Harry's 88 Eliminator

[hgeranium]

Hi everybody! I figured now would be as good a time as any to start my build thread. I've already done a bit of work in the past 3 years that I've owned it so I will fire off the work I've done to it to get y'all up to speed.

 

10/2022-12/2022

Air Filter (10/22) (oil leakage from CCV hose)

Power Steering gearbox and HP hose (first major fix, leaked tons of PSF from the bottom of the gearbox. For a few weeks beforehand, I would keep an empty bottle of PSF under the leak point while I was at work to catch an entire quart in 8 hours, then pour it back in to drive home) (10/22)

Oil change #1 (10/22)

Tune-up (spark plugs, cap/rotor, coil) (10/22)

Valve cover gasket (here I snapped the front VC bolt and haven't had the drive to fix it. I put a ton of RTV and it is bone dry from oil. ironically the back still leaks while the front with the broken bolt is the driest part of the engine) (11/22)

IACV #1 (11/22)

TPS (11/22)

Shortly after doing the IACV and TPS (didn't even know I had to set/align it!), I began having an intermittent no-start. Being an inexperienced Renix owner, I had no idea it was as simple as the CPS. I ended up putting the old IACV and TPS on thinking the new ones were faulty.  Eventually I stumbled across cruiser's site and realized how big of a deal the CPS is and subsequently replaced it.

CPS (11/22)

Alternator (Figuring out how to manually loosen the belt with my worthless Chilton's manual was a lot of fun after I got stranded at work when the alternator took a crap)(12/22)

Serpentine Belt (12/22)

01/2023

Oxygen sensor (1/23)

Oil change #2 (1/23)

There is a huge gap between here and the next time I did any wrenching. In  March 2023 I bought a second car; a fully loaded 1997 Toyota Camry that I was driving around while I kind of let the Jeep sit, especially in the summer. It became mostly a winter or outside work vehicle at this point. Spring 2023 I graduated with an Associate's degree in San Antonio. I moved to College Station August 2023 with some friends to get some independence. I applied and got accepted into A&M for the Fall 2024 semester. I brought both vehicles to College Station, and took the Jeep back down to my parent's house after my first semester at A&M accepting that I wasn't driving it enough. I planned to come back to it when I graduated. Fast forward to May 2025, my girlfriend takes a road trip to SA without checking the oil and seizes the Toyota. I get a ride to San Antonio, resume insurance on the Jeep and drive it back to CSTAT.

5/2025-11/2025 (the time of making this original post)

Air Filter #2 (more crazy oil leakage from CCV hose) (5/25)

Oil change #3 (5/25)

ALTERNATOR #2 (crappy reman unit went out after 6000 miles. If it goes out again I'm buying a brand new ACDelco/Bosch from Rockauto. Screw the reman lifetime warranty) (6/25)

Fuel Filter (completely failed and was dumping fuel from both ends) (6/25)

New passenger door check bracket and old pin->bolt (7/25)

Air filter #3 (finally plugged the hole from CCV to air box hole and routed the hose itself to a can. Moderate oil smell, but no more oil soaked filter!) (7/25)

Rear diff fluid (very nearly sliced my finger in two when my breaker bar slipped here and barefist punched a sharp piece of the frame. I've never bled so much) (7/25)

TPS (after learning about TPS adjustments and getting the right voltage was impossible on the old unit, I put the new one from 2022 back on and it adjusted like a charm) (7/25)

Electric aux fan replacement (bearing was going out) (8/25)

Coolant flush (got my first taste of the PITA that is renix burping. It's easy now that I know what to do) (8/25)

STEERING LINKAGE OVERHAUL! (all tie rods, steering damper, track bar, alignment) (late 9/25-early 10/25)

IACV #2 (9/25)

Throttle body gasket (9/25)

Coolant overflow bottle (got my first taste of boiling water geysering all over my hand and engine bay here from the old bottle) (10/25)

EGR Gasket (11/25)

 

Cruiser tips completed: 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11

In progress/priority: 1, 6, 9, 18, 29, 31

 

I know this build isn't anything particularly impressive. It's more general maintenance and trying to keep it running in as good of stock shape as I can keep it. Before I got the Comanche, I was not very mechanically inclined. I learned a bit on a 94 GMC C1500 I had from 2021-2022. Fun fact, I bought the Comanche TWO DAYS after my GMC got wrecked by a distracted driver. Paid $3000 for the GMC, insurance paid out $6000. Naturally, I picked up the Comanche for $5000 and bought 5 31x9.5 ATs for ~$1000. I'd say it was a fair trade.

 

The Comanche has been the poor guinea pig that I have learned to work on, but it has been so good to me other than the CPS issues in 2022 and the lovely intermittent high idle that I've been chasing since May of this year. The 4.0 is such a beginner/intermediate friendly motor to work on, and the MJ/XJ community is always so friendly and full of knowledge. 

 

Hopefully I can keep up with this build thread. While I'm in school I'm trying to iron things out and get it as 'nice' as possible. Once I graduate, have a bit more time/income, and get a second vehicle I want to do a bit more hardcore upgrading/modification. Either a 4WD swap (very likely), keep it a 2WD pre-runner build, or go all in on the motor and build it to drag race. Or I can get another XJ/MJ that's 4WD already and restore this one and keep it as a going-to-town rig.

 

Here are some pictures in chronological order from 2022-present. 

Original listing! Saw it on 10/8/22

Taken the day of picking the truck up. I drove an hour and a half in the morning to pick it up and then drove it to work that afternoon. This was a night and a day after my GMC was wrecked and seeing the listing, 10/9/22. 

First "photoshoot" with the guy that got me into the XJ/MJ platform to begin with. I didn't even know that a Comanche existed before he told me about them. Still on old tires. I miss that American flag magnet, idk where it went.

Taken the day that I got my new tires installed. The only cosmetic exterior change I've made.

First and only tow! In retrospect, I know it was the CPS and I probably could've unplugged/replugged to start it but

Taken with my buddy after we moved from SA to College Station together.

Taken 10/2025, a recent picture. Same old Jeep.

 

Sorry for this absolute block of a post, but consider this to be a very condensed 3 years worth of posts on the build thread. My subsequent posts, assuming that I keep up with it, will be much shorter and a typical fashion to other threads. Thanks for reading!

[hgeranium]

Current Project: Fixing the intermittent high idle that I've made 3,000 posts about. I ordered a third IACV with the hopes that I somehow have gotten faulty IACs twice in a row out of the box, which is definitely possible. The symptoms line up pretty well with an IAC issue. High, sticking idle that usually goes away when shifting into gear but not always. A few times I've driven it with the high idle and it's like someone is stepping on the gas at all times. It makes sense that the IACV is stuck open when it shouldn't be open at all causing unmetered air to enter the TB and raise the idle. 

 

Other than the IAC, it would have to be a vacuum leak. I have gotten under the hood a couple of times when the idle is sticking and checked the lines/connections with brake cleaner. Nothing raised the idle, even the MAP->TB and the PCV lines. EGR is not yet fully deleted, but capped off. I have cleaned the TB, replaced IACV x2, replaced TPS (in spec), new TB gasket and TIGHTENED MANIFOLD BOLTS only for the problem to still come back.

 

Today I replaced the EGR gasket just in case there was a leak there, plus it was dirt cheap. The gasket was toast, one layer stuck to the valve hard when I peeled the other layer off. After replacing it, the high idle on startup is 'gone' but could just be a coincidental alignment of the cyclical nature of this problem. Oddly, the truck will idle in park a little higher than usual on initial startup (~900-1000) and go to normal idle when I shift (~750RPM). After dropping the idle and going back into park, the idle is back to normal at 750. For that, it makes me think that I didn't fix the problem and its intermittent nature allowed it to conveniently go away as soon I changed something! The EGR gasket was so oil soaked from a lifetime of oil-soaked air filters, so it's good that I replaced it regardless.

 

My current course of action is as follows:

1. Install new IACV on 11/5 and pray that the issue is resolved. If not, I will have to go to 2. replace the manifold gasket. I am greatly dreading having to do this. I understand I can get those lower bolts by removing the air box but it doesn't make it seem like any less of a PITA to do. Starting the bottom bolts after replacing the gasket sounds awful. I actually had more luck getting to the lower bolts from the bottom of the truck when tightening. It was more effort than it was worth saving a minute or two on the ground trying to get a socket on the bolt completely blind from the top of the engine.

 

If the manifold gasket doesn't solve the issue then I'm kind of SOL. I guess my next moves would be to completely redo the vacuum lines and possibly try another IACV?

[89 MJ]

Glad to see you started a build thread 

[hgeranium]

Great progress has been made! I will submit more pictures when I’m home from class. 
 

new IACV installed and so far running GREAT. The starts are so smooth and consistent. We will see how it lasts. 
 

Upgraded the engine-to-chassis ground with an extra ground cable from the chassis to a fuel rail bolt.  
Also cleaned up and correctly routed all of the cruise control and HVAC vacuum lines. 
 

Old worn out headlight bezels have been quickly rattle canned to freshen them up and they look great (from more than 5 feet away). 
 

I was messing with the dipstick ground but that stud kept spinning and I ran out of time. Eventually I’ll get that ground freshened up. 
 

next on the list is re-doing the blower motor and fuel pump grounds while I’m in a groundy mood

[Eagle_SX4]

11 minutes ago, hgeranium said:

It appears like your transmission kickdown cable is disconnected. 

[hgeranium]

33 minutes ago, Eagle_SX4 said:

It appears like your transmission kickdown cable is disconnected. 

Yeah don’t worry I put that back on after the picture was taken. I took it off for easier access to that fuel rail bolt. 

[hgeranium]

This was the condition of the worse of the two bezels originally. At some point the entire front end (fenders, header panel, bezels, and grille) was replaced and painted black (maybe an accident? But clean title) and this bezel did not hold up. That’s why you can see my eliminator decal stop at the fender and a pretty horrid paint mismatch.  You could see the original paint starting to show on the bezel and it was killing me for years. 

I took this last night. The flash makes it look way worse than it actually is but you can see the difference.
 

Also you can see that upper lip with the jeep logo is from a green XJ lol. I wish I knew what happened to the front end for all the parts to be cobbled together from different XJs. There’s 3 different paint colors that I can find in the front end other than black.