Hello, I have acquired a 1994 ZJ Laredo with an inline 6 for free from a friend. Only problem is, it hasn't run in several years at this point. Changed the battery and got the lights to come on, and my next step is to change the starter. I've got a bad wire on post 1 it would seem on my distributor cap. I'm quite the novice at mechanic work, so any advice or product/part recommendations are greatly appreciated. I just want to at least get it running again and back on the road. I'm sure there are other problems that I'll run into, and I imagine with the time it's sat that draining the gas tank would be a good call. I have no idea how to drop a gas tank or empty it otherwise. Please help and let me know what I can do.

Thank you!

 

Hello and welcome to the forum,

Reviving an unotuched jeep can be quite the adventure for sure. It would be helpful to know why it was parked in the first place though.

As far as getting it running, getting it to crank/turn over would be the first thing then verifying you have Air, fuel and spark and realistically it should run!

As for draining the tank, i would remove the rubber lines between the tank and unibody rail. Disconnect the unibody side first and then with a power source (milwaukee battery?) I would disconnect the fuel pump harness and probe the pump wires manually to expell any old fuel still in the tank. This can confirm whether or not your pump works as well.

Also consider any and all check engine codes and adress those especially in order of spark related issues

 

It belonged to the mother of the guy I got it from, and due to her having medical and mental decline issues he took the keys from her and so it sat for while, until she passed. As far as I'm aware he didn't drive after he took the keys from her and it sat for at least a year or two after her passing in a driveway.

Thanks for the info though, that's a good starting checklist. I'm currently trying to replace the starter, but I know I have at least one bad wire on my distributor cap that's quite corroded. I'll likely need to replace that wire at the very least, but I figure it'd be better to just replace the whole distributor cap and possibly even the spark plugs. It's got about 220k miles I think, and I don't know what all has been done mechanically before he gave it to me.

Thanks again!