87 comanche h.o. swap
 

This will be my first build thread it will go slow and probably lots of grammar errors and miss spelled words.
I have had over 17 jeeps in the last 5 years with 3 being comanche's not satisfied with past projects do to to much body work to be done I finally found a straight rust free 1987 mj. It has been neglected and half ass built but I'm going to gut it and do a complete 1996 ho swap because I got a 96 xj parts jeep and 94 xj parts jeep for $300 so that's the reason for the particular year swap I chose.

Comanche run down it was a 2wd truck but the previous owner started a 4wd conversion. The lift currently is a rough country xj 4.5" long arm kit that he made a bastard pack with the main mj leaf for the rear along with going spring over axle and a 3"block so the rear is sitting at 10.5" roughly and the front is at 7.5" with a 3" coil spacer and 4.5" coils. Completely undoing this crap and planning for a 5.5" lift hight and 35s in the end. It has a snorkel that I'm removing for a cowl snorkel, has a nice winch bumper that I will reuse, ford 8.8 with 4:10 gears limited slip and truss I'm keeping but putting in 4:88 gears, low pinion dana 30 is going to be swapped for high pinion and I'm going to paint the jeep a 1996 cherokee color "bright jade satin metallic"

The 96 xj is in great shape but has a blown engine and rusted passenger floor pan.
The 94 xj is completely trash but has a good 4.0 h.o. that I'm using for the swap

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Great project, I've done alot of HO swaps on the MJ's and the 94 harness is a great choice. I like the 96 harness because it's OBD2 and I can use a scanner on it but the fuel regulator is in the tank and it's alittle bit of fab work building a sending unit. You gotta do some work in the tank though, You can use the sending unit and pump that's in it but the gas gauge will read backwards..I also like the bright Metallic Jade I got two xj's that color.....

I was going to do the 94 harness but the previous owner cut it up.

Sorry about your lift, Bro.

Looks like it has a lot of potential. I would really like to build an mj with the xj wagoneer front end & trim.


I'm sure you have considered the 97+ front end already. Don't let me give you any bad ideas

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Ya I got there to trade the guy and if I didn't get the zj I was trading him stupid cheap I don't think I would have got this. Not a big fan of 97+ front on a Mj but it will have 97+ mirrors

The 96 harness works great you just need to take the sending unit out of the 96 and extend the pickup for the deeper tank on the MJ... The only other thing that isn't bolt in on the swap is the xj has it's own bulb for the rear signal and the Mj shares a bulb for signal like a trailer light. You gotta jump a wire off the column harness. I'll see if I can find the diagram I have it saved somewhere...

That would be great thank you.

Well with 2 surgeries I have had in the last 2 months nothing has been done yet. I did pick up a camper last night for $30 so I got that going for me. Lol

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The sticker above the windshield says it all. Very cool build you've got going here and the old man topper for cheap is a nice score!

Looking forward to what comes of this.

Stripping the first parts jeep down.
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HoHow about the other end of the scale I have a 96 ho and am about to put it in to a 2000 xj other than newer coil and distributer setup is there any thing I need to look out for ?

Just a little update I lowered the suspension in the rear with stock 2wd springs soa and put metalcloak tj 6" dual rate coil springs front. I mounted my warn winch and hi lift jack. Also picked up some 35" km2.

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Getting ready for the high pinion dana 30 and 4:88 gears.

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