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Project "BlacknBlueBallz"

Small update. I got some shackles for the truck. Matching blue of course. With the shackles I also received some amber LEDs for my Lund visor that is going on the truck. It took awhile but I finally got all the wiring repaired and bulb sockets cleaned.

I also swapped the 4-hole fuel injectors from my 95 XJ to the MJ.

Since I had the 95 apart, I decided to try and get it running again. It runs better than I've ever seen. All it took was a jump from the MJ and half a can of year old Seafoam I had laying around. (cylinder 3 exhaust valve was stuck, which is why I parked it).
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Well the flares are painted, modified, and installed. The front flares and front retaining bracket obviously had to be cut down.

I really like the older factory flare retainers since the bolts pass through the flare and hold it on. The 97+ retainers are awful since they are just clipped on. I've had those come off on the highway and I really don't see these coming off.
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Well I've been slacking again so I'm going to do some copy paste from my thread on Comanche Club to update this one here some don't be alarmed when what I say in the post doesn't match the date.
 
I finally got some time to do some more work on the truck. I focused on getting the interior finished up. The solder joints on the drivers side switch panel were all redone. Now the passenger window can be operated from both sides of the truck.
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The biggest change is that the headliner is no longer in the truck. It started to sag and was really annoying so I just took it out. I forgot that I had bedlined the roof and it looks better without the headliner. I plan to leave it without one.
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Since the headliner is out, the dome light didnt have anything to attach to so I had to relocate it. I took advantage of it being apart and modified the factory wiring harness to tie in my b-pillar lights. It now has all the interior lights in place and functional. They were all also swapped to LEDs except for the floorboard lights.
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I was able to reuse my bracket I had made up to attach it to the headliner. Now it is just clipped over the inner roof sheet metal and doesn't move. I can pull it off easily if I need to and just shove it back on with no tools. The wiring is visible in the cab but it's all split loomed and tied nicely across the back of the cab. Since the dome light and wiring is all run to the back, I can use the holes up front between the visors to mount a CB whenever I get around to it.
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Well as I may have mentioned before, I started to get some slight vibration in the driveline of the truck. *I knew my pinion angle was off (6* at the t-case and 13**at the yoke IIRC) but when I first started driving it, I had no vibration so I left it alone. *Its been about 2 weeks since I first noticed the vibration and I finally got around to fixing it tonight. *My lift came with 6* shims so I had them on hand, I just was waiting on new u-bolts to show up. *It took a couple hours but the shims are now in and the new angles are 6* at the t-case and 7* at the yoke. *This is pretty darn perfect and all the vibrations are gone! Luckily my u-joints aren't damaged.** The rear end even feels tighter now that it was apart and back together again. *
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The biggest thing to note however is that it still does burnouts really really good and**I realized that for some reason with the open diff, both tires spin and leave marks. *The gears look to be in good shape with no binding and the wheels turn opposite one another when off the ground. *I must just have some magical ghost limited slip or something.*
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Anyway, I didn't take any pictures yet but*those will be coming. *



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Well I just returned from a 400 mile trip to visit my parents in Eastern Iowa. *The truck ran great. *Went 70mph the whole way with no issues. *Had a great time there spending time with family and eating pizza cooked in my uncle's pizza oven he just built in his back yard, it was the best pizza ever. *
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They all were very impressed with my truck and my uncle now wants me to redo the wiring in his 68 Camaro for him. *
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I did some mileage testing on the way home and I averaged 18 mpg with mixed highway and city*driving (rather spirited) so I'm going to say I get 17 mpg in city and 19 mpg highway. *Pretty good for the old 4.0L**



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Well I finally got around to doing the dual battery setup. Unfortunately both my Optimas were dropped in shipping but Amazon refunded the whole purchase price and let me keep them. One is cracked and one has a small dent. I'm going to use the dented one and get a new one to replace the cracked one.

As for mounting in the truck.. It took some time and back and forth marking and cutting the tray until it fit. The battery has about 1/2" of room between the power steering fluid res, the rad cap, and the plugs on the PCM. It sits slightly higher than I want but it clears the hood so I'm fine with it. Making it sit lower would require some major modification of the inner fender or moving some components around but I don't want to do that. This weekend I will be getting the replacement battery, wiring it up, and making hold-down brackets to keep both batteries in place.

Thanks to DigitalBman and everyone else for the input on the dual battery setup over on the DIY dual battery thread. The info was instrumental in making my setup work how I wanted.
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More progress has been made. *I got a new battery to use instead of the cracked one. *Got everything wired up and installed. *It took all day but finally everything works how I want it to. *I also made some battery hold down straps out of some flat steel, these things don't budge with the exception of flex in the plastic trays. *
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The third switch is held in solely with zip ties. There is no bracket behind the blank plate on these so after cutting it out, the only ways to attach a switch I could think of was glue or zip ties. I wanted to be able to remove the switch so zip ties is the best option. It doesn't move at all so it should never fall out.
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I went ahead and changed the oil last night as it was coming up due for it. *While underneath pulling the drain plug I noticed the entire bottom side of the front pumpkin was covering in oil... The trail led right up to the pinion. *I knew it had a small leak but it apparently turned into a little more than that. *I pulled the plug to see how much oil was in it and couldn't feel any. *1.5 bottles of gear oil later it was filled. *I'm hoping I didn't do any damage driving with no gear oil for who knows how long. *It isn't making any weird sounds so I think it's okay. *
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I spent the last few days sorting out my front diff issues. I pulled the cover and found it to be some kind of thicker "upgrade" cover held on with an entire thing of rtv.... It took forever to get it off.
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I sprayed out the case and the gears all look good and there was no metal so I think it's all OK. I did however notice light shining through the back of the diff... Turns out I had no vent tube anymore. I went ahead and ordered the proper size socket for the pinion nut (1 1/8"), a 1/8th npt tap and fitting to replace the missing vent, some fuel line for the vent hose, and a small filter for the top of the hose (the filter had to match everything else). That all arrived today from Amazon.
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After tapping the vent and replacing the pinion seal, I ran the vent hose and put everything back together. It was a very straight forward and easy repair. It's now all back together and doesn't seem to be leaking. The yoke had a groove worn in it where it contacts the seal so that will probably need replaced at some point.
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Tomorrow I will confirm it doesn't leak at highway speeds, then put the front driveshaft back on and finish prep for the Iowa All Breads Jeep show this weekend!
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Side note: I hate having to clean up the huge mess after such a simple job..
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Well my usual luck struck again.. On my way to the Jeep show I started getting banging noises over bumps and found a fluid leak at the end of the Dana 30. *I chose not to run the truck in the event so I could figure out the issues without damaging anything. *
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Turns out my front driveshaft contacts the exhaust. *It doesn't make much contact with it but it's enough to make a terrible racket, similar sounding to grinding gears on a standard trans. *
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As for the leak, I initially thought it was coming from the caliper but on further inspection I realized it was coming out of the axle tube. *So after just redoing the pinion seal and servicing the diff, I have to pull it all apart again. *So far I've got the drivers side shaft pulled but the passenger side hub bolts are full on seized. *I'm waiting on a 12 point socket and swivel to use my impact to hopefully break them loose.*
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I am still waiting on my new seals to show up but I finally received the front clip stickers from Spencer. He did a great job making these based on some rubbings and pictures I sent him. The lower part of the J is just slightly short on my set but he knows about it and tweaked it so any future sets he makes will be perfect.

If you want a set of these for your 97+ front clip (they go right onto the factory lettering) get a hold of him and he'll get you some.
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The new seals finally showed up and I started really tearing the axle apart last night. I got up to the point I was putting the new seals in and just couldn't find anything around that was the right size to use as a pressing tool. I finally gave up and went to bed frustrated.
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I started on it early this morning and was completely finished by noon. First thing I did was look for something to use as a seal pressing tool. I ended up finding some steel already cut in a circle and only slightly bigger than I needed. I spent about 30 minutes grinding it down on the bench grinder until it was the right size. I then took a bolt and various washers to have something to pound on. It took way more force than I expected to get these seated and I never could have done it without this tool.
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After the seals were in, I cleaned everything up and put the carrier back in. I bought some of those aftermarket outer axle seals so those went on next followed by inserting the axle shafts. I made sure and used a ton of antiseize so they come out easy next time.
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After getting everything back together I bent the exhaust away from the front driveshaft so they no longer make contact unless the truck is under some crazy flex.

I had to test everything out by cruising around the acreage and of course I took some pictures along the way.
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Wow I can't believe it has been almost 2 months since I've posted anything about the truck.* In all honesty I haven't really done anything to it since the last post but enjoy it.* I do want to quickly mention something I had forgot before and just realized.* *At the beginning of September I received my new wheel stickers from Lucas7667 and they look great.* 2 months later they are still holding up strong.
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Anyway back to what has happened since the last post.* I have really only been driving and enjoying the truck.* About a month ago we had a few days of heavy rain that a few buddies and I took advantage of one night.* We went mudding on 6 different level B roads and the truck did fantastic.* I could hardly see where I was going between the foggy windows and the mud and heavy rain on the windshield but it was an absolute blast.* The good that came out of it was that none of us got stuck or broke anything, a guy in a super built Wrangler JK at a gas station thought my truck was awesome, and I learned all the areas and crevices mud finds its way into.***At one point I did end up having a waterfall inside the cab coming down right onto the center console behind the shifter.* It only happened for about a minute and only during an absolute torrential rainfall, like hurricane level rainfall.** It obviously leaks and the dirt trail led back up to the windshield so I will have to reseal that at some point.* Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures.* It was dark when we were mudding and I was more worried about getting the truck washed the day after.
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Other than that it has gone around out on the property a few times, I was driving it to work pretty regularly for a while, and I used it to help*some friends move to their new house last weekend.* I have decided to put it away for the winter because I am not about to take a rust free*Comanche out on salted roads.* I will take it out to play in the snow on the property however so there may be a post or two about that but don't expect much until Spring.* I do hope to get some work done to it over the Winter but I do plan on hitting it hard in the Spring and get some major work done to it.
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Bring that baby to Winterfest!

mac ‘March 9/10, Attica, IN’ gyvr
 
Bring that baby to Winterfest!

mac ‘March 9/10, Attica, IN’ gyvr

I can't make any guarantees but I will try to get out there for sure. I've got some more things I want to do to the truck in early Spring before going anywhere crazy and am working on planning a trip down to Kansas and meet up with a few guys from Comanche Club in Spring as well.
 
Thumbs Up! How did you likle the Jeep Show? Got a few buddies that help and went.
It was fun. Didn't get to drive my truck due to the issues I posted earlier. I ended up leaving around noon on Saturday and didn't come back Sunday because I was tearing apart the front axle to get it fixed. I definitely will be back next year and running the truck.

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