Okay so i'm not taking credit for this i just think its in the best interest for everyone who owns an XJ to know this. I have always disliked the way my XJ shifts from 2-3-4. It felts sloppy and had trouble down shifting on steep inclines. Well here is the solution that worked for me! It costs all of $0 and about 5 minutes including the test drive.

Here are the instruction

-Open hood while vehicle is off in park.
-Find TB
-Press and hold cable release button.
-While holding cable release button push conduit into ratcheting cable release button.
-Hold conduit in.
-Release the cable release button.
-Open TB to wide open and the button will automatically ratchet and lock into the correct place.
-Test drive!!!

I found this on one of b16a90teg's posts on NAXJA.

I know its a "write up" but i think it would have more use to people on the tech section

 

Nice!
ill have to do this tommorow!

thanks for the post!!!

 

Yeah no problem. Let me know what you think.

 

i dont understand? how does it make the tranny shift better? also will it work for my 97?

 

is this for a standard?

 

So, what exactly does this do? I'll have to try it.

 

i think it takes the slack out of your return cable.

 

it adjusts the kickdown cable, it's for an automatic only

 

Yep it adjusts your kickdown cable that overtime gets loose so its more taught and responsive. Mine had almost an inch of extra slack.

As far as I know it works for 87-99, probably more.

 

Interesting. Will have to look into this

 

i'll try this today. will let you all know how it goes

 

Basically, if you have slop in your kickdown cable, your transmission thinks your throttle is only open a portion of what it's actually open to, so it refuses to kick down to a lower gear when you're on a steep incline, or accelerating. Having a kickdown cable out of adjustment can also adversely affect fuel economy, since your engine has to work harder to push its load than it would have to if you had a properly adjusted kickdown cable and properly working transmission.

 

I followed everything
but i had to hit the release button as i was opening the TB to WOT
tried it the other way and it wouldnt budge..
but seems to have worked pretty well

 

Back when I was younger, I had a 1991 Z28 with a automatic trans, and I found pretty much tha same fix for it, I remember it would chirp the tires almost everytime it shifted into 2nd gear.....

 

i followed all the instructions posted but now when it changes gears the the jeep sort of bucks and lurches back before it does change. This never happend before i did this. did i mess it up somehow? thanks for any help. i have a 99 xj 4.0