XJ auto transmission died on highway today, swap to manual? used auto or rebuild?

Basically I was driving along and I looked down and noticed I was loosing speed and running about 4300 rpm... I thought maybe I was in 2nd (auto tranny) but I pushed into the throttle and the rpms went up but the speed kept going down...

Well I pulled over and the Jeep was puking out trans fluid on the passenger side near the hoses I added a little fluid and limped it to the next exit, and around 2 miles to my mothers house... by the time I got there the Jeep would not move forward in drive...

My Jeep is a 1996 XJ Sport with the 4.0HO, 231 transfer case, 5" lift, auto front drive shafts front and rear, 3:55 gears, d30/c8.25

So rebuild? used 5 speed swap? or used auto swap?

I found a CHEAP used 5 speed manual swap from a local junk yard... but I do not know exactly what all I need for this swap

not sure what all is involved in rebuilding that aw4 trans

I know exactly what is involved in a used auto swap

 

Have you tried fixing the leak first? Because no fluid = no shifting.

 

weird thing is it's not leaking and the drip stick shows that it's FULL

 

Probably overheated it causing it to puke fluid. What caused it to overheat is another matter. Unless you can find something like a pinched cooler line, which isn't all that uncommon, there's trouble brewing inside. Highway driving shouldn't stress it enough to overheat.
At this point you can change the fluid and hope for the best, open it up and see what the damage is, or just swap in a good used trans. Those things are so cheap used I'd probably pick #3. Once they overheat badly enough to belch fluid, often as not they keep doing it.

 

it looked like it puked from the rearward fluid line

 

I would get a couple estimates on having the trans rebuilt.

The big shops here are expensive, but I found a small shop,

that rebuilt my Chevy trans for $300, and the big shops wanted

$2000. And that was me taking the trans out, and installing.

The $300 rebuild was great for years.

 

oh, no no no... I would not take it to a shop, I would do it myself

 

what size tires are you running by chance?

and any other symptoms prior? like gear searching slipping into "neutral" or etc...

I've had one trans out of the 8+ jeeps i've owned go bad, and it burned up and would not go anymore.... not sure why.... just swapped for low mileage unit and never an issue since...

i'd just swap it for a low mileage used auto trans...

 

If you do any transmission swapping or rebuilding, stick with the AW4, that's the strongest.

 

I thought I had an issue once, then I realized that I had messed throttle position sensor... changed it back and all was golden

 

last yr my 98 AUTO puked ALOT of trans fluid, filled it back up was fine for 3mos.

then couldnt go faster than ~45mph

used my scanner, OD solenoid bad

replaced OD solenoid ~$60.

runs perfect again last 3mos.

180,000 miles

 

ok the leak seems to be coming from the passenger side of the Jeep, near the top of the transmission, above the front tranny cooler line, so the lines are not the leak... but what could be leaking on the side like that?

 

crap that would be the vent right, what would cause that?