I will try to make this as short and as informative as possible. I have had this jeep for about 2 years, no major issues. Battery replacement, serpentine belt, spark plugs ect.

I have ran codes on it and cleared all that were present and all were non transmission related such as 02 sensor and spark plug.

Here is what leads me to believe it could be electrical. I have had issues in the dash where it flickers and other lights on the vehicle sometimes flicker and i have checked every fuse possible. * I guess i thought i had more than that... but i guess not *

So, the problem came out of nowhere one day. I was driving, and it "slipped" out of gear. I was able to put it in 1st and turn on OD and it worked.... kind of. I ended up having it towed because it was not able to sustain shifting and maintaining a road safe speed.
Now, I turn it on and in park it doesn't make any weird noise.
Reverse doesn't make any crazy noise but only works sometimes.
Drive doesn't work at all and makes a whining and ticking/sputtering noise, the whining noise resembles the sound that your power steering makes when its low. And the ticking/sputtering resembles an manifold leak.


When i turn the car on, turn OD on and put it in 1st while feathering the gas it will move forward BUT the RPMs are acting weird and when i goose it it barely moves and sounds muffled.

I have uploaded a 42 second youtube video for anyone interested in hearing the sound its making.

 

What year is your Grand Cherokee and what transmission does it have?

 

Sounds to me like a fractured flexplate or missing the converter drive bolts. Good place to start looking anyway.

 

First step would be to check the level of your transmission fluid. If it hasn't been changed and looks dark, do a forward flush and fill with appropriate fluid for your trans (not sure if Grand Cherokees are different to XJs) and check if the issue persists.

ROugh indication to differentiate between mechanical or electrical can be done by seeing if you can manually drive it. Going through the gears manually.

 

97 and the tranny should be a 44RE. According to my VIN lookup.

 

probably best enquire on the grand cherokee forum, but in general, if you have no reverse, it wont be electrical,
as reverse is selected manually, so unless it has low fluid level, with the other symptoms you have, thats a mechanical issue of some kind