Good to see someone saving one of these. No one really does that and they should.

Here's my guess as to the story on the front end swap you have there. It was wrecked in the front, damaging the grille, headlights, hood, maybe core support, and the fender that's still damaged. I'll bet they were too lazy to find an actual Jimmy to get parts from so they just made Blazer parts work. It doesn't look like they intentionally swapped the front for Blazer stuff out of taste, the way it's pieced together with the Jimmy bumper and still-wrecked fender and zip ties and whatnot. Think it was wrecked and they just got it back on the road the lazy way.

 

I'm thinking you might be right. *

So while I'm waiting to gather the money for all the parts I want, I'm tugging at all the strings trying to find out what else is wrong with this truck. One of the things I noticed early on that didn't make sense to me was this plastic line that I couldn't identify, leading from somewhere below where the air cleaner assembly attaches to the core support and into the air cleaner duct itself beneath one of the clamps thus:



What is that thing? What is its purpose? I got tired of wondering and temporarily removed the air cleaner assembly to find the answer. And the answer, my friends, is that it's the front windshield washer fluid line. Finding this out, I yanked it out of the air cleaner hose. It was only tucked in about an inch or so. Since as I pointed out earlier the under-hood washer tubing is all missing, I initially figured that the junkyard replacement hood didn't have the necessary hose, and rather than leave the feeder hose loose under the hood to flop around and get caught up in something (or whatever), the tip of the hose was tucked into the air cleaner duct just to secure it. Dumb, but whatever. Obviously the washer fluid reservoir was no longer intended to serve the function it was designed for, because I found the rear washer feeder hose snipped for no other discernible reason and capped off with a screw close to the pump.

But then something occurred to me. If you remember earlier in the thread, I mentioned that the previous owner's wife happened to remark that the owner had a "trick" to starting the truck - running the washer pump for a few seconds. At the time I dismissed this as nonsense, because there's simply no possible way that running the windshield washer can have any effect on starting the engine whatsoever. And that's true, assuming the windshield washer apparatus is connected the way it's supposed to be.

But now it does make sense. The owner's "trick" worked because he had rigged his windshield washer pump to inject something into the air intake. But what?

I suppose he might've been keeping starting fluid or ether in his washer fluid tank; but surely it would evaporate too quickly to be useful wouldn't it? What else might he have been using? The owner's father mentioned he raced; when I bought the vehicle there was a performance intake tube laying in the back seat. Is there any kind of fluid substance a racer might want to inject into his air intake during a race (or any other time)? And what could any of the possibilities have been doing to my poor engine? Once started, the thing runs with no problem, but...

I haven't filled my washer fluid tank yet since buying the truck, and it's a damn good thing too, because while trying to get it to work I would've been spraying windshield washer fluid into my intake. Imagine the damage that may have been caused. Grrr...

 

Any luck figuring out your starting issue? I have a '95 Jimmy acting the same way...been working on it for months and can't figure it out.

 

All right so, it's been over a year, what have I gotten done? Well, not as much as I hoped to have gotten done by this point. But I did get a few things done - a couple of which were mentioned in other threads, but some not. To recap, so far:

New (used) power brake booster, and new LF brake line (had a hole).

New ignition control module; old one was...old, and starting to cause some sputtering when the engine was hot.

Removed Former Owner's bizarre intake-injector setup using the windshield washer pump - someone here told me that apparently there's some performance advantage gained from squirting water into your air intake? Hey maybe, but not really my thing - this is going to be (well, IS) a daily driver and I live in a dusty area so I need the washer system more than a few more RPMs. So I reinstalled some tubing and got the front windshield washer spraying again. The rear washer line leaks somewhere near the endgate; and (a separate issue) at some point within the last couple days all my washer fluid drained right out of my tank, so that system will need a little more work yet.

As you see in the above photo, the hood release cable was routed over top of the radiator support. That was just plain laziness, and it kept the prop rod from stowing correctly across the top of the support. Also, note the missing upper air deflector - long story short, without that plastic deflector that surrounds the hood latch, the hood can have a hard time opening - although Former Owner evidently didn't figure that out, since he managed to break off the lever-end of the release cable, probably by pulling harder and harder on it (I've been having to open the hood by using pliers to tug directly on frayed end of the cable, which eventually got too difficult as the pliers have stripped the cable wires smooth). Well anyway, I got a new release cable/lever, routed it CORRECTLY, and put a new deflector on.

I also put a fan shroud (and radiator baffle) on. No more zip-ties holding the air cleaner in place.

Transmission rebuilt. It was my first transmission rebuild but it all worked out so far. Still waiting for some little problem, though - I know it's hiding there somewhere.

Still a number of things need done under the hood; but I'll take a pic tomorrow to show the current progress.

Interior - not really a whole lot done so far. All bulbs replaced and working, except for one in the instrument cluster (will require a lot of work to replace) and the ashtray bulb (which I can't figure out how to get to, much less replace). Replaced glovebox light switch/bulb. At the local junkyard I found a 96 Jimmy SLT with my interior color, that I've been scavenging bits from - the panel blank for the 4WD switch slot, some new vent grilles (old ones were stuck and missing fins), the aforementioned glove box switch, and some black rubber liners for my center console spaces - I didn't know there were liners for those! Sweet!

And although my Jimmy is an SLE, I want those leather/vinyl door panels so bad; but I need other things first, and I'm not pining too hard because that vehicle or the panels will likely be gone by the time I can justify buying them. Much less expensive, however, are that SLT's stock fog lamps. I've already got two from another junkyard Jimmy that I plan to use when I fix up my front end; however, I might grab those and Ebay 'em - unless someone here might want 'em, because they're way hard to find and new ones are ridiculously expensive and don't come with the brackets. I did grab the stock fog lamp switch for myself, though.

Elsewhere in the junkyard are two old Blazers who still have their neat black VORTEC engine hat-thing. Former Owner painted mine neon green, as you can see in the photo above. We don't know why; we don't want to know why. We just want a new one. Sadly, I didn't have the appropriate star-bit with me when I noticed them, so I'll have to get one of them on my next trip.

 

In case you're still around - sorry I never saw your question, or I'd have answered it.

My starting issue was just the fuel pump. Replaced it; now starts up first time every time.

 

Thanks....better late than never.

Mine was the fuel pump too. Not a fun job but it did the trick.

 

All right, today I had decent sunlight and took a peek at how things look under the hood so far:



That battery's starting to bother me now. It works fine, but it's physically too big for its space. It pinches the coolant recovery hose a little bit, the coolant reservoir is unbolted and shifted out of place, and the cables are strained to reach the top-posts. So I think a new correctly-sized battery is in order, along with (wince) some new battery cables, or at least a couple of intact junkyard replacements.

That big heater-A/C assembly on the firewall definitely needs replaced also; looks like someone tried to replace the evaporator and just basically busted the case open to get to it, then tried to glue the remains back together - leaving large cracks and holes in the case that probably half my cabin fan force leaks out of. I've tried to patch the gaps temporarily with duct tape, but the thing needs replaced. I need to take off the fender to remove it, though; which means that job is going to have to wait until I have a new fender/core/grille/bumper components so I can do all that work at once.

 

These trucks definitely had their flaws, and weren't exactly the highest quality, but I love mine and I'm happy to see that someones taking the time to properly rescue one.
So I did some research, and as far as that washer fluid-injection thing the previous owner nig rigged, it seems that water injection helps to provide a form of internal cooling to the engine. These seem like very precise units which give a fine mist of spray. The system in your jimmy is sort of like making a supercharger with an electric leafblower ( ). Anyway, glad to see you fixed it up.

 

Tell me why that thing is still green LOL pull it off and paint it black! LOL

 

At this point I'm using it as a motivator. I think I'm going to replace it at the same time as the front end/AC business, and every time I lift the hood and see that awful, awful thing it'll remind me to concentrate on gathering all the parts I need for that job.