TrollHammer

Ive been poking around trying to see if I can find this solved somewhere and havent found the exact issue.

The jeep is a 94 grand cherokee with a 5.2l v8. It has had some work done on it about 15+ years ago, suspension lift, new transfer case, regeared to 4.10. We have had it about 4 years and its been running ok. Replaced the coil and IAC within the last year and a half (two different occasions). It has mostly been sitting and used about once a month to go wheeling.

I started driving it to work about a month ago. A week into driving it and I noticed a slight flicker of RPM (about 100rpm fluctuation) while under load (up hill) at around 50-55 mph. I was going to post about it then but got busy, and normal driving to work is around 45mph, so I didnt notice anything else.

Last night we took the family into town about a hour after I got home from work (this being about a 12 minute downhill drive home). We drove about a mile and a half under 45mph before the highway, and then my wife accellerated to 50. The transmission then started shifting irratically, with the RPM changing around 750rpm up tk a couple of times a second. We stopped, check fluid level and found it was down half a quart. Drove back home, added half a quart and half a can of slip fix (left over from doing the power steering, figured it couldnt hurt), and headed in to town with few issues (also have driveline vibration, but thats a different issue).

I drove it in to work today and right out of the gate it had the hard irratic shifting again. I checked the fluid level and it was fine. After about 3-4 miles and playing with the overdrive while driving between 35 and 45 mph, it seemed to smooth out and didnt have as much trouble. I finished driving to work (another 3-4 miles uphill) and didnt have any more issue.

I drove home tonight and had the same issue but on the downhill. As soon as it got up into overdrive speeds ( 40ish) the RPMs went all over the place. I fiddled with it and couldnt get it to stabilize, and it seemed that, driving downhill with the gas pedal unchanging and not accellerating (trying to maintain speed), when the RPM went up, the jeep seemed to surge forward, even though this should have been about the lowest power condition I would have thought. I took it out of overdrive and it stopped jumping around so bad, but it still seemed to have a flutter of power, even though the tach didnt reflect it. After about 3-4 miles downhill, it smoothed out and even putting it back into overdrive it seemed stable the rest of the way home. Both this morning and this evening I let it warm up 3-5 minutes before putting it in gear.

Im thinking theres a loose connection somewhere, or a bad ground, and Ill check these things, but as I might be fighting two or more issues I figured Id post up now and see if anyone else has some other ideas or had this happen.