like it says it wont shift out of first and sometimes wont start in park

 

slave cylinder if manual if not f/ed automatic trans j/y swap were do u live?

 

o wont start in park is ur neutral safety switch

 

would that also cause it not to shift into anyother gears besides drive and reverse

 

No seems you have multiple problems. Lets address one at a time.
Won't start in Park is a NSS problem.
Won't shift into reverse seems a TCU problem. start by tracking the cable with the large plug that goes between the tranny and TCU. See if you have it just partially plugged in or with broken wiring.
Let us know what you find. If that is not the culprit it may be stuck servos in the tranny.

 

what is the tcu?

 

My '97 wouldn't shift out of 1st and it ended up being the shift solenoids inside the tranny (AW4)-$520.00 later it was fixed.Transmissions are one of the few things I'll actually pay a trained professional to work on.

 

First thing I'd do is check the fluid level.

 

Transmission Control Unit. Tranny's computer.

 

where are you located? i have an aw4 tranny from an 89 here i'll take 50.00 for it if you decide you need one.

if its the tcu, i'd look in a junk yard for one. I don't think i have any more here.

 

well i disconected the tcu and it will shift manually so what does that mean that its the tcu and if so is there a special one cuz i have tried 4 of them but i noticed they all had different color stickers on all of them and numbers so should i get one that is the same color as the original?

 

just a guess but I think one out of the 4 computers would have worked. It would seem to me that it may be stuck servos as mentioned above.

 

i thought they were color to year coordinated the numbers have to mean something between years/

 

well the tps has alot to do with it i went and hooked up the old tcu and it does shift but at high rpms so the tps sensor is not reading the volts it needs to send to the ecu which then goes to the tcu to tell the tranny when to shift.

 

Here is some info and pics of the neutral safety switch. Mine is bad and I think I will try to clean it out. I have had some issues starting the engine. My brake lights havent worked for a while, now I know why. (FYI: My Cherokee is a '97, yours may be different)

http://www.jpmagazine.com/techarticl...tch/index.html

http://go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoNSSrebuild.htm

http://autorepair.about.com/library/a/1i/bl713i.htm