I pulled my radiator out today and the new one's going in tomorrow. When disconnecting the tranny cooler lines from the radiator I lost around 2 quarts. Is new fluid added using the fluid level tube? Will the tranny cooler flush out any air trapped in the top of the cooler? Does anyone have a link to a video I could watch maybe?

 

You lost 2 quarts of fluid? That's impressive I've done radiators on all sorts of cars including three on my own xjs and never lose more than a pint.

Check AT fluid when engine is hot, Engine at idle, Vehicle in park. Should be between the add and full lines.
You fill it through the AT dipstick tube.

 

I'm such an idiot !! My rig has the hydraulic fan and it was power steering fluid that I lost. Sorry. At least I know where to fill the tranny now. LOL.

 

You should not fill your tranny with power steering fluid. Or, fill your power steering system with automatic transmission fluid. I don't think?

The transmission fluid is for cleaning and friction. Being gluey and heat-resistant in nature, it enhances friction between components in the clutch pack for better grips. On the contrary, the PS fluid is mainly for lubrication and reducing friction between various parts in the power steering system. The ATF will work for a while, but it may affect the seals of the PS pump and gearbox in the long run, if it is used as a replacement for PS fluid?

 

Contrary to what XJRed96 said, your trans should be checked in neutral, not park. The Chrysler transmissions used in WJs don't pressurize the torque converters in park. It makes a difference of about a quart in level and they don't want to shift properly one quart low. The AW4 trans in XJs don't matter either way, although the stick in my 2000 XJ is marked to check in neutral also. I think Chrysler just uses the same stick in both. The trans cooler will bleed itself. The pressure line brings fluid from the torque converter to the radiator and the return line just dumps it back into the pan.

BTW, your power steering pump uses a special hydraulic fluid because of the hydraulic fan, so don't use just plain power steering fluid. I believe it's MS-10838 but I could be wrong. Check with your dealer to be sure.

 

Putting the WJ automatic shift lever into neutral engages the pump to pump the atf fluid, but it does not pump any atf fluid when the lever is in the park position.

I think the pumps location always points to where the transmission fluid return lines location will be? It pumps out the atf forward to the front of the vehicle from here at the pump. It is at the backside in most, so it makes it easy to follow it tracing the line to see if it is routed correctly. Also, for pumping out the old atf fluid when you are doing a system flush removing the old fluid disconecting here at this line.

 

Oh, the pump runs, it just pumps fluid in a circle dumping it back into the pan. Once you shift to anything but Park, a valve directs it to pressurize the system. When it's cold in the winter, I shift to neutral to let the transmission warm up and expand the o-rings so it doesn't slip when I back out of the driveway. I got over 250K miles on my 42re without any adjustments and no new parts except solenoids.

 

After I got the radiator in and all the associated hoses and lines hooked up I drove it enough to heat everything up and when I checked the dipstick (in Neutral) it was about 1/4" below the hot line. I'll check it tomorrow when it's cold. I imagine it would be wise not to get too close to the hot line, right?