'98 Grand Cherokee help

[PacificEd]

Guys,

I have a thread over here: http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1127809

If anyone hasn't seen this thread and has an idea of what to look for, I'd really appreciate it.

 

[Ghost]

Probably a dumb idea but have you checked all the grounds and cleaned them? Also what about voltage into the PCM?

 

[PacificEd]

He did tell me he's checked the grounds several times just to be sure and they are all good. As far as input voltage, I have no idea.

 

[Georgia Mike]

When the PCM started going bad in our '97 it did all sorts of crazy stuff. Randomly kill the battery overnight, shut power off to the engine and all the dash components while siting at a stop light (for a second or two then all was "normal" again). Fun times. I'm still trying to forget that over complicated POS.

 

[Georgia Mike]

Also I'll pass along a bit of info from my mechanic friend. He says that when they get older, the PCM harness has just as much a chance of going bad as the PCM and he never swaps in a PCM without a new harness.

That's what he told me. True or not? I dunno. I'm just passing it along as a YMMV statement.

 

[PacificEd]

Do you still have a ZJ? I thought you had two of them?

 

[Ghost]

Do you still have a ZJ? I thought you had two of them?

I didn't see any when I was there last time.... I'm fairly certain he got rid of them both......

 

[Georgia Mike]

We had a '97 Limited for 5 or so years. It was a good car until a few issues began to pile up after I'd already done tons of work to it to keep it dependable for Wendy. At that point I'd had enough of it so we bought a '95 Laredo that needed transmission work, but everything else seemed great with it. I got it going and sold the '97. That dang '95 tried its best to be the death of me and my sanity. It was ALWAYS something with that stupid thing. If we had been in the financial shape then as we are now, I'd have gladly lit that sucker up and roasted marshmallows over it.


Needless to say......no ZJ will ever grace my driveway again unless:
A: someone else owns it and they're visiting
B: I'm parting it out




Can you tell I'm a little teensy bit bitter? :laugh3:

 

[PacificEd]

Yeah, I know the feeling Mike. I'm fighting mine now. I love the room, ride, layout and such but the electrical crap is horrible. The more I read the more I realize what a mistake I made but too late now. Transmission has been rebuilt and now waiting for them to get it running again.

 

[Georgia Mike]

I pulled the transmission out of the '97 and had it rebuilt. It did great afterward, no issues at all. The '95 on the the other hand.....boy boy! I pulled it and had it rebuilt soon after we bought it, then a few months later it would start unlocking the torque converter whenever it wanted. I pulled it again and we replaced the torque converter (again). Transmission was gone through yet again to make sure it wasn't something in it. Afterward all was fine again, but I dealt with several other little issues from then on out. Then the torque converter started doing its random unlocking thing again and it got sold. I was honest with the buyer, and he didn't care. Even though I got basically what we had in it back out of it after driving it for a year, I could never get a monetary amount to make up for the aggravation I endured.

Good luck with yours. I honestly hope it turns out to be something simple for you and it's a good car afterward.

 

[PacificEd]

It looks like it now runs. I will pick it up Thursday.

 

[Georgia Mike]

Awesome!

 

[PacificEd]

It better be awesome with a side of awesomesauce. If it wasn't for the no-start, the transmission was a smoking deal. He said the transmission had been into once before, which I found odd since the ZJ only has 139,000 miles. He said the pump had been replaced before and was missing some fasteners. Also the clutches were burnt up. I feel good about having the transmission rebuild versus just replacing the converter, which was the source of all the chatter.

Even with the stuff I had to buy to fix the no-start issue, I think I still got a good deal. I can say I will be owning this ZJ for a while to finish getting my money out of it.

 

[PacificEd]

Just an update. The Jeep runs better than ever. Transmission shifts nice and smooth and the horrible vibration at 52-65 mph is gone.