96 ZJ Transmission HELP!
 

Posted a few weeks ago about a Grand Cherokee I picked up with a transmission slip. Today I finally got around to working on it, got tires put on it, new shocks, oil change. Still have a steering stabilizer and fuel filter I need to put on tomorrow. Drove it to where I was working on it and it was driving pretty good, transmission slip seemed to be acting better than before (it was about a quart low on fluid so I topped it off before I drove it).

Got it to the shop fine, pulled it in front of the roll up door and my buddy told me to back up because his car was inside and he had to pull it out. Put it in reverse and nothing, wouldn’t move. After shifting through the gears I still couldn’t get it to move in reverse and when it was in neutral it was moving forward. After turning it off and pushing it back and then pulling it up to the lift I was hoping the fluid just got low again cause i knew there was a leak somewhere, I think from the pan gasket.

I let everything cool down and changed the engine oil and dropped the transmission pan to change the filter. We did find some metal shavings in the bottom of the pan.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...f3cc5e7971.jpg

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...1da5fffc4b.jpg

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...d769ad17b2.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...df1fc37c68.jpg

Cleaned out the pan and replaced the filter and gasket, added 4 quarts of ATF+4.
Started it back up and same issue. No reverse, Neutral pulls forward. My dad was helping me today and we almost think it could be the linkage somehow shifted or was loose? Just weird cause I because when I left the house it went into reverse fine, nothing seemed off or weird.

Both before and after the filter/fluid swap we always tried putting into 4 wheel drive to see if it would help and didn’t seem to make a difference at all. Anyone have any ideas? Going back to the shop tomorrow hoping we just overlooked something or the linkage needs to be adjusted.

I hope that green stuff in the pan isn't coolant. If it is, you've got a busted trans cooler in the radiator. Check the coolant in your radiator to see if it's pink.

That must be the lighting in the photo, there wasn't any green when I pulled the pan. Just the bit of metal debris you can see. But I'll check the coolant color tomorrow now that it's actually in the driveway and not 30 miles away to be sure.

Turns out it was low on fluid. The leak it had before I replaced the gasket must have been much worse than I thought. Drove out there to look over everything again this morning and it drove fine and went into reverse first try. Checked the fluid after it warmed up and I added about 1 and 1/3 quarts to bring it to the middle of the safe zone.

I've been reading about some of the upgrade kits for the 42RE, anyone here have any experience or preference with any of these, I'm thinking that may be something I do down the road. Hopefully it doesn't present anymore issues until I have some money set aside.

Yeah, I stared at the pictures very hard to figure out if that was a reflection of the overhead or lighting or what.