It's still dripping dry outside. Accidentally dropped it into my bucket of ATF. There was some metal on the magnets, but nothing too bad for 174K (since the odo stopped working). Fluid was fairly dark and hard to see through, but still had a tinge of red. I was surprised I could get it off w/o having to remove the pan from the bell housing connection. Looking around, but just can't seem to find where the gear looking thing was previously located.

 

If you have a 2WD XJ, that's the VSS drive gear inside the transmission. You can remove the VSS and look inside the hole. You should be able to see the drive gear. If it's not there then that's what's left of it in your pan.


Need to have an AW4 trans shop replace the gear.


The gear on your VSS is probably ate up as well.


VSS pic showing its (Green) gear.





View of the VSS on a 2WD AW4.





Disregard all of the above if you have a 4WD XJ. :-)

 

There's the filter. It looks pretty clean to me, but I'm not that familiar with autos.

Thanks a lot CC Ken. I'll poke around some more towards the tail end for this VSS Drive gear. Can any trans shop do this or do I need a AW4 trans shop? I'd prefer a specialist, but am unfamiliar with Jeep mechanics in my area. I assume I'll have to take the back half of the trans off which may or may not be doable in my driveway with hand tools. 2 1/2 weeks of Jeep ownership and have done trans mount, motor mounts, shocks, oil change, ZJ tie rod upgrade, and trans solenoids. Hopefully this thing is somewhat reliable and has just needed some TLC. I want to get to the fun parts like the 4WD conversion and lifts and whatnot.

Thanks again guys for the amazingly fast responses.

*UPDATE* I can't quit see back by the VSS "sensor" It looks reasonably easy. Drive shaft disconnect, trans mount uninstall, and then probably <10-ish bolts to remove the backend. Once I'm inside I don't know what else there will be to do. Any idea on the flag hours something like this calls for? I assume I'm in the clear to re-install all of this stuff since it's separated.

 

That's a lot of work you did there. Good job.


The back half of the trans needs to come off to do the job.


Call around to the transmission shops in your area and ask if they have experience on the AW4. Don't let them woof you. If you do need this work done at a shop make sure you have them service the trans with Dexron III/Mercon fluid ONLY.

 

I bought this stuff. Hopefully it is suitable. DexIII/Merc fluids are kind of confusing on the shelves. I know Chevron D something 3 was supposed to be good, but I didn't find it in any of the Walmarts or parts stores around me so I just picked this stuff up in a gallon jug. Think it'll be fine?

Thanks again CCKen this thread was super helpful to me.

You don't happen to have the part number by chance do you or a link to the parts catalog of a 98 XJ? I'm sure it's somewhere around, just haven't been able to sort through the threads to find a pdf just yet.

 

Here:

 

Oh okay. I'll return this one then. Thought the high mileage formula might be more beneficial.

Thanks!

 

Wally World.

 

Here's the instructions for the speedo gear R&R.


Gear part number is 83503704. You should be able to get one from a Chrysler dealer, or on line.


You won't be removing the rotor.


Threebond Liquid Gasket TB1281 is not available. You can use Permatex Automatic Transmission RTV Gasket Maker in its place. Just allow about 5 minutes before tightening the attach bolts down in order to let the RTV start to set up.

 

You are my hero. Taking it to the shop tomorrow to drop off for the VSS sensor/gear. They said $250 which seemed fair enough not to mess with I'll be supplying the ATF.

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge! Hopefully I can get this thing inspected and get back to work so I can start to do the fun stuff.

 

Disregard.

 

I'm used to sharing broken car stories, but never stuff this lame.

RX7 Club is the forum we all pool our tears into a puddle until they work again.

 

Oh yay...