Just bought my 6th Cherokee, a teal '97 Sport with 183k for $800. Just using it as a beater to run back and forth from work. Rockers are gone and has a hole under the gas door but overall it's in really good shape and the motor runs great. The trans shifts fine but I did notice it doesn't act like my older ones did (this is my first 97+). The hood didn't want to open when I bought it, so I wasn't able to check the tranny fluid, but I bought it off my boss who had it since it was new. I know he didn't beat on it, so I just bought it anyway. Anyway..... after some coaxing and some PB Blaster, I got the hood open and checked everything and changed the oil. Come to find the tranny fluid is brown. Great. Probably going to ride it out till it starts slipping. Have heard horror stories of people doing a flush and filter at this point and having the tranny almost immediately take a crap, so I'm probably not going down that road. Did the '97's come with AW4's like the older ones? Its it a direct swap? How hard is it to tackle by yourself? Any help is appreciated, thanks

Don't do a flush, just do a drain and fill. It is an AW4. Swap isn't that hard and you can do it yourself with a tranny jack if it comes to that.

X2^^ Buy a couple gals of DEX 3, drain, refill, run it 100 miles, repeat until nice and red.