Did I catch a Niner in there?

[BigDaveZJ]

Picked up a 5.9 last night, bone stock, 137k miles. Needs some work, but not a lot. I haven't had a chance to really go over it with a fine tooth comb and check everything out, but there's a definite leak from the power steering pump somewhere and the pump itself is a bit whiney and weak. Got a belt chirp from it a couple times when driving it home. Paint is probably a 6 or 7 out of 10, going to do a full detail on it here soon with the Meguiar 3 Step stuff. I did that on my Typhoon and it looked great.

It's initial purpose will be a backup DD. Basically, we don't have a vehicle that we can take into a parking garage easily, and want something smaller and nimble where it's not the end of the world if we get a door ding, but still want 4x4. My truck is a little large for busier parking lots too, and I'd like to keep the miles down on the truck.

If I find something that needs replacing as I go through it I will likely upgrade accordingly. Stereo will be a definite upgrade. Likely won't bother with anything suspension wise though. K&N FIPK, better tires, stuff like that, will likely happen. If it's a trustworthy and reliable vehicle, I would imagine at some point that I will put long arms on it and move the suspension and axles from the 95 over to the niner. I'll fully plate and reinforce the unibody before doing any of that. I figure if I've gotten 18 years out of my current unibody I can easily do that again, especially if I take a little better care of it early on.

[Ted_Z]

Nice find!

[BigDaveZJ]

I loaded that pic off my phone, didn't realize how horrible the quality was.

Passed emissions with no issues.

[Ken L]

Sweet!

[BigDaveZJ]

Dove in a little more last night. Got the new power steering pump on there, and went through all of the various lights/blinkers and replaced some burnt out bulbs and put new el cheapo headlights on there. I was able to get Hella bulbs from Rock Auto for $0.96 each so I went that route, will probably eventually put the fancy ones that Rick makes on there. Changing the oil, putting the tow hook brackets on tonight, and putting the rest of the front end back together. Also did new struts on the glass and gate. Not a lot of fun stuff yet, but even having spent $200 in parts I've only got $1700 in it so far!

[BigDaveZJ]

Also have a new tranny pan gasket and filter. The pan was pretty wet, figured it'd be easy swap that and the filter and do a fluid change on it. Also have some factory paint for the hood vents.

[BigDaveZJ]

Front end back together. Couple things still need chasing down but so far so doing pretty well.

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[Ken L]

How is the 249?

[BigDaveZJ]

Actually in pretty good shape. The 44A howls a bit.

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[Ted_Z]

Who has 2 thumbs and a built 8.8 plus a 242HD w/SYE sitting in his garage? This guy!

[BigDaveZJ]

Haha! You can already see the niners likely axle and t-case combo in that last pic if you look hard enough.

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[Yjsaabman717]

Nice find! I've spent a fair amount with Rock Auto for my 94, but it's hard not to when the stuff is so cheap! I forget where I found my headlights, but one was $13 And one was $15. Makes it very reasonable to "restore" a ZJ right now.

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[BigDaveZJ]

Couple of Mopar V8s in the parking lot at work today.

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[DJJordache]

my stoker 4.7L has more power
nice find at that price! I would have probably picked it up too

[BigDaveZJ]

Rough day in the shop today with both ZJ's. Thought the 95 had a bad alternator (still under warranty), turns out it was the a/c clutch making all that noise. Moved on to the niner, been having power steering issues since I got it. Basically not a lot of oomph in the steering, especially if you're going one direction and quickly change direction. Had put a new/reman pump in it a while back, and it got better, but still not 100% safe to drive IMO. Ordered up a new/reman box and went to put that in today. Broke the pump reservoir in the process of trying to flush everything before I even took the box out, so I put a new pump in today as well. And it got worse. Basically no power steering at all now. Only thing I can figure is that there's a blockage in the high pressure line. I had the wheels off the ground and was able to move everything easily with the pitman arm off the box, so I don't believe that it's the ball joints or something seizing up.

[ELLLLLIOTTTTT]

Maybe the previous owner used some kind of stop leak additive that gunked up the PS lines?

[BigDaveZJ]

That's about all I can figure. I noticed there was RTV on the lines going into the box. I have a new high pressure line to install, hoping to get to that tonight.

[BigDaveZJ]

New high pressure line, it's "better" but not like it should be. I can turn the wheel on the blue ZJ with aired down 35's substantially easier than the niner turns right now. There's plenty of fluid in the reservoir, so I think the low pressure line is probably okay. Going to try a new belt and tensioner to make sure that I'm getting all of the power to the pump that I can.

[Ken L]

Maybe some RTV got in the box on the high pressure side? Would it flush out if you unhooked the high pressure line at the box and turned the pitman arm by hand each way? Just grasping at straws because it seems like an odd issue to have.

[BigDaveZJ]

That's the only thing I can figure, whatever was clogging up the high pressure line kicked out and is in the box now.

[BigDaveZJ]

Put a new serp belt on last night really quick, getting a TON of belt squeal now. Not sure from where yet, didn't have time to dig in and figure it out last night.

[BigDaveZJ]

Pretty sure the squeal was coming from the alternator. The bearing on the tensioner pulley was a little rough as well. Replacing them both. Also bought some louvers for cheap and put them on. They're not perfect, but better than what I had on there.

BB, shocks, 31s, and stereo hopefully coming soon.

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[BigDaveZJ]

A REALLY sharp eye for ZJ's can spot the reason for the belt squeal in that pic of the engine. The bracket for the tensioner pulley and the bracket for the coil mount to the same studs from the block. At some point, the P.O.'s mechanic must have gotten into this thing far enough to take that off as the mounting order was switched. It's supposed to go block-tensioner pulley mount-coil mount but it went block-coil mount-tensioner pulley mount. Given the 3rd bolt in the 3:00 position of the tensioner bracket it kicked the pulley off kilter enough to sound horrible. Put a brand new belt on this thing a couple months ago, probably have effectively smoked that now.

Steering still sucks . . . . .

[Kraqa]

Little things like that I find a pain to fix. But good once they are done and working correctly.

[OverlandXJ]

I looked for a 5.9 for better than a year, ended up with a low mile 5.2 recently out of Florida.

I run a 4.0 ZJ now with the BB/31's and Bilsteins, real good combination. I'll be doing the same to newer one.

Wouldn't mind picking up a 5.9 specific sound bar if anyone has one.