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1990 Trooper Refresh Project

361K views 2K replies 66 participants last post by  shaggydoink 
#1 ·
I'm buckling to the pressure and starting a thread for the refresh of the 1990 Trooper I just added to my fleet... it's pretty sketched out, but it was the year, engine and transmission I wanted and had "only" 110,000 miles so seemed like a good foundation to start with. It's a 2.6L 4ZE1 5-speed, haven't decoded the plate on the firewall yet but plan to tonight to get a few more details about it. Apparently it only had a few owners, there even looks to be a few of the original showroom pieces in it (owner's manual, some promotional materials, etc.).

I doesn't run currently (the seller said that a mechanic friend determined it was the fuel pump) so yesterday I talked my daughter into dragging the poor thing out of the barn and towed it home... here are a couple pics outside the Piggly Wiggly we stopped at on the way home:





The seller's son had already dropped the tank and some of the hoses/wires had been damaged in the process, so I removed it and chucked it in the back of the pickup for the trip home - first order of business this morning was to get the skunked gas drained and the tank off the front porch before the HOA woke up. ;)



The answer to the question of "so, what's on the to-do list?" is pretty much a "yes" at this point which freaks me out a bit, but I'm excited and looking forward to the project. Off to order another Planet Isuzoo sticker, more to come!
 
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#2 ·
I did a quick decode of the plate on the firewall, a few more details:

Engine: 4ZE1 ENG
Grade: DLX/S
Transmission: M/T MUA 5 SPEED
Tires: P235/75R15
Body Color: IVY GREEN MICA
Interior Color: BEIGE
Options: AIR CONDITIONING MANUAL CONT, SUSPENSION SOFT RIDE, STEERING WHEEL URETHANE, AUTO LOCKING HUB

The funny thing that I'm not too proud to admit............. both my daughter and I thought it was BLACK until she looked really closely at some of the interior! LOL!! :roll:
 
#5 ·
bradzuzu said:
Let the onlooking and admiration begin :)

What color is it ??
Dark green. I was originally thinking that I'd copy "chipman's" orange Bighorn, although I'm thinking the dark green with white bullet hole wheels might have a cool vintage vibe to it... so guess I'll see!
 
#6 ·
Man, now that I have the fever, every one of these pics I see makes my adrenaline start pumping. Good luck. If you need any guidance on the auto lock hubs, the climate control stuff, or bleeding the clutch, my son and I have become quick experts. Let us know. And hey! Where do I get a Planetisuzoo.com bumper sticker??
 
#7 ·
Awesome man, I knew you were looking and didn't realize you had found one. That is great mileage on a great platform, I love the 2.6/mua combo. Funny thing, as I'm cleaning shop today and getting scrap steel ready for the yard I saw the bumpers and thought to myself....wonder if Jonathan still wants these. Looking at the front bumper, I'm going to go on a limb and say....yes :D Half the work on the fuel pump install is already done, how cool is that. Ok I admit, I thought it was black too looking at the first pics :oops:
 
#9 ·
He needs to wash the oor thing and show us the color !! I'm slightly color blind and it looks black 8) I was looking for the g80 code in your report ,, nota ??
 
#10 ·
@ zudorf - on an experience scale of 1-10 where 1 is a hack and 10 is wrench hero, I'm still somewhere around a 1.75 so appreciate your offer and suspect that I will indeed be taking you up on it! :)

@ Jeremy - yeah, the back bumper is trashed too! Thanks for hanging onto those bumpers for me, I'm going to try and make it out your way before Uwharrie so they don't clutter up your shop for too long. :roll:



@ Brad - nope, no G80 which Mike who lives nearby has gotten me conditioned to look for!



Is there a thread somewhere that explains the difference between the MSG and MUA transmissions?
 
#11 ·
On the scale of which you speak, we might be a couple of 1's; but we've lost a lot of blood and brain cells fixing what we have. So if you have problems in any of those areas, our wounds are still fresh and we might just have a quick answer. :newb: :coffee2: And where did you find that "thumbs up" emoticon?
 
#12 ·
zudorf said:
On the scale of which you speak, we might be a couple of 1's
you guys are a trip, the good news is 1 and 1 makes 2 :D

shaggydoink said:
I'm going to try and make it out your way before Uwharrie so they don't clutter up your shop for too long. :roll:
sweet, maybe we can get some beach wheeling in too :D

what kind of tires are those on the rear, looks like they've got some good grip
 
#13 ·
With preserverance , determination , and the love of Isuzu your already a 10 in my book !! Sounds like you have the ultamet hook up for parts and help :)
 
#14 ·
How did you know it had a MUA5? I'm going to be looking at an 88 P'up this week and I'm curious where to be looking at in the VIN and how you figured it out. Nice score btw, I wish I could have found a dark green trooper.
 
#15 ·
The fact that it has the mua is determined by the year model. It's not an option.
 
#16 ·
bradzuzu said:
With preserverance , determination , and the love of Isuzu your already a 10 in my book !! Sounds like you have the ultamet hook up for parts and help :)
You're the bomb Brad! :thumbup: <-- for zudorf, the BB Code is " : thumbup : " without the quotes and spaces between the word thumbup and the colon
 
#17 ·
Psychomidgit said:
How did you know it had a MUA5? I'm going to be looking at an 88 P'up this week and I'm curious where to be looking at in the VIN and how you figured it out. Nice score btw, I wish I could have found a dark green trooper.
I got the MUA off the firewall plate (TRANS: RMN) and now know thanks to Jeremy that it's also related to the model year. :) I don't know for sure but would think that the Pup would have the same type of plate...? If so, you can print out a list of codes to decipher it whenever you go look at it.

Jonathan
 
#18 ·
foytiX said:
what kind of tires are those on the rear, looks like they've got some good grip
You're gonna laugh at me, but I have no idea! LOL!! I just popped out to the garage to take a peek and didn't see any major branding, thinking that the brand might be on the tire wall that's facing toward the truck...? Guess I'll find out soon, I'm sure I'll be pulling the tires/wheels off so I can survey the brakes.

Today I spent the majority of the day down in Wilmington which is what my daughter wanted to do as part of her birthday, I did bribe her into helping me drag and shove the Trooper into the garage before we hit the road, though... I can only imagine how amused my neighbors must have been seeing the whole episode! My daughter snapped a pic while I hooked up the tow strap:



And a shot of the Trooper stuffed into the garage with my hero at the wheel:



I snapped one more quick pic of the hood and front vents - gives you an idea of the level of sketch I'll hopefully start peeling back tomorrow! Can't wait!!

 
#20 ·
Ah, this indeed going to be a fun adventure. I was finally able to get my hands on the Trooper this morning (yeah, I know... "that's what she said"), first thing I did was pop off the spare tire to give myself some room in my cramped garage which was apparently the holder of some small rodent nest! LOL!!



Priority is the fuel pump so I can actually get the thing started, and also made my first bozo... I popped the fuel line hoses off without being more mindful of which attached to which. :roll: The fuel feed line that runs to the fuel filter is fairly obvious as it has a larger I.D., but the return and evaporation is what I'm trying to sort out and I wasn't able to find any pictures or diagrams. I'm going to try and trace the lines forward, but can anyone double check me?

In the pics below, #1 (feed) aligns with "A", and I'm assuming "C" is the evaporation... but does this connect to #2 or #3?





Thanks in advance (the first time of many I suspect I'll be saying that)!

Jonathan
 
#23 ·
That nest behind the spare is massive. I just flipped back through my fuel tank thread and didn't have any valuable info on which hose goes where. So I just went and snapped a couple of pics.
 

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#24 ·
C goes to 3
B -2
A - 1
 
#26 ·
foytiX said:
C goes to 3
B -2
A - 1
Thanks Jeremy, I appreciate it! Got the replacement pump and hoses this morning and just got back from the flea market (brrrrr!) will get working on things...the only thing I need to find now is a fuel injection rated hose for the breather that attaches to the filler neck which I noticed is cracked - AutoZone didn't have that size, hoping one of the other local shops do so I can actually try and fire the thing up today!
 
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