southofriver

Sorry this is an old topic but looked all over for info, I have A Florida 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0L 4x4 with 75,000 on her, well my tranny needs to be replaced the old trans shifts hard and when it goes in 3rd gear it bangs I drove it like that for about 5,000 miles thinking it had A shift kit lol. well I dropped the pan on her and when I drained the old fluid I looked in the pan and found some broken snap rings in it 2 pcs. about 2 inches long, to make a long story short I don't have a shop to swap out old so I was going to take it to a local friends shop and he told me for $1500 installed, he found a used one with 70,000 on it, but with all the problems with the 42RE (that I have read) I'm thinking for a few hundred bucks more I can get a re-manufactured. I don't know what is the best reman. or rebuilt trans to put in, anyone know of a good HD transmission to use. If someone could put a link on the thread that would be great

dave1123

Welcome to CF!

That snap ring is the retainer for the direct clutch which is in the overdrive section. You can just remove that section and install a rebuilt one or get it rebuilt. It's a lot cheaper than replacing the whole trans. There is a 600 lb spring behind it so you need a compressor to fix it. You really can't do it yourself without the press. There are also 2 separate splined stages inside that MUST be aligned before you put the snap ring in. There are several good posts on the forum and several Youtube videos about it. Check them out.

There are SO many companies that remanufacture or rebuild transmissions that I wouldn't want to tell you which one to use because I don't have first hand experience with any of them.

If you plan on keeping this jeep for awhile, go to wjjeeps.com for lots of good info on it and pacificcoastmanuals.com to download a Factory Service Manual for $7.95. It's 93MB (pdf) and the best manual I've ever seen.

BTW, my 2000 has 187K miles on it and my 42re hasn't given me any problems yet. The last fluid change was clean with no debris or filings.

southofriver

Great Thanks, I was planing on keeping it for a long time and the info is great w/links I'll look into the o/d replacement. I have been replacing parts here and there and couldn't find enough info or schematics on it.