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Alexia's 1997 Comanche - 4.7L Stroker

Alexia

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Huntsville, AL
I was asked to put up a build thread here on NAXJA. Better not to clutter up the chat thread anyway! I am going to summarize the last seven months. If you want to read over those completely read pages one through six on Comanche Club.
http://comancheclub.com/topic/32740-alexias-1987-to-1997-comanche/

I bought this 1987 Comanche 4.0 Manual 2WD from RockinMJ today, 2012-03-04. It is having a starting issue that appears to be a bad fuel pump or electrical to the pump. We had a fun time getting it up on the trailer after the ratchet straps failed to help. Since it had a fresh battery and could crank I hopped in, put it in first gear, and used the starter motor to get it up on to the trailer. Even worked to get it off and backed into the garage!(With a few stops to recharge.)

I consider myself the Jeep medic. I find a Jeep in need of love and healing, bring it home, and begin a long process of restoring it. Last year I found a deer collision XJ that I rebuilt the front end and redid the entire interior. Since this is a Comanche and quite rare now I plan to keep this one around. This is going to be a complete tear down and rebuild. There is some light surface rust across the roof and hood. The rest of the body has only one small dent that a is a simple fix, a lightly dented bed corner hidden by the bed liner, and a small bulge on the bottom of the tail gate that will take me less than a minute to fix with a hammer. The under side of the cab and bed look to be rust free. I am expecting a bit of light surface rust under the carpets.

Plans
  • 1997+ XJ Conversion(So cliche, but so worth it.)
  • 4.7 Stroker with Supercharger
  • JCR Offroad Front Bumper - Already delivered and waiting for paint.
  • LineX Bed Liner
  • 4WD Conversion - Donor is 4WD and have a NP242 ready to swap for full time 4WD.
  • D44 Rear Axle

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I picked up a donor 1997 XJ for $500 plus my $170 in costs to go get it. The owner is a true Jeep lover and was really sad to see it go. Unfortunately it was beyond reasonable repair. Even I would not attempt to repair it! It is the perfect candidate to donate parts on to an older Jeep in need a few kidneys.

Donor XJ inside my tiny garage. Notice my space saving by putting the lawn mower under the rear.
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HVAC Unit Test Fit
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Big Gap Needs Filled
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Filler Piece Cut Out
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Filler Piece Painted
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Test Fit of HVAC Unit with Filler Piece
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Checking Placement of Wire Harness Support
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Wire Harness Support Painted
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Wire Harness Bolted and Sealed - Steering Shaft Bushing
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Steering Shaft Bushing
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The Dash FITS! YEAH! SO MUCH WORK!
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Dash back out to modify the 1997 dash harness to work with the 1999-2001 style gauge cluster.
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Lots of parts arriving, time to save up for paint! I am doing other items that need be worked on to help me find anything that might need to be done before paint. I did find another hole I need to drill in the firewall. The 1997 Cherokee never had power options so many of the wires to hook up the connectors are not on the wiring harness. As well, I would have needed to reduce the size of the harness anyway so this all works out. After lots of research, studying, and printing out connector diagrams I figured out how to rewire it cleanly. There are still three larger wires that need their own power harness wired up.

Connector Work
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Full Wire Harness
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Connector Work Close Up
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Other Connector End
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Right Door Panel
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Header Panel and Grill
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Right Fender
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  • Fender flare brackets left and right sides. No rust at all, no broken bolts!
  • Right fender to inner fender bracket.
  • Matching fuse box cover.
  • Complete matching key set including the glove box.
  • Glove box!
  • Right flare already in the final chosen color.
  • $7 found in the glove box.
  • Free hammer someone left behind in an engine bay.
  • Also, it is a half price weekend at LKQ!


LKQ Picks Labor Day Weekend
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Fuse Box and Cruise Control Servo Installed
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Air Box, Computer, and Brake Booster Installed
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Windshield Washer Fluid Bottle Installed
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Test Fitting Shifters
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Wiring Harness Adapter Plate Installed
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Parking Brake Paint Detail Top
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Parking Brake Adapter - Cut the entry point for the parking brake cable off the MJ firewall brake mechanism and bolted it on. The distance from there to the cable holding matches perfectly.
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Cut off the hump that normally sticks down through the floor pan since it is unneeded.
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Test Fitting the Sacrificial Center Console
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Paint all the brackets black! I like the clean look of the rust converter spray paint over the corroded bare metal brackets.
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Damn key cylinder that will not go into place!
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$12 OEM NSS
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If you are swapping to a double diaphram brake booster the junction, left, and right hard lines come to about $20 at the dealership. Much cheaper than buying and making your own.
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Right Front Hard Line
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Left Front Hard Line - Some brake fluid dripped on to the fender and down on to the frame. It messed up the recently applied under coating. :(
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Q: What's up with the nasty engine block mount brackets? A: Waiting for Black Friday sales to purchase heavy duty brackets.
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This may look like a mess, but I routed all these specifically make them hold each other in place.
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Valve setup is not finished. Awaiting the arrival of correct length push rods. The remanufactured cylinder head had 0.02" removed to level it so the valve preload is out of specification.
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THE ENGINE IS INSTALLED! WHOOOOOOO! *Dies*
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Nice build Alex! I'm going to build a OBD2 long bed as my next multi-purpose rig when Old Blue is to worn out to wheel and drive.

We are rebuilding my son's rolled 89 MJ right now. We almost have it street ready, one more week!
 
I like. I'm really going to be drooling and jealous when that supercharger comes into play.
 
Nice.... but get rid of the factory motor mounts now. Get some Brown Dog or Ironman Mounts in there.
 
Lookin good!

Awesome. Been wanting to do this exact same thing, and will one day. Cant wait to see the progress!

~ Stump

Yeah, looking good alex.

Very nice!!!!

I'd love to do something like this one day...

I like. I'm really going to be drooling and jealous when that supercharger comes into play.

Thank you, it has been lots of work!

Nice build Alex! I'm going to build a OBD2 long bed as my next multi-purpose rig when Old Blue is to worn out to wheel and drive.

We are rebuilding my son's rolled 89 MJ right now. We almost have it street ready, one more week!

Just paint left, right?

Nice.... but get rid of the factory motor mounts now. Get some Brown Dog or Ironman Mounts in there.

Those are brand new motor mounts. Nothing wrong with them! Now, I do worry about the motor side due to the limited bolt placement. Due to the potential for the extra horsepower to break the bolt holes. Which is why I plan to get better motor brackets and why the stock ones I have installed are simply cleaned up instead of painted.
 
Just paint left, right?

I wish! We have to get pass side fender/door hung, put the bed on, fix a couple of engine issues(it ran upside down for 5 min.), fix the front end alignment, change fluids, then give it a good going over.

It will be in primer for a few months since my son is a broke ass college kid now(the NAVY wouldn't take him due to his eye sight issues).
 
How to make a 1999+ lock cylinder fit in 1997-1998 ignitions.
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New 9.547" push rods installed. This was a pain getting it to measure correctly.
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Lots of accessories, vacuum lines, and other bits installed.
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Cleaned, sanded, cleaned, and pied valve cover.
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Gloss black valve cover - Normally my policy is to paint the valve cover green on any engine I work on. This will be an exception to keep the color scheme.
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I put the r134a system in our MJ from a XJ. Its bolt in and easy to charge/maintain. I recommend using a 96 XJ for the donor. Swap from the orifice block forward.

Sorry for the hijack Alex, just wanted to show it can be done easily on any pre r134a system

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