I'm driving like normal, stop to get gas, put 17 gallons in, and then the weirdness begins. First thing I noticed was the gas guage was on 1/8 tank and not rising. Second thing I noticed was once I got up to speed, the torque converter randomly unlocked. Just for the sake of making sure my tranny wasn't bad, I floored it. It would not kick down into passing gear no matter what. While driving I turned off the engine and restarted it. The gas guage shot up to 3/4 and the trans acted normal. After a few minutes, the torque converter randomly unlocked again. I pulled in my driveway pondering the situation and decided to go for another drive. The tranny acted 100% normal this time. I then drove it to town to run errands (30 mile round trip) It hasn't had a hiccup since. I haven't owned but 2 97+ models and the other one had a bad trans so it didn't give me much to work with so I'm kinda stumped. Could the TPS be going bad in this year Jeep? If so, what caused the gas guage ordeal?? Any ideas would be appreciated

 

 

 

I'm impatient

 

I had a buddy his GFs' name was Freakish Weirdness, yea true story.

 

That's what I named my, well, you know.. .

 

Any check engine light? If so, pull codes for a clue

The gauge issues don't really correlate with the transmission issue.

Because of that, I'd start with a general "freshening" of ALL engine grounds. Often overlooked and can be the cause of many electrical "gremlins".

 

My first thought when I read the OP was GROUNDING issues.

The one thing common to all devices is 12 VDC power, and grounds are a common point to all devices and a common point of failure.

 

No CEL. Off to check the grounds.....

 

Be sure you actually "freshen" them (disassemble, clean until shiny, reassemble)
Can't tell much of anything by looking at em..........

 

dielectric grease on your clean connections will help prevent corrosion and ensure those electrons don't get confused

 

Do not put dielectric grease in a ground connection. Dielectric grease is an insulator. You can use it on top of a connection, but not in between the ground surface and the connector. Again, like stated above, cleanliness is the key to godliness in electrical connections. Clean and shiney contact surfaces with a covering to keep out oxygen that causes corrosion.

 

Wrong...Sort of.... dielectric grease is non conductive and it is an insulator but it is thin enough (low viscosity) that very little pressure is needed to allow metal to metal contact. After there is metal to metal contact the dielectric grease will protect that connection.

I have used dielectric grease on connectors for many years and had excellent results. Here are 2 photos of the measured resistance between two dimes. One with no dielectric grease, the other with a good glob of dielectric grease between the dimes. Almost no difference in resistance.
A couple of links to bolster my position, Permatex's TDS for dielectric grease ("coat both parts"): http://www.permatex.com/documents/td...tive/22058.pdf
And an article from Moab Jeeper:
http://www.moabjeeper.com/articles/g...?articleID=475


no dielectric grease


with dielectric grease

 

Thanks. Good information, I stand corrected. I forwarded the links to my electrical engineer bud. I guess thats why they tell me to stick to mechancial engineering. Lol!

 

I've read about the Renix guys having ground trouble and am well informed on how to clean them but I'm still trying to get in to act up again so I can hurry up and plug my scanner in but it refuses. I think simply having the scanner handy will cause the Jeep to act right out of spite