College Budget 1987 MJ Build
 

Bought an mj, figured I'd make a thread. Mostly to help me keep up with stuff.
List of things to do/problems/first impressions:

-Both tail lights are faded and crackle looking, but one has a dime size hole in it.
-crappy old radio needs to go
-clutch and brake both have crystallized sludge fluid in them (not 100% sure how to fix this. Plan to put the front calipers and rotors off of another Cherokee I parted out on it, but need to fix the fluid crap first)
-can't even get the fluid to come out of the clutch bleeder
-ba 10/5 (should I just bite the bullet and find a used ax-15 with external slave and hydraulics and swap it all in?)
-Dana 35 will do for now, but will probably replace down the road
- solid frame rails and body, but floors have some rot.
- needs tires
- turn signals don't work
- interior smells from being damp for years (not sure the best way to take care of that)
- strange "converted" cooling system with a cap in the upper radiator hose and seems to use the old pressure tank as an overflow?
- 2wd (maybe if I found a 4wd ax-15 cherokee wrecked rob the parts and convert it? What does one do about the rear driveshaft?)
- want to get a 1990 ecu for it since it's an 87
- plan to do c101 delete
- refresh grounds
- southern, but coastal climate Comanche, one owner.
- fix fan wiring and temp gauge dangling
- remove start switch
- paint it? What color? Attachment 400031Attachment 400030Attachment 400033Attachment 400034Attachment 400032Attachment 400035
Those are the pictures I have of it at the moment. Can get some when it's light again tomorrow.

Attachment 400049Attachment 400050Attachment 400051 few quick pictures before I headed back to college. Cleaned up pretty good. Still definitely has some bad spots in the paint, but it may get repainted at some point.

Awesome

Very nice. Hope you are going to keep this one! If you arent going to keep it, be sure to send it my way.

I hope to keep it, but if I do sell it I'll be sure to paint it white and drive it down to you.

Had to run back home to take the trailer back that I borrowed so I did a little work on it. There was a lot of random audio equipment in it. Pulled all of the audio stuff out and all the wiring with it that I could. Still some stuff tucked up in the dash and behind the side trim. The drivers floor is worse than I thought and will pretty much need a full new pan. I need to get the seat out, but one nut is rusted pretty badly. The plunger for the clutch master cylinder seems to be seized, and the clutch pedal is cracked. I plan to get all new hydraulics (master cylinder, clutch line, and slave cylinder) my friend has a Comanche he's swapping to auto from manual so I'll steal his pedal and he's getting new carpet so I'll steal his black carpet to replace my cracking vinyl floor. Found a guy who makes headliner boards for Comanches but $195 is a little pricey for me. I think that's about all I have. I took a few pictures today though Attachment 400071Attachment 400073Attachment 400072Attachment 400070Attachment 400069Attachment 400075Attachment 400074

Just got some pictures of the rust before heading backAttachment 400078Attachment 400076Attachment 400077 first two are driver's side and last one is passenger side. I've tapped on the cab corners, rockers, all along the frame rail and other places on the floors with a screw driver and that's the only rust it has that's more than surface rust. Everything else is solid. Strange how everything is so solid since the floors are so gone. Oh well I guess I just get to experience this rust stuff y'all talk about since I got lucky with my Cherokee being rust free.

You know me all to well....

Well I ordered a clutch kit, clutch master cylinder, and clutch line. Plan to possibly work on it some this weekend. I need to get an e12 socket and I see people saying they replaced them with grade 8 studs to help lining it back up, but I don't know where to source those. Any tips? Just going to keep the ba10/5 till it dies then figure stuff out. Need to strip the interior and fix the rust in the floors too. Really want to get it driving before Christmas.

If u need an ECU. I think I may have extra one. Does yours have the idiot light gauges?

It does have the idiot light gauges, and I would like to get the full gauges sometime, but it's not a main priority. I also don't need an ecu, but would like an 89-90 ecu for the extra power.

Yea I have a 89/90 ECU that I ended up didn't using and I have like 4 sets of full gauge clusters sitting on a shelf

Pm me a price on the on the ecu and the gauge clusters. Do you have any near 130,000 or are they easy to wind back or forward?

Pulled the interior plastics, seat, and flooring. Tossed all the flooring stuff since it fell apart when pulling it and everything was soaked. Not sure where all the liquid was coming in, and not sure exactly how I'm going to fix the rust yet. Any tips, tricks or suggestions welcome. Here's the damage and a picture or two of where the water was coming from on the passenger side. Attachment 400141Attachment 400137Attachment 400138Attachment 400143Attachment 400144Attachment 400142Attachment 400139Attachment 400145Attachment 400146Attachment 400140

Cut the old, patch the rest. Check C2C Fabrication for pans if needed.

If you want a good pair of tail lights, look at the Rusty's tail light boxes and just go buy a set of DOT trailer lights like I did. Been hit three times in the rear and no damage to the boxes or the Nate's 4x4 bumper.