semipro06

Starting from the beginning my 98 grand cherokee with a 42re transmission has lost reverse and when it is in reverse and nuetral it drives forward, to add to that when it is in park and you try to rev the motor it feels as if you are power breaking it instead of it reving up but the wheels do not move. when you press the release to move the shifter handle it does not lock into place when at the r for reverse. i crawled underneath it and both shifter levers and cables are all attached What would cause this is my first question?

and Would a 42re transmission out of a 2002 grand cherokee fit my 1998 grand cherokee limited??

dave1123

There is obviously something wrong with the shifting, weither it's the linkage or the shift quadrant inside the trans, IDK.

The 2002 42re will bolt up, BUT it has some differences in shifting. Yours has a linkage, I believe, while the 2002 uses a cable shift. Also there are differences in the electrics, such as the 2002 has a transmission output shaft speed sensor in it that the '98 doesn't. The '02 doesn't have a VSS in the t/case, but your t/case should work. All this is supposition because I don't know for sure.

semipro06

I pulled off tbe tranny pan and drained tge fluid. Checked the linkage by hand and could feel that it is not shifting into nuetral,reverse,manual 1st or manual 2nd. Also the magnet in the tranny pan was covered with grayish black paste like tar

dave1123

That's probably clutch friction material mixed with steel filings from the driven plates. Not a good sign!

Bustedback

It's normal for the magnet to have some black fuzz on it. Chunks of stuff in the pan is not a good thing though.

wheelerboy12

a 2002 42RE will bolt right in, but depending on miles and its previous life it will just go out again sooner or later, you could fix it for good and upgrade it a bit by swaping in a AW4/np231 from an XJ get the front and rear drive lines from the same one or another with a 4.0/aw4/np231 and the wiring/TCM (Or depending on how handy with electronics you are or your desires look up the AW4 shift mods to eliminate the computer and have manual shifting)

youd need
AW4 flywheel and torque converter and a shifter from a 93zj /231 and front/rear drivelines from am xj along with the trans mount, TCM and trans harness are required if you dont want to do the manual shift mods ect.

the aw4 will last forever, and the np231 is an upgrade if you have the 242/249.
You should be able to find an aw4/np231 combo on cragslist for 200-300ish or you can find a rebuilt aw4 for 400-500 (although ive never seen one that needed rebuilt)

The Aw4 is the same transmission used in the automatic supras with the twin turbo 2JZ and is capabale of handling large amounts of power, much more then the 4.0 block can, witch is why you dont usually see Cherokees with bad trans, yet everytime you get on craigslist theres 10 ZJs with bad 42res.