So some of you already know but for those of you that dont me andmy dad and my brother have picked up a 1986 Comanche.  its got the 2.5 L inline 4 cyl with the a 5 speed trans.  its the XLS model with throttle body fuel injection.  its 4wd with a dana 30 up front and danna 35 in the rear both of wich were hiding some 4.11 gears.

we were able to pick this thing up for pretty cheap but this is why. the guy we baught it from was teaching his kids how to drive stick in it and his son decided it was a good idea to continuously drop the clutch wich resulted in some stripped spider gears in the rear. 

that being the case i figured i could drive it home by putting it in 4wheel and drive it in front wheel drive but then he told us the front axle was shot as wheel. well after some investigation it turns out the front vaccum line to engage the front half shaft coupler was cut or worn through.

once all the bolts were tightend, with the help of my bro shawn and andrew we threw on those 32s that i had laying around and this was the end result of the day

and then for sh!ts and giggles we jacked up the front and set the 32s up next to the front to see what it might look like if we could manage to level it out

to conlcude the night and our progress i did a quick measurement and found out that the spring over netted about 7 inches of lift in the rear and suprisingly the stock drive shaft still fits with almost no pull out of the spline at the trans.

i also did some more research about srping over lifts and rusty said that its a 4.5 inch lift so i think were gonna try some 4.5 inch lift springs to start in the front and go from there to level it out.

Looks awesome.  I really love these kind of builds; find something junky, work on it, make something less junky, but with bigger tires.  From experience with 4 cylinder jeeps I think you should consider keeping 4:11 gears.  A good crawl ratio is the only way to make up for the lack of torque and horsepower of the 4 banger.

Consider keeping the D30 up front and just regearing the rear to 4:11.  I've seen people wheel open D30's with 35's and do okay.  If not, you could always beef up the 30 a little with chromoly axles.

Looks great, love the jeep trucks.

Thats awesome, what a great find Justin.

So are you guys going to be fighting over who gets to wheel that Commanche?! LOL

Yeah, but does it have a console of switches?  

and im not sure if it will get wheeled any time soon, it may just be a town run around for the time being

heres a little update. the rear end is basically all buttoned up except that weird propotionaing valve for the rear brakes and the parking brakes but other than that the brakes have been reconnect and bled and diff has a freshly painted cover on it and has been filled with some fresh fluid.

and this excellent art work was done by tyler my little bro.

changed it after we went to sycamore speed way and saw it on about half the cars there