Hunter_

Alright I know this is a pretty common "new" thread at the moment so before y'all lambast me for not checking to see if this issue has been discussed before, I have not yet found a thread with the answer to my issues. With that out of the way, as the title suggests, the WJ dose not like to shift as of late Its a 4.0 with the 42RE. When This first happened I was on the way home and it would not shift out of first, it was already dark out and I didn't want to mess with it that night. the next morning I took a look to see what the issue was. I found that the trany fluid was extremely low so I ended up putting about 3 quarts in, I got under to find that the trany pan was not even hand tight so I tightened the bots down to 13 pound feet and since than I haven't lost a single drop. However this did not fix the shifting issue. After fiddling around and many trips around the block I did find a solution but not a cause. If I took the battery off and touched the positive and negative cables together all the sudden it worked flawlessly, no more issues, until yesterday night, I get in the Jeep to head to the store and all the sudden it won't shift out of first again, so I got out the wrenches and did the battery thing again. It drove to the store fine, but on the way back it came back, and now any time I start the engine, I need to take the battery off, reset the computer doing the battery thing, and put it on if I want to get any ware not only safely because the speed limit is 50 around here, but also with any reasonable time as well. Ive cheeked the grounds and they all seem to be normal, mind you I actively took the grounds apart cleaned them up and put them together again. I don't know the slightest thing about transmissions, not to mention it seems to be mechanically sound. So I'm at a loss right now. I don't know what the cause is, let alone how to fix it for more than one drive. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

dave1123

You may have to have the computer "flashed" at a dealer. It may be you toasted the governor pressure sensor, but I'm not sure and I wouldn't want you to hate me later. Have you checked for stored codes? It may have set one and it cleared itself when you put fluid in it.

Hunter_

If it was the governor presser sensor would it not be in a limp mode? second gear not first for limp right? I also don't see why it would work all the sudden with a reset if it was bad. I checked the codes first thing after it happened the first time on the dash doing the key dance, didn't have access to a real reader at the time. It came back and flashed me with a P0720 for and output speed sensor, then P0838 and P0837 both having something to do with the 4 well drive circuit. The ZJ had a bad output speed sensor but all it ever did was throw an abs light at me, every time I bothered trying to fix it it would go away for a day and come right back so I stoped trying because abs wasn't required in the state of Utah, drove like that for years with no issue, it did start to slip a little maybe a month or two before it was totaled. It couldn't be the other two codes right? The t-case works flawlessly so I don't even know what to do about them. It never threw the check engine once during this whole escapade and I know it isn't burnt out because it comes on during the dash test on startup.