Today I took the Cherokee out, and got into a little mud. It's a 98 with the AW4.

When I came back to town, I stopped at a light while in drive. When I sit there idling, I could feel and hear a type of rattling/grinding that varied with engine RPM. After a little driving it went away. It seems like it's coming from the bellhousing area under the transmission shifter.

I then pulled over and put it in drive and gave it some gas with the brake fully applied. I could only duplicate the noise if I got the RPM just right.

I had the 4x4 shifter rattle that some talk about, and it goes away when I pull up on the lever a little bit.

It kind of seems like the same kind of noise, but grabbing the shifter didn't make it go away this time.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

It sounds to me like you have a cracked or loose flexplate turn the car on climb underneath you should hear the sound very loudly from between the engine and transmission if so remove the access panel and tighten the flexplate bolts if your sure its not cracked take them out and put some loctite on them

I was afraid of that.

I took it for a ride a bit ago and I couldn't get it to do it again. Guess I'll have to wait and see what happens

Look here first. Probably a bad trans mount or mud on the crossmember.

I go for the well known and easy checks first.

Flexplate bolts are present under all conditions, not just when he's flooring it or under load lol

Probably the exhaust banging around.

Haven't had much time for the internet in awhile, sorry.

But I did figure out the noise!

After a few hours of looking around, there was a rock stuck between the exhaust pipe and the crossmember. I also noticed the noise was there when I first started it and the engine torqued over when it fired.

Pried up the exhaust, got the rock out of there, and all is well!

Thanks guys!

Hmmm. Imagine that.....