Built Comanche Rebuild

cj5walt

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Location
mooresville, nc
Well just picked it up this past week:
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Specs:
1987 MJ bobbed bed
4.0
AW4
NP231
Dana 30 open 4.56s
Dana 40 welded 4.56s
5.5" Rubcon Express lift, short arm w/ front drop brackets
35" MTRs black steelies w/ matching spare
rock sliders
no rust

The good:
lift
35s
geared
ARB front bumper
XRC8 winch
engine and trans seem to be in good operating condition
bucket seats
No CAD
297 axle ujoints

The bad:
interior appeares to be from 3 trucks
body is beat, shes lived a life in the rocks
clunk in the front end
rear is welded
exhaust leak
busted transmision mount

The plan in order:
redo interior (picked up all grey interior from 1990 cheroke limited already installed floor shifter and matching steering coloumn)
fix front end clunk (I think may be a unit bearing)
selectable rear locker
add to rock sliders (step rail)
stock up spare parts
tube doors
build tire gate with fuel can holder
aquire straight bed and bob
aquire new fenders trim to match rear
repair right cab corner
Rubicon Express long arm kit
upgrade sound system
paint, either keep it black or posibly go to rescue green or similar
light bar/a pillar slide
upgrade to front coilovers

This weekend we swaped out the old column shift steering column w/ badly worn tilt unit. Installed floor shifter. Replaced the rear drive shaft, it had a spiral dent that ran half its length, Universal Services in Charlotte retubed it for me.


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Looks like a good start Matt. Can't wait to see it on the trails! Hell, I haven't even seen the CJ on the trails yet! :D

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2
 
Thanks Gary. Doing a shake down run weekend after next you should ride down. I keep waiting for cooler weather to bring the CJ out, might bring em both out that weekend
 
While investigating the lunking sound from front end I decided to check rt unit bearing. Found it took minimal force to remove large retaining nut. Fond it took excsive force to remove the 3 mounting bolts, and then it came off in 2 peices
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has anyone seen caliper slide pins like these on a dana 30 before?
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replaced right unit bearing and topped off diff fluids, clunk is still there but not near as bad. May need some help figuring this one out
 
Awesome. I originally built this in like '05. By built, I mean bobbed the bed, lift, interior, front clip, arb, gears, etc. It has basically been painted, wheels, and more dents from when I had it. Oh, and I've owned it 4 or 5 different times.
 
tw89yj said:
Awesome. I originally built this in like '05. By built, I mean bobbed the bed, lift, interior, front clip, arb, gears, etc. It has basically been painted, wheels, and more dents from when I had it. Oh, and I've owned it 4 or 5 different times.
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Jeremy told me it passed through hands several times. You done a great job and nailed "the look" when you had it
 
It wasn't just the look when first built. The only thing I never finished was interior, couldn't find all the trim pieces I needed. I drove it 100+ miles to wheel, beat on it, and drove it home several times. It drove really good.
 
It does drive great, been driving it pretty much daily. I got all the interior to change it to charcoal grey, even managed to find door panels to match the seats
 
Been a productive day. Started out by fixing my tail lights, found a short where the original license plate lights were. Repaired short, instlled new light and mounted tag, no pics.

Then replaced the busted trans mount, I was able to completly lift the trans/tcase until i saw day light between it and the mount, again no pics.

Then we comenced to tearing into the interior

before
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during
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where i stopped

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Swapped on door panels that match seats

old
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new
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And dyed panels for reinstall tommorow after they bake in the sun and once im finished swapping dash
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Goals for tomorow, swap dash, recover carpeted panel that mounts to rear of cab, mout tool box and install cb radio
 
I almost finished interior today. After i got the dash out I found a mouse had made a home there at one point in time and snacked on some of the wiring. I patched all that up and took some time to familiarize myself with component and wiring. Also cut out the 14 splices in the speaker wiring, radio sounds much better. As of right now the only original interior peices that I know are left is the b pillar and rear cab panel covers and the gauge cluster, which will be swapped in time. I was lucky and managed to pull dash, door panels, a pillar plastics, lower door opening plastics, headrests, steering coloumn and wheel all from 1 jeep 1991 cherokee limited. The seats it already had matched new interior.

Hopefully one day this week I can get the rear cab panel recovered and installed, all that will be left then is mount cb, fire extiguisher and first aid kit..... Until i track down a couple needed parts

heres only pics i got, had to have it back together for work in the morning

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what it started as

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I bet the clunking sound is the worn out rubber bushings on the RE control arms. Mine were shot. It took new TRE & such before I figured it out.

Great job so far!
 
Gmachine said:
I bet the clunking sound is the worn out rubber bushings on the RE control arms. Mine were shot. It took new TRE & such before I figured it out.

Great job so far!
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Thanks. You think it could be the bushings even though it sounds like it goes along with tire rotation?

took a look and a few bushings look mushed, especially the one on top of the center section.
 
Haha, if you don't mind asking did you buy this off a guy who lives near shelby? :D I swapped in the shafts for the 297 joints. Check and make sure one of them hasn't got the joints welded in it. I had an OH $H!T short side shaft that he may or may not have used. The retaining nut is loose for a reason. All it does is hold the shaft tight to the unit bearing, its not load supporting. As long as it has the cotter pin retainer in it, its fine, and make for easier shaft replacement, should the need arise. The other bolt need to be tight as a mother. The clunk is from the control arms, which all need new bushings, as does the track bar iirc. When we swap the single piece shaft in place of the two piece long side shaft, he opted to use some kind of seal halfway down the axletube. Personally, I'd pull the front diff and out a retrofitted diff seal in on the long side.

He put a lot of time into getting the motor running better. Lots of new parts, including injectors. Enjoy it man, its a hell of a good ride to build onto. Guess he just wasn't into wheeling as much as I was.
 
Redneck Rigger said:
Haha, if you don't mind asking did you buy this off a guy who lives near shelby? :D I swapped in the shafts for the 297 joints. Check and make sure one of them hasn't got the joints welded in it. I had an OH $H!T short side shaft that he may or may not have used. The retaining nut is loose for a reason. All it does is hold the shaft tight to the unit bearing, its not load supporting. As long as it has the cotter pin retainer in it, its fine, and make for easier shaft replacement, should the need arise. The other bolt need to be tight as a mother. The clunk is from the control arms, which all need new bushings, as does the track bar iirc. When we swap the single piece shaft in place of the two piece long side shaft, he opted to use some kind of seal halfway down the axletube. Personally, I'd pull the front diff and out a retrofitted diff seal in on the long side.

He put a lot of time into getting the motor running better. Lots of new parts, including injectors. Enjoy it man, its a hell of a good ride to build onto. Guess he just wasn't into wheeling as much as I was.
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Thanks a bunch thats great info. And yepp out in Mt holly, he wheeled it, plenty of fresh rock rash when I picked it up

I noiced the short shaft had the u-joint caps tacked in place I was thinking that was common?? Why was axle nut left loose?

Going to be replacing control arm bushings in the next week

For the axle seal, they have been replaced with what looks like alloy usa greasable seals, not sure if the inner axle seal was removed at that time
 
The inner seal is the one that should be replaced if it hasn't been already. The outters are usa alloy, just good for keeping dirt out, not oil in, imo. Yeah, the tacks are okay, they're just extra insurance if the u joint c clips should fail. I had a short shaft that was boogered up, and had the joints fully welded in, just as a precaution, should the crap hit the fan. I didn't think it made it onto that jeep, but I wasn't sure. That I recall, the nut shouldnt have been loose, but i never tighten them up so hard that they're difficult to remove. Almost had a bad experience not being able to remove one on trail on my own ride. Evidently it has changed hands at least once in the past year, last I recollect, my buddy lived in Fallston.
 
I have super flex joints on the axle & they were fine, but RE admitted there was a problem with the rubber bushings they used to install. The new ones are poly. The noise I was getting was a loud pop going from drive to reverse. Or if I went to move it out of park. Best of luck.
 
One of the frame side bushings doesn't appear to be pressed in all the way. Going to press in stock replacements to hold over until I get long arms.

This morning one of the rear brake shoes came apart so it got a rear brake job today.
 
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