Removing prefilled 0 from constant while being able to save user's answer for review before submital

there are a few things i am trying to
1. remove the prefilled 0.
2. Retain the value of what the user entered, including if it is a 0.
3. do not submit a default value of 0 when the user has not interacted with the question.

I am able to remove the display of the prefilled 0 using this code:

jQuery("#"+this.questionId+" li input[type=text]").val("");

When i try to code to retain the value entered it does not seem to be working. ex: you want to review your answers before finally submitting the survey, BUT when you come to review the question that contained a constant sum, your work was erased and have to re input your #s.

the code i tried to use to prevent this was:

var inputs = jQuery("#"+this.questionId+" .SumInput input");
if(inputs.filter(function() {return this.value != "0";}).length == 0) {
inputs.val("");

but this did not help AND for questions that were left blank, they were filled with a 0.

my final coding looks a little something like this:

Qualtrics.SurveyEngine.addOnload(function()
{
var inputWidth = "55px";
var q = jQuery("#"+this.questionId);
q.find('.SumInput').css("width", inputWidth);
q.find('.SumTotal').css("width", inputWidth);
q.find('.InputText').css("width", inputWidth);
jQuery("#"+this.questionId+" li input[type=text]").val("");
var inputs = jQuery("#"+this.questionId+" .SumInput input");
if(inputs.filter(function() {return this.value != "0";}).length == 0) {
inputs.val("");
}



});

(i am mainly focused on the code after '1.find('.InputText').css("width", inputWidth);)


does anybody have any suggestions?