Hi All,

First time poster, long time reader and owner of many jeeps from sunny England..

Got trouble with a '98 Cherokee 4.0 Automatic (AW4). Owned it for a few months now and took it on its first long drive the other day, and about 50 miles in it started holding back, juddering (pretty hard) and after a while it would start to hop out of gear momentarily and rev up when under load, then back in to gear when you come off the throttle. If you back off the throttle and give it minimal load it would still drive but you would be limited to about 50/60 mph maximum because as soon as you give it any load it just starts slipping. It seems temperature dependent and the problem lessens if you stop to let it cool down.

Once cooled down and driven again in the morning it would drive pretty normally round town etc but once it was at cruising speed (70mph) for a period of time it would first start to judder and feel like the gearbox was 'dragging' the car before eventually jumping out of gear and slipping again.

Have removed the gearbox oil pan, and cleaned out the filter and refilled with new fluid and there wasn't much at all in the way of debris in the pan. The fluid was pretty nasty though with that burnt smell though and all signs are pointing towards a knackered gearbox..


My question is has anybody ever experienced a similar fault with one of these cars and basically confirm whether it is time to replace the transmission/torque converter or if it could be something electrical/adjustment of some kind which I could try before pulling the tranny out? (Yes I know it's a long shot)

Cheers in advance!

Gary

 

Mine did the same thing combined with a few other electrical anomalies and Once I repaired the ground near the battery and the one on top of the engine near the firewall it went away. It's amazing how many problems arise from bad grounds. It's cheap to fix and worth a try.

 

Try drain/refill of the transmission several (3-4) more times, driving it a bit in between each drain/refill.

If you can get it, use Dexron III/Mercon ATF.

It does sound like the Torque Converter is throwing in the towel however.