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Bought my first XJ - $750 '95 4x4 4.0L 150k miles, slipping tranny

svaughan

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Nashville
Been looking for a winter vehicle and the old Cherokees caught my eye because they could be had for relatively cheap-AND I've owned two Jeeps (85 CJ7 and a 97 TJ) so figured a Cherokee would be familiar to me since I did a lot of mechanic work on my previous Jeeps.

So the Cherokee's engine bay had oil all over it and the tranny slipped but it drove and was the cheapest RUNNING 4x4 Cherokee I had seen around so I bought it and limped it home because of the slipping tranny.

First under the hood-cleaned off the oil, tore off the valve cover (looked GOOD under there-I was happy, no gunk or apparent wear at all), replaced the VC gasket, waterpump,thermostat,dist cap, rotor, plugs & wires, rad hoses,air filter, serpentine belt - basically maintenance items I didn't want to have to worry about later. I also redid the battery cables-they were getting somewhat corroded-figured it was time. So after all that, engine runs smooth, no leaks!

Now for the tranny...so it was not shifting out of first until a high rpm, then it would slip-basically the jeep would decrease in speed even when I had my foot on the accel pedal. If I shifted from OD down to 3 it held on a little better but it would still slip a little. So I drained and filled the tranny a few times-afterwards still drove the same. Well after doing a lot of research on this and other cherokee forums I decided to swap out the throttle position sensor-couldn't get those stupid torx screws off so I ended up removing the throttle body (got to clean it up real good while off) and had to grind off the torx screws then unscrew the rest of the screw with vicegrips-what a pain. Got new bolts and put the new $35 Advance Auto TPS on.

JEEP drives perfectly now! :roll:

So, I'm now on the search for a lift and tires. Also plan to redo the floors at some point (there are a few rust holes in the floor). Other than that the AC works, drives good-I'm happy! :D
 
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nice work! That sounds exactly like the symptoms my 96 XJ (126k, 4x4, 4.0L) has once every dozen starts or so... I might have to consider replacing that sensor. I didn't even think of that, figured my transmission needed rebuilding.
 
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