1996 jeep cherokee sport with 163k on the clock, i6 4.0 and AW4.

I bought it maybe 2-3 months ago and since i bought it, its been nothing but problems. The few times i took it on the highway it did fine until you were cruising and pressed the gas down a little to overtake someone. Everyone now and then it made a high pitch whining/grinding/death noise so i tried to stay away from highways.

After doing a bunch of repairs and thinking everything was all good i put a good 100 miles on it today without ANY problems or noises.... until i was on my way home. Basically from 4th to 3rd it made that sound so i dropped it from OD to 3 and used that, until it started making noises too. It got to a point i was a few blocks from my house and when i would go from a complete stop in DRIVE it acted like it was in neutral until about 3k rpm and it would jump forward and start moving. Its a miracle i got home.

What am i expecting? blown tranny? destroyed torque converter? A shop already told me my flywheel sounded like it was cracked so if i were to fix it i'd get it all done at the same time.

Anyone else EVER encounter this problem and care to share some advice? I'm a poor college kid and i paid 750 for this thing and i love it to death

 

Bump

 

Whats the fluid look/smell like?

 

That right there sounds like a slipping tranny...

 

It sounds like your tq convert went bad to me, that's prob where the noise was coming from. Also it's now stalling higher cause it's going bad??? Just an idea I had a tq go bad in my Silverado did the same thing. Is the trans filter before or after the tq on these? All the metal from the tq convert may have ran threw your trans... GL I'd go ahead and replace the flywheel tq and trans with some cheap used ones and baby for a while.

 

Black fluid, smells like burnt rubber and is overfilled

 

Its pretty sad......... Since i bought this thing i've put on 470 miles in total and now its sitting outside of my house, after all the time and money and freezing my *** off working in pitch black this is what it does to me... How much would i be looking at to have my flywheel torque converter and tranny done? 2 thousand?

 

Yeah that tranny fluid doesnt look good at all.. it should cost 2k to rebuild a tranny. thats what it sounds to me, I went threw plenty of em with my thunderbird. id say most shuld be 1500 to get it rebuilt

 

The world isn't over yet. Get a haynes manual and a friend or two. Swapping a tranny isn't hard, and Junkyard jewels are a dime a dozen.

 

At $750 you got into it real cheap. Suspiciously cheap, in fact.

The previous owners knew the trans was burned up, which is why they priced it like they did.

As you are finding out, no one can drive for free. The transmissions in theses Jeeps are better than most, but nothing lasts forever. Yours died an early death.

As someone else said, SY trans, converter, and flywheel would do for now. Some SYs will even swap them out for you, for a fee. That way if the replacement goes bad under warranty, the labor should be on them.

Money well spent.

 

Honestly I only bought it for cheap because I thought it would be a 4wd beast I could use for my delivery job to get some extra cash once it started snowing. Finding out about the electrical problems and it dying at random times (o2 sensor short) no heat ( clogged heater core) the passenger door didn't open (rusty door hinge) it didn't have a radio, and all the other problems made me get attached to it. What's an sy? I was planning on saving up and getting all 3 done at Aamco and have peace of mind since they warranty their ****

 

I personally would junk it before I would go to aamco.Had a bad experence with a VW there.Ended up getting the car out of there putting the trans in a box and going to court.I won. Ask around and look for someone local who has a good rep. Just my 2 cents.

 

sy=scrap yard= junk yard witch is the same as jy. and if you swap the tranny your self make sure you clean out the tranny cooler! but it sounds like your going to send it in somewhere to have it rebuilt, but i would get a quote because i bet you could find a really nice jeep for what your going to pay for a new tq converter, fly wheel, trans. i got my comanche for 900 bucks and it had 95000 miles on it

 

I already know a few local places that i could hit up but i was thinking aamco because my mom told me their specialty is transmissions and they include a 1 year 12k mile warranty.

I was quoted from 1400-2300 but he couldn't say for sure until he got a look at it.

I know i could junk this xj and find another but like i said, the time i've put into it i'm already attached. Id rather have it fixed.

 

I could go the swap in another tranny route but i don't want to risk the slight chance the one i get for the swap is on its way out too.