New to the Jeep world...

And am thinking of buying an '88 Comanche Pioneer (4.0 I6 4x4) w/ 146,000 miles. All of my friends have Jeeps, but none of them have an MJ. Are these reliable trucks? Are they easy to work on? Is is worth $1200? Are aftermarket parts easily available?

Thanks for you time...

I'd say it's worth it. Mine have been pretty reliable, never got stuck anywhere. Always some little thing going wrong, just like anything else that old. Leaky injectors on my 2wd, harmonic balancer on my 4x4 this month. I had to fix mine up when I bought them, these old trucks are usually run hard and put away wet. I gathered up a lot of parts from Cherokees at the pull a part to fix up little things, interior pieces, window cranks, things like that. Kinda fun resurrecting these things however.Cab forward, most parts are the same as a Cherokee, so parts are pretty easy to find. They're pretty cool trucks. I'd jump on it if in any kind of decent condition. I DD my 2wd.

Thanks for the info.

mache's like stated above are very similar to xj's. the biggest differences is that the leaf packs are longer and are sprung under (i havent confirmed this yet). the MJ is the XJ's cousin, unless its a piece of garbage a running MJ for 1200 with less than 200k isnt a bad deal. the after market isnt as big as the XJ but there is an aftermarket avaliable nonetheless

Yep, running gear (and nearly everything forward of the B-pillar) is the same as the XJ.

The MJ is spring-under in the rear, a SOA conversion will net you something like 5-6 inches lift.

I'd say if the body's in good shape, go for it.

a lot of guys do 97+ XJ front end conversions on the commanches too and then they look really nice imho.

i would say def go for it, ive always liked MJ, theres just as much stuff for MJ as there are for the XJ, www.rustysoffroad.com www.ok4wd.com (there is alot more but i cant think of them right now) but when it comes to working on them no Jeep is easy to work on once you start working on them no matter what it is XJ TJ YJ CJ ZJ dosent matter that all turn into FJ...Fuckin Jeep hahaha
-Keep Jeepin