness. At least the connector appears to be the same(?) And yes I did see that the under dash lights are also year specific. Later on in the day, I found a really nasty 94 or 95 with the underdash lights and snagged those ones as well. I didnt grab the tweeters, but looking back maybe I should've. They're kinda cool!
eaglescout526 Posted October 11 Posted October 11 Tweeters are nice to have. They do make a difference but they have to be more or less spliced in. The fog harness should be able to be pinned into the connector for the headlamp harness.
MiNi Beast Posted October 12 Posted October 12 On 10/10/2026 at 6:50 PM, James92 said: (Part 3/3) Hopefully this is my last update needed to catch up to present. I'll try my best not to get this far behind in the future! 6. September: I finally got around to the front and rear differential fluid flushes. After digging around here a little, I learned of the awesome Lube Locker gaskets. My least favorite part of this job is cleaning all the old paper and/or RTV from the sealing surfaces... and this solves that issue! Heck yeah I threw them on. Idk if yall have seen the Torque Test Channel's video on counterfeit products, but man it's scary. Lube Locker seems to be suffering from it. There's fakes a over ebay. So I bought them straight from their website. A little more expensive, but I want to make sure my money is supporting their factory in the US and not some counterfeiter... anyway rant over on that. Interestingly, I noticed my rear diff cover is stamped from 1988... I'm fair sure this axle is original. Most of the bolts under hear look like they were never turned, it's still got the original little metal tab specifying limited slip fluid, and the LSD Dana 44 is on the build sheet. I'm wondering if either the cover got swapped at some mechanic down the road, or if Chrysler just had ordered a bunch of these in 88 and since it was a relatively uncommon option on MJs, it just took awhile to make it into my truck(?) I dunno! The rest of September was super fun. I took the truck on two huge camping trips, covering over 2000 miles. One up to Crater Lake and back through the Lava Beds, Eagle Lake and even did some minor off roading out to Bowman Lake. Then just a few weeks later, we did another trip out to Yosemite! This truck looks so awesome and it just does everything I ask. It's just as happy cruising 85 on the highway as it is off roading. 7. October: Only a few days in and it's been a busy month! I managed to snag a very rare factory short bed skid plate locally from another comanche enthusiast. Earlier on this year, I also got the transfer case and radiator skid plates from a junkyard XJ. I borrowed another friend's nutsert tool and got all the factory skid plates installed! Still haven't done the tow hooks yet, but that is on the list to do soon. (This one I technically did back in January but forgot to include it) And, finally, I hit the yards last weekend and scored some goodies. A complete factory fog light harness (for an 89.. I hope it works on my 92) Underdash lighting! Map pockets Underhood lamp This one made me sad. A full R134 conversion, except it was on an 89 and wouldn't work with my 92. Dangit. And thats it for now!! With rainy and cooler days coming, I've got a few big projects planned. First, I can't do another summer with no A/C. I got a gage set and vacuum pump last weekend and started diagnosing my existing A/C system. It's got a very slight leak and I noticed metal glitter in the compressor oil. I think I'm going to take out the checkbook and do new compressor, lines, condensor, receiver/drier... Additionally, I've started attempting to track down some of the cabin water ingress leaks. They seem to be coming from everywhere along the firewall. I might be looking at pulling the whole dash. Especially to replace the foam seal at the HVAC seal... we'll see! Always more to get done! If you actually read this far, thank you and I hope you are having as much fun in your Comanche as I am! Are you getting me...I have lots of fun in my Comanche. Many great adventures in the memory bank. 😁
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