• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Reviving a 1989 XJ after 15 years in storage

IntrepidBear

NAXJA Forum User
I have been lurking on the forums absorbing the collective wisdom on the forum.

I have a 89 Renix era XJ 4.0 engine, AW4 Transmission, D30 front w/ disconnect axle, and Dana 35 rear. 141000 miles.

The vehicle has a ton of sentimental value to me and I have started the process of getting her back on the road. She has been in storage for 15 years, I parked her when the Ignition Control Module went bad, and I didn't have time to sort it out.

About a year ago I went through the basics, replaced the fuel pump, filter, injectors, and all associated o-rings, fuel pressure regulator. Plugs, cap, rotor. and battery. I did the brakes, front and rear. Put new tires on it, and replaced hoses, serpentine, air filter etc. I had a little trouble getting a spark, but eventually tracked it down to a bad connection between the coil and the new ICM. Low and behold she fired up.

At idle she sounds great, and revs, without issues. In drive she lacks power it almost feels like the transmission is slipping badly. I drove her a mile or two but she barely made it up an small hill outside the house. Right before I parked her she was driving fine.

Questions: Any suggestion as to what could be causing the severe lack of power/slipping?

Has anyone else had these types of symptoms after storing their vehicle?

Can transmission go bad simply with storage?

Any other service items that I should be concerned about?

Thanks guys.
 
I have been lurking on the forums absorbing the collective wisdom on the forum.



I have a 89 Renix era XJ 4.0 engine, AW4 Transmission, D30 front w/ disconnect axle, and Dana 35 rear. 141000 miles.



The vehicle has a ton of sentimental value to me and I have started the process of getting her back on the road. She has been in storage for 15 years, I parked her when the Ignition Control Module went bad, and I didn't have time to sort it out.



About a year ago I went through the basics, replaced the fuel pump, filter, injectors, and all associated o-rings, fuel pressure regulator. Plugs, cap, rotor. and battery. I did the brakes, front and rear. Put new tires on it, and replaced hoses, serpentine, air filter etc. I had a little trouble getting a spark, but eventually tracked it down to a bad connection between the coil and the new ICM. Low and behold she fired up.



At idle she sounds great, and revs, without issues. In drive she lacks power it almost feels like the transmission is slipping badly. I drove her a mile or two but she barely made it up an small hill outside the house. Right before I parked her she was driving fine.



Questions: Any suggestion as to what could be causing the severe lack of power/slipping?



Has anyone else had these types of symptoms after storing their vehicle?



Can transmission go bad simply with storage?



Any other service items that I should be concerned about?



Thanks guys.



Checked the fluid in the trans? Does it rev and not move as it should ( rpms rise while it does not equate to movement. )


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The transmission does engage, but as the revs keep rising the forward movement does not translate to much power to the wheels.

I checked the fluid cold, and its a little low. Next I was planning to drop the pan, change the filter and give it some fresh fluid.
 
Try this:

Put the shifter in 1-2 and see if it takes off normally.

This could be as simple as a bad connection in the trans plugs under the hood, a dirty fuse at the transmission control unit, or bad tCU,
 
Check the trans fluid hot and in park or neutral. It should be way over full when cold. I bet some fluid leaked over the past 15 years lol.
Good luck
 
141,000 miles on a 89 is way too many miles, time to junk it, I'd be happy to help you out and take it off your hands.

:laugh2:

Afireinside and cruiser54 made good suggestions.

The Tranny fluid can go very bad after 15 years (it can oxidize, it use to be made from refined peanut oil). I would drain 3 quarts from the drain plug, and refile with only DEX III, nothing else, 3-4 times, run it in each gear and neutral and park, all at 0 mph, to let it circulate for about 10 minutes. Make sure the fluid gets hot!!! Do not try to drive it yet.

Then drain it and refill. After 4 times (the AW4 and TC holds about 10 quarts) add a pint of Trans-x to help dissolve any baked on varnish in the valves and to re-swell the o'ring seals on the shafts and valve body spools. It is not a good idea to drain it all once, not is easy to do. It is best give it 4 transfusions, and slowly clean it up. I would change the filter after the 3rd transfusion.

Get it circulating and hot, with out driving it and then test drive it again. But before you test drive it, make sure the TCU has power and test the solenoids and wiring, clean the wiring harness connector going the transmission with electric/plastic safe solvent.

Do the first test drive manually in 1-2, then 3, then D to see if shifts and if it has power.

Also make sure the Transmission pressure cable at the throttle body has been adjusted properly!!! There is a huge thread, and you tube video on that. Takes about 60 seconds to do. It controls the Tranny pump pressure internally...

You want to get clean fluid in there, get it circulating with some Trans-X to clean up and re-wet those clutch plates in the Tranny with clean fluid and in the TC (Torque Converter) before you try to drive it again!!

Also, in the process drop the pan and clean it and change to filter.

You have an 80% chance imho of the transmission coming out OK.

You may see a tiny bit of haft seal leaks at the engine RMS and the transmission front and rear seals after 15 years of the shafts laying on the bottom of the seal areas. With some oil, RMS sealer additive and Trans-x additives for the Tranny those seals may fix themselves over several 1000 miles of DD operation.
 
All good suggestion above from people WAY more qualified than me. However I will add based on my experiences.

Unplug the TCU fuse (under the glove box). If you can manually shift through the gears should eliminate internal transmission problems.

Research how to test your TPS as one side communicates with the transmission.

And finally, I do whole heartedly agree that an 1989 XJ with 141k miles coming out of 15 years storage just sounds like an awfull train wreck. Let me know your location and I’ll gladly come discard if it for you.
 
Last edited:
Welcome back!! My '88 has 202,000 miles and is my daily driver.

Was it stored indoors?

In addition to the other suggestions, I think I'd pull the seats and carpets to check the floors. Also have a peek inside the exhaust. The smaller critters may have made nests, chewed wiring, stole seat foam.

Did you measure your fuel pressure?
 
Thanks for all the great responses guys! Very much appreciate it.

I haven't had a chance to work on it recently, work hijacked my schedule for the last few weeks.

Great tips on the transmission, I ill take your advise and flush it with TransX. I am hopeful that it is a low/bad fluid, and that it will remedy itself with a proper service and pan filter drop.

Does anyone have the link to the video on how to adjust the transmission pressure cable? I can google it, but it's not something that I have done before.

I should be able to dig into it over the holidays once work cools down a bit.

I'll check under the carpet, but I'm hopeful that the rust shouldn't be too bad. It has lived in Southern California until I parked it back in 2002. It was stored in the humid tropics, but indoors.
 
Unless it has been exposed to salt, beach or salted roads, the 87-90 jeeps do not rust. But not having a good battery connected them, does seem to encourage rust every where.
 
So I had a chance to do spend some time on it over the past weeks. It turns out that the fuse for the transmission controller was very corroded and was likely causing the transmission problem. I am not 100% sure about this because not long after starting it up,
I started getting a nasty noise from the engine.

To make a long story short, after tearing the valve cover off, I discovered bent push rods. A little more investigation I found the cause of the problem: stuck inlet valves. I believe that what happened was that the old fuel residue mixed with the new gas, and the solids in the fuel caused the inlet valves to stick so badly that it bent some push rods.

Soooooooooo: now I have the head off, valves out, and am about to take the head to have it cleaned. I have cleaned up the valves, and am waiting for new push rods and head gasket to arrive.

I have also dropped the tank again and am cleaning with solvents, and will flush the line this time........definitely don't want to do this job twice.

Has anyone else had this happen?

With a bit of luck I will know whether the transmission issue is fixed in a week or so after parts get here.
 
One more question: I was planning to reuse the valve stem seals. They feel supple, and I haven't been able to locate a local source for new ones.

Has anyone done this? Did it cause any problems?

Thanks!
 
I have never had or seen a bent push rod in person.

I would replace the valve seals. They should be in / come with, the head gasket kit, along with the the intake-exhaust gasket and a thermostat gasket.
 
Yeah, neither had I until now. I had 4 bent push rods all on the inlet valves. Valves were stuck so badly that I had to tap them out with a punch. Exhaust valves were all fine.

On inspection, they were caked in black tar like stuff on the top surface and stem, this was the glue binding them up. Paint thinners dissolved the black stuff pretty easily, and I was able to get them cleaned up.

I dropped the tank today, and found more black stuff in the tank. I rinsed it out with lacquer thinners twice and then with water and detergent probably 20 times, until I didn't get any more sediment. Rinsed twice with 100% ethanol to absorb the water. In the morning I'll finish the process with a gasoline rinse and line flush......what a pain in the behind.

Thanks for the tip on the valve seals. I checked, and you are correct that the set I ordered comes with them. Now I just have to wait for it to get here.
 
What kind of fuel are you using down there?

Even the 10% ethanol gas here in the US over time dissolves the old rubber used in the fuel pump assy parts and fuel hoses!!!!

Now they use a better material, mostly viton....

This what mine looked like, and the black goo was all over the inside guts of the fuel tank, so I replaced mine. It was like tar. The rubber they used back 30 years ago was not meant for ethanol. Found the hoses on my diesel in the same mess last year, tanks to the biodiesel additive. They were like chewing gum. It's all Viton ID tube now.

picture.php
 
Adding acetone, or MEK or equal as a fuel additive could carry all that crap into the intake manifold!!!! Or using a bunch of seafoam in the intake manifold if it dissolved and dumped all that crap on the intake valves just before turning the car of for months could do that.

Thanks for sharing, never knew that was possible to bend the push rods just from that kind of muck.

If I were you I would replace the fuel pump and level sensors assy, and fuel pressure regulator on the fuel rail and at least flush the injectors since that crap had to get into the guts of those.

What does the intake manifold interior look like???? Could it still have a bunch of that carp ready to do it again?
 
I didn't bend any valves in my 89 when I revived it but I killed a fuel pump with crap sitting in the tank by not pulling it and cleaning it. Thought it was going to be a pain but it was really easy. I have the tank skid plate and trailer hitch that I had to drop. Then dropped the tank emptied the remaining gas/crap that I could the cleaned it out with acetone. Once dried I reinstalled the fuel pump and put it with the hitch and skid back in. The whole process took me about 2 hours working easy.
 
Back
Top