Hey guys, I have an interesting problem. Last week I went to pull out of my garage to go to work, and the normal "healthy shift" feeling into reverse didn't happen. Felt like I shifted from park to neutral. I was still able to back out but reverse felt weak. It didn't happen again.... until this morning, only worse. I shifted into reverse and it might as well have been neutral. Wouldn't back up at all. Didn't matter what I did, shift around, gas, anything. I pushed it out of the garage and went on to work. Didn't have another problem with reverse for the rest of the day (I tested it several times). I checked the ATF and it's fine (yes, I checked it the correct way, I'm not a newbie). The tranny is new-ish... the PO had it rebuilt just under 20k miles ago. I've got a little bit of mental block on this one... hoping that somebody would have an idea other than take it to the tranny shop.... too broke to do that currently. Hopefully there is an easy explanation/fix that somebody knows of.

XJ specs are:
1997 XJ Country 4X4
4.0
Pretty much stock everything.
Tranny: A340E

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

Hmmmm..... reverse is usually the first to go in a failing trans. Wish I could help you.

 

Not a problem buddy, I appreciate the reply though. It's just weird that it didn't work this morning, but for the rest of the day it was perfect. Almost like there wasn't enough pressure after sitting overnight or something.

 

Reverse is not always the first to go. Maybe in a particular trans it could be but for all overall autos that is just untrue. Also the AW4 with minimal care is a very good transmission . It seems that the fluid pressure is not getting through to the drum meaning that a solenoid or something similar may be hanging up considering u say it worked fine other times.
The clutch drum for high is also the same for reverse so if the drum was going bad u would/should feel something in 3.
I'm sure Excess650 will chime in since he has some good knowledge of the electrical side of the AW4 and we both love tranny threads.
I would post some links and the such but I'm 2600 miles from my desktop.

 

This is great! Thanks for the reply. I was thinking pressure, just didn't know if I was headed in the right direction. Links would be great, I know you're out of pocket, but any suggestions for a fix whenever you get the chance (no rush (hopefully!)) would be very much appreciated. Thanks again! I'm patient, and I understand that you are away, so again, no rush.

 

Also depending on where u live take it to a local trans shop. 99% will test drive ur jeep- listen to what u tell them and then they will offer a fix=FOR FREE. In NY where I'm not now there are probably 5 trans shops alone in my town -here in Vegas I have seen nothing of a good repair shop. I've listened to many complaints of people paying enormous $$$ for shoddy work though. So depending on what u have those are ur limits.
A good trans shop will tell u what is wrong . They depend on getting the job and if not good word of mouth from u.

 

Very true. Good thought. Thanks!

 

S1 is ON and S2 is off when in R, but my R worked when my S1 was bad. Even with the TCU unplugged, the trans should select 1st in 1-2, 3rd in 3, 4th in D and R in R.

Do your reverse lights work? I don't know if a bad NSS would prevent R from engaging or not.

If you want the AW4 manuals, PM me your email address.

 

Yes, my reverse lights work. Didn't experience a problem this morning when I left for work, however... A new problem arose. When I arrived at my second and final location of the day, I saw "smoke" coming from under the xj. I got out and looked underneath and it appears that I have a bunch of tranny fluid all over down there. Transfer case is wet, drive shaft, and rear axle too. ATF was dropping on my exhaust causing the smoke. I can't quite tell where it is coming from either. Is it possible that my cooling lines are clogged and fluid is so hot that it's pushing out somewhere? I'm hesitant to drive it home, I don't want a bbq'd xj... I only have liability ins. I checked the warranty on the tranny work that the PO had done and it expired as of 100 miles ago. Great.

 

hate to revive an old thread… but did you ever figure this out? I’m having similar situation with my xj renix aw4.