I have a 96' with the aw4. I have a noise coming from the back lower end of motor as far as I can tell. It is kind of a knocking noise but its different than before my motor was rebuilt and the bearings were bad. She was parked for awhile while I was doing other upgrades and then I went on trip about 150 miles and now after the motor is warmed up i get the noise. Most noticable at idle but my exhaust is loud so it is hard to tell. Oil pressure is normal at idle and driving. No noticeable loss of power at speeds under 50sih. At higher speeds around 55 it jerks back and forth sometimes (revving erradictly). I pulled each plug and the noise continues.

The motor has roughly 5000 miles on it. I removed it and had it rebuilt at shop and then reinstalled and had checked by mechanic. I havent been hard on it so its hard to think the bearings went to ****.
Ive been searching around a lot and one thing Ive heard is that it could be a loose, cracked, or otherwise malfunctioning flexplate.
As a near completion college student i am still short on funds so before hauling in to shop i wanted to get some opinions

 

Flexplate sounds like it's making some noise.

No need to take it to a mechanic, just follow this:

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f51/ho...ocking-125547/

All it will cost you is the threadlocker, which is a matter of a few bucks.

 

x2 on flexplate. i bet the bolts just backed out. easy fix. all you need is a few hand tools and some thredlock

 

Thanks guys I definitely know its the flexplate causing the noise now. I tighten them down with loctite applied. Noise still there I looked originally for cracks did see any. I guess it must be a crack I couldn't see. Time to replace the flexplate then. Ugh.