I have a '98 Cherokee Sport 4.0L Auto. This thing is driving me crazy! Bought it six months ago just for a street legal trail rig. It ran great when I bought it. First trip out to the Butler Jeep show the mud hole burnt up my electric fan and it over heated, the engine tranny shifted fine. New electric fan and it seemed fine. That was until I drove it two weeks later to the Jamboree at Nemicolin, tranny boiled over on the way there and left me sit along the highway. After it cooled down I made it to camp, pressure washed the rad again and it got me home. I installed a tranny cooler, changed the fluid and filter and it still got real hot after 20 minutes or so of driving and started to shift funny. Someone on the forum suggested new radiator...Now I have a new radiator and new filter and fluid, plus the tranny cooler and it is stilll getting hot and stinking! The lines are not kinked, please any ideas would be great!!! Jeep shifts and runs as should for about 20 minutes then you start to smell hot tranny fluid! Does the torque convertor actually go bad? When hot and at a stop it acts like I have the brakes hanging up, but that is not the case.

 

What did the fluid look like when you drained it? Burned? Any metal or clutch material in there?

 

It is rare but, possible.

 

Fluid was clean as could imagine although I changed it three times in the last three weeks. Filter is brand new. Gonna try to by pass the radiator all together and try running it just through the cooler. Still it's a new radiator, can't understand how it could be getting hot. And as far as I can see a converter is a big hunk of metal with no moving parts, how could it go bad?

 

"When hot and at a stop it acts like I have the brakes hanging up, but that is not the case."

Definite hydraulic issue, I don't think it's the torque converter and a fan is not going to fix it. Sounds like the transmission is in multiple gears at once.

 

What gears and tire size are you running? Having the gears and tire size in matched with cause the transmission to work harder. Thus getting hot really quick. I suggest checking it out.


Also, don't just drain and fill. Take it to a mechanic and have it properly flushed. This replaces all fluid in the transmission with new.

Just draining and filling doesn't drain all the fluid out. There is still at least a court in the torque converter and another in nooks and crannies inside the transmission.

Or.... revert back to my first.

 

I'd disagree with flushing the tranny. Older trannies do not like to be flushed or they may give out on you entirely. So good call on the simple drain and refill.

I'm assuming you are on bigger tires on stock gears, which would be your problem.

 

That would explain the rapid overheating. I wonder what the initial overheating damaged.

I'd personally skip any sort of powerflush and do a couple of drain-and-refills instead. But I think this is now beyond a bad fluid issue.

 

Do these transmissions not handle well to anything? I have flushed many old transmissions over the years for customers with no complaints.

 

They are bullet-proof until you get them hot.