November 2025 - An MJ Named Jessica

[89 MJ]

November 2025 - Jessica, @JoeLAW's Little B...tch

 

 

Build Thread- 

 

Year/Model - 

 1989 Jeep Comanche Eliminator

Drivetrain- 

 4.0L I6 from a 06 TJ Wrangler with about 40-50K miles on it maybe more not sure. Banks Headers, and Monster Muffler THOR Cowl Air Intake, K-Suspension Injectors. Engine and Tranny Wiring Harness out of a 94 XJ. Jeepers and Creepers 62mm Throttle Body. Stock AW4 out of a 94-95 XJ with 6 row Derale Transmission cooler. NP241OR Transfer Case out of an 06 TJ Wrangler Rubicon with the 4:1 Low Gear Ratio. Front axle is a 1989 Ford F-350 Dana 60 KingPin Axle, Reid Racing Knuckles, East Coast Gear Supply Spool, 35 Spline Chromo Inner and Outer Axle Shafts, with the Yukon Super-Joints and Yukon Locking Hubs, Dynatrac Diff Cover, 1410 TMR Customs forged Pinion Yoke, 5.38 gear Ratio. Rear Axle is a 1989 Chevrolet K2500 14 Bolt Axle, Yukon Grizzly Locker, Stock 14B axle shafts, Ballistic Fab Shave Kit, Diff cover, and pinion guard, East Coast Gear Supply 1410 Forged Pinion Yoke, Ruffstuff Disc Brake Conversion and 5.38 gear ratio.

 

 

Cooling- 

 2 Row Griffin Aluminum Radiator, with 3 10" Maradyne Perfomance E-fans sitting on a custom made shroud, and a Flowkooler Pump. Also a custom overflow Tank made out of an old Vodka Bottle, and to monitor Things at the Cab an AutoMeter Mechanical Temp Gauge. 

 

Electrical/Ignition- 

 Optima Battery, with heavy duty battery cables. Stock 94 XJ Ignition with an Ebay Special wannabe MSD Coil, and MSD Spark Plug Wires. Champion Copper Sparkplugs. Stock Distributor.

 

Suspension/Steering- 

 Up front it's a custom 3 link made out of old but lightly used RockKrawler Long Arms out of a TJ, Custom Trackbar made with a bunch of Ruffstuff, Motobilt and Artec bits and pieces like mounts at the axle along with the actual trackbar itself, on the chassis end I custom fitted and welded a pair of SFR (Stinky Fab Racing) Long Arm mounts. Cushioning the ride is a pair of 14" Travel ORI STX Struts. Out back I kept it somewhat simple and just did a SOA (Spring Over Axle) and combined 2 original leaf springs, while the rest came from a custom Deaver pack out of a toyota prerunner, and keeping control of that is a pair of Fox Shox 2.0s with a remote reservoir that are meant to fit a rear JK with 4-6" of lift. The steering linkage was custom made and pieced together out of old bits and pieces my buddies had laying around, but it consists of Ballistic High Steer Arms, and a Ruffstuff made Drag Link, PSC Pump, Reservoir, 8" Hydro Assist Ram, and Steering Box. A Derale Performance Universal 6 pass Cooler with an integrated electric fan to cool the fluid off. Custom made Hydraulic lines from the box to the ram, and reservoir to pump. The tie-rod was a piece that had already been made and used and just made it work and installed new Ruffstuff Heim joints at the ends., and sleeved a part that had been previously gouged while trying to cut some brackets off of it. The internal parts of the kingpin came out of a Yukon Kit, but it's pretty much a stock setup, nothing fancy there. All the linkage was supposed to be temporary but it has worked so far, however it soon will be re-worked to be a double shear setup dropping the bolt from the high steer arm all the way to the knuckle. 

 

 

Interior-  

 Still mostly Stock, with the stock bench seat in place, except for the Alpine Stereo with Polk Audio speakers, an Auxbeam 8 Gang switch panel, a Carmount Magnetic Phone Mount and the Autometer A-Pillar Dual gauge pod. And still through all this years a Little Trees Coconut Air Freshener. Gotta keep the interior smelling good and fresh. I also ordered a Custom "CoverKing" sunshade for the windshield from Amazon for about $50 and it fits perfectly. 

 

Brakes- 

 Stock 1989 F-350 Calipers with PowerStop pads, The rears are a Ruffstuff conversion kit, but the Rotors are basically off a 1971 K20 and the calipers I went for the Cadillac El Dorado famous calipers with the integrated parking brake for safety. Up on the engine bay sits a 98-01 Booster, paired with a 2001 Dodge Van D250 Master Cylinder. Custom made Brake lines front and rear hard, and stainless steel braided all from Allstar Performance purchased from my local HotRod Shop. (Shout out to Car Parts Machine in El Paso, TX!!!)

 

Lighting- 

 Trucklite LED headlights, along with some auxiliary Amazon special 7" Round LED Driving lights with red rings that I have mounted at the bumper. Amazon special LED strips that act as rock lights, and soon to be done custom rear tailights, with an assortment of LED pods from Amazon. Also soon to be installed a pair of amber fog lights at the high steer arm which haven't had the chance to finish yet.

 

 

Exterior- 

 Bought it with the paint job that it has on there right now however I got the top part (black) re-painted back in 2019. Also Added the OR-Fab Heavy Duty front bumper with the grille guard, and modified it to fit the Warn 9.5ti Winch. Custom made rocksliders out of 1 x 2.5" 1/4" thick rectangular tubing along with a 1x1" 1/4" thick angle to the bottom outside part of the slider to help with sliding on the rocks instead of dragging on the whole tube. Rear bumper is a also custom made out of the leftover 1 x 2.5" 1/4" thick rectangular tubing from the sliders, however I tied it in with a C-Channel at the bottom and sandwiched the frame with 2 3/16" plates on both sides, and then tied in Dirtbound Corner guards with a couple of kickers from the frame to the corner of the bed. Also fitted a custom 2" hidden receiver where the license plate sits until we hit the trails were I take it off to protect it from being bent, then welded a couple of Rufftstuff D-Ring tabs, and drilled and tapped the top part of it to install some anti-skid plates from motobilt. It is also fully stiffened front to back with T&M Fab stiffeners, and up front on the lower part with the Ruffstuff XJ stiffeners. Original plastic bedliner still on there, and that rounds up the exterior.

 

 

Wheel & Tires- 

17" x 8 1/2" with 3.5" Backspacing Trail Ready HD17 Beadlock Wheels Polished Aluminum Finish, with Red anodized Rock Rings. I also installed the APEX rapid air-down valves on them. Tires are a set of heavily used Maxxis Trepador 40" x 13.50" Bias Ply tires non-sticky version.

 

Misc- 

 Pep Boys window tint done at home, a set of Russell Stainless Steel Braided fuel hoses with their respective Anodized AN Fittings to fit into the new fuel rail, and also a set of small K&N Breather filters for the Valve cover, diffs, tranny and t-case. Also Custom Heavy Duty Power Steering mount, battery tray with a Ruffstuff cage, overflow tank mount, Motor Mounts, auxbeam fuse panel mount, PSC reservoir mount, original fuse panel mount and Fuel line mounts. A CFM Industries XJ Front Coilover buckets, along with the top brace, SFR custom fitted trackbar brace, SFR AW4 Skidplate. Auxbeam 8 Gang Switch panel system for all auxiliary electrical accessories, and a pair of Auxbeam Aux light covers. Custom made driveshafts, warn epic hook and d-rings up front, soon to be installed Mojab Offroad Synthetic winch line. 

 

 

Best MJ story- 

 Still to this day it has to be one of the first times after I bought her, I took her out to a local DownHill riding spot where in order to shuttle you drive up an unmantained dirt road which is absolutely necessary to have 4WD since it's loose rocky and ledgy. So I drove her up a couple of times, and spent half the day out there, because we had a party to go to afterwards. Well as we're going to the party we find out that both my brake lights, and passenger side turn signal were not working, so no biggie we decided that a friend of mine was gonna drive behind me and one up front. After we get to the party, I was lucky to find a parking space close to the entrance, because since I had all the bikes and gear on the truck I wanted to take a peak at it from time to time.

Well as time passed by, beer started flowing and people started leaving. and Before I knew it it was already very late, and my friends had left. So since I knew that basically my taillights were not working, I decided to take the back streets instead of the freeway back home. But oh Surprise! Right after I take off on one of the streets with the least traffic I get pulled over.. And I was for sure a bit more than buzzed, so anyways the Cop stops me and asks me the question and I explained to him what happenned, and the he looks at the bikes on the truck and he's says "nice bikes man", to where I respond "thanks", and then he starts looking at the truck and starts asking me all this questions, "What year is this?, I've never seen this type of Cherokee.." So I get off my truck and start telling him all about it, and the bikes and stuff, and then after a while of admiring the truck, He says "Well you know it i very dangerous for you not to have any taillights, and I responded "Yes I know but I live somewhat close by, and it's getting very late and need to get home", to what he responds "all right I'm gonna escort you home, just follow me close by". At this point I couldn't believe it, I was like Jessica you saved my @$$! Anyways.. We get home I park my truck on the driveway I wave and yell "Thanks!" to what he responded "Oh and by the way, I know you're @#$%ed up, Have a Good Night!" My reaction was priceless jaw all the way down to the ground! I was like all right this guy just made my day! so I left the truck all loaded up and didn't even bother to lock it up.. Because I was thinking nothing can really happen after this.. haha and that's why even to this day this is my Best MJ Story.

 

CC is Awesome! Why? 

I've met so many good people because of this little truck, and a lot of them have been met virtually first and then in person, whether we met here or some sort of social media, we can always refer to CC, because it has a lot, and I mean a lot! Of great info and very helpful people, everytime I see a fellow Comanche Driver on the Road, I always try to stop him so I can talk to him about it, and try to make him join CC. I've ran into a lot of people that haven't and I always tell them just join, or if not follow one or all of the social media pages and start posting because you don't know which post that you'll do will help out somebody else, and vice versa. This is a badass site and online community that is always looking to lend a helping hand to the one in need for tech info, or just different ideas. 

 

[hgeranium]

Amazing build! That thing looks like wicked fun on the trails. Congrats on MJOTM!

[NHMJXJ]

Just. Wow. 

[neohic]

Dang!!

[Salvagedcircuit]

What a story. That's a monster truck of an MJ.

Excellent work.

[fiatslug87]

A repeat MJOTM???

 

[neohic]

21 minutes ago, fiatslug87 said:

A repeat MJOTM???

 

Yup! There’s been a couple now!

[89 MJ]

22 minutes ago, fiatslug87 said:

A repeat MJOTM???

 

Yessir, there have been a few. Typically when the truck has only gone through substantial changes. 

[Pete M]

god I love this truck!