[ftpiercecracker]

1990 comanche eliminator 4x4, 4.0l, 5spd (BONE STOCK)

Difficulty?
How much custom fabrication needed?
Axle wrap? and preventatives?
Cost?



I can weld and have a grinder with access to material.

 

[Garvin]

SOA is simple on a Comanche. You will need to eliminate your load sensing circuit or lengthen/drop the bracket if you want to keep it. I swapped in a Cherokee 8.25 so I had to do a bit more grinding than you will if you are just doing a simple SOA with a Comanche rear. If you swap the spring plates from side to side then you can keep the stock shocks also.

As long as you don't add blocks, you shouldn't really have an issue with axle wrap. You can get longer spring perches if you're worried about it. I reused the stock perches as I didn't mess them up too bad but you can supposedly get a new set for like $12 from the dealer. I got my old Cherokee's (when I swapped to a D44 rear) from Barnes4x4 and got the longer ones just in case there is any slight axle wrap.

The guy before me redid the rear brake line and didn't use the bracket so I had no issues with the brake line. You will want to get a longer one (should get longer ones front and rear with a lift this high anyways) if you plan on still using the bracket.

All in all, the swap is simple since you can weld and have a grinder. The hardest part is just centering the axle and that is more time consuming than hard (I like to triple and quadruple check everything before I weld it together). Just keep in mind two things. A SOA will net around 5.5" of lift and you do have a rear rake (I had about a 2" rake in the rear so a SOA would be leveled out with around a 7.5" lift in the front).

 

[ftpiercecracker]

awesome information man! :thumbsup:
much appreciated!

just one question.
What the heck is a "rake"?

and i didnt quite understand what to do to even this out in the front.
but thanks so much for the info already provided :2thumbsup:

 

[Garvin]

Rake is pretty much the difference in height between the front and back. Mine has a 2" rake, meaning the rear sits 2" higher than the front. They do this since these trucks have around a 3/4 ton payload capacity and the springs will give some when loaded. If you even the Jeep out so she sits level and you haul stuff that amounts to a good amount of weight around in the back a lot, then you'll look like you'll be riding gangster with the front sitting higher than the rear.

The rear SOA will net ~5.5" of lift (diameter of axle tube plus 2x the perch height off the axle). If you want to keep the slight rake, a 5.5" Cherokee lift in the front will keep the Jeep factory "level". If you wanted to level the Jeep out, you will need closer to a 7.5"lift due to the rake.

Hopefully that explains it a bit better (I'm an engineer, not a teacher ). If you have any other questions or this still confuses you, feel free to ask.

 

[ftpiercecracker]

I really appreciate the time and effort you put into your posts, I wish everybody did the same.
So pretty much the only thing I need to do for the rear is lengthen the brake line right? but what about the driveshaft? or length of the shock absorbers?
and as for the front, I know you said to put a 5.5 lift to keep the "factory" look but exactly what does that entail? coils, coil springs, shock absorbers, steering linkage, the works.

thank you so much for your help.

 

[Garvin]

With the rear, you will need to weld new spring perches on the top or you can buy a kit that keys into the factory perch on the bottom (I think Motion sells it?). For the price of that kit, you could take the Jeep to a shop and they would do the SOA for you with welding the new leaf perches on top, and basically everything else (assuming you provide the parts). With the spring plates swapped, you can run your stock shocks in the rear. The only issue with that is you're limited to the flex. If you're looking for more flex down the road, you can lower the shock mounts to tabs welded onto the axle. If you don't care about flex too much then you should be fine (I can fully flex the front till it hits the fenders and not have any issues with the shocks in back). With Comanche's, since the drive shaft is so long in back, you can easily do a SOA and still use the stock drive shaft with no transfer case drops or need to swap to an SYE. When I did just the SOA on my Jeep with the stock drive train, the drive shaft came out maybe 3/4" from the transfer case, which still gave plenty of threads to "slip" on without worrying about it coming out.

A front lift consists of control arms, shocks, coil springs, longer brake lines, and a track bar. You can change the steering linkage if you'd like but I still run a stock steering setup on an 8.5" lift with no issues. A 5.5" and 7.5" lift in the front requires pretty much the same amount of parts, just the parts are a little longer to gain that extra 2" of lift. After the lift, you will need to get the Jeep aligned.

 

[mjjeeper]

(Front)
I did mine with 4.5 coils, ACOS spacers adjusted out to 2 1/4. Control arm drop brackets and Extended ajustable control arms. that left me with 3/4 inch rake.

now im wanting a 5.5 inch or 6 inch coil and the ACOS all the up which give 1 1/4 lift. A rustys or better long arm kit.

 

[carnuck]

I did 6.5" Wrangler front coils, YJ front brake hoses, shock extenders (front) and an adjustable tracbar with extended lower arms. The rear (I used an XJ one since it had 3.73 gears to match the front I got and was better than the 3.08 with 33" tires!) I welded spring pads on top after setting the pinion dead flat with a level while it was sitting on axle stands and I had a windup jack under the pinion to adjust it. I have a pair of swaybar plates designed for a J4000 (of the one I had that rolled) that will fit between the diff and new springpad that will still use the stock shocks in OEM position. Driveshaft bolted right up (I was 2wd at the time) but I plan a NP208J swap later (requires 1" spacer from partsmike.com) since I already have a 23 spline AW4 in.