munyanb

This is a carry over from the 5.2 to 5.9 swap. I got everything going and now I have a slipping tranny. No surprise, it had a bad seal in what they call the extension housing, and would not hold fluid at all. I replaced that. Now when I put it in reverse it goes directly into gear, but it hesitates an extra few seconds to go into drive. It goes just fine until I try to accelerate hard, then it slips some. When it goes into second it seems to not want to engage at first, again under a little more aggressive acceleration. Also it slips anyway if I step on it when already in second. Third and fourth seem fine but it's a little harder to tell since it wants to kick down to second like it's supposed to under harder acceleration. I already will adjust the bands, and may do a filter change, but am hesitant to waste that fluid if it will not cure the problem or the tranny ends up needing work or replaced anyway. I have seen trannies recover before from running low fluid and bad filters, but I think this has burnt clutch packs. The fluid is still red, but it had been leaking so bad it's all about new. To bad the trash doesn't leak out as well. And low fluid, in my opinion anyway would cause more trash to clog the filter.
Then there is the possibility I may add more power to the 15 HP and I think 30 ft lbs torque I already gave it with the 5.9, so I may want a stronger tranny than stock anyway. I'm never going to rock crawl or add nitrous or anything like that, just small things like electric fan, possible rocker arm kit, possible better injectors, maybe even some computer stuff. Mostly cheap power.
Any thoughts or advice? I have rebuilt auto trannys before, but i'm not well tooled right now for that , not even a garage.

munyanb

I did some research, got tons of info from a guy on fixya, got info on here, somewhere I was shown a link on troubleshooting and tranny function for the 44RE and 42RE. On this troubleshooter I seem to think my rear clutches are slipping, also I'm pretty sure I've got a CV issue also that lets the front axle spin possibly. My whole front end pops and cracks a lot, lol. I think the lift kit was put in wrong somehow, but that's another issue. I do hear a lot of noise coming from one cv axle for sure and it spinning when I accelerate hard. So I guess i'm going to replace both cv axles as the other side has a broken boot, and see how it does. The tranny had been run low on fluid due to the rear extension housing seal being bad and could have sustained permanent damage.
Oh also the bands could be in need of adjustment, but the symptoms point to rear clutch. Other things I wonder about is that since I have a 5.9 engine in place of a 5.2 it could be sending weird signals to the tranny. The troubleshooter says a poorly tuned engine can affect tranny performance.
Then the troubleshooter was talking about pressure testing and air testing. Pretty advanced testing, but could save a lot of time or money I guess if you find something easy to fix. With over 230K on the tranny it may just be best to rebuild it completely, I know if I do take that pan off I'm adding a drain plug for sure. I don't even want to do a filter change and adjust the band because of the fluid I will spill everywhere and $7 a quart adds up quick.

munyanb

So I'm back from being out of town again, got just a little time and lots to do as usual, lol. I found a 98 Grand Cherokee with a 5.9 in a junk yard, it should have the 46RE tranny I want, now hopefully it will just plug in and work with the computer, I am guessing I will need the torque converter and possibly the flex plate? I would think the flex plate would be fine, but then there the tranny to transfer part, I think DAVE has told me before that the part of the transfer case can be changed, I'm not sure what would need changing, the tranny rear extension/tail or part of the transfer. I'll have to look at it again.