aw4 transmission wiring woes

I have a 96 xj in need of a transmission, and an aw4 out of a 96xj.

the id tag on the aw4 claims it's a 1996.

The issue i have is the wiring connectors on the transmission are not of the same style on the jeep.

alldata tells me that 91-96 are compatible and in 97 they added an output speed sensor.

externally the transmission looks exactly the same as the smoked 91 i have lying around. and the 91 would plug into the 96 xj.

what gives here?

I would normally just make the wiring work by splicing what goes to what together, but they decided to make every wire a different color on each side of the connectors.

Assuming it is indeed a 96, then its not too hard to swap over the wiring. If you drop the pan on the tranny you can unhook the solenoid wires, remove the bolt where the wiring exits the tranny, and push the wires back out. You're probably going to want to drain and refill anyway, right?

Or as I recall the wiring was "almost" the same colors. Like violet with white stripe, versus black with violet stripe.

The NSS wiring should be the same as well. If its not, then I wonder if you really do have a 96 donor tranny. Maybe it was made in 96 for a 97 model year. There isn't an extra input speed sensor on the front drivers side, right? If there is you need to swap the output speed sensor and shaft rotor over.

im in alldata and the harness views are the same as the tranny i have that is supposedly a 96.

but the jeep has the wiring from a 95, so that screws me up.

alldata also says the trannys from 91-96 share the same part numbers.

another thing that screws me up is the tranny harness has 5 wires as the harness for the body side has 7.

having a hard time finding connector views for this which is making life difficult

well i have it figured out after searching for wiring diagrams

the extra 2 wires on the body side are for the t-case shift light, which doesnt concern me anyway. i got all the solenoid wires and whatnot matched up and i have enough plugs to make a plug and play wiring harness.

the nss from the jeep will bolt onto the new tranny so thats not an issue.

thanks for the insight though. gonna put it in this weekend and hopefully all goes well.

one of the wiring diagrams i received was garbage. so i checked what wire did what by hooking up 12v to each pin on the tranny wiring harness.

i have figured out what all 3 solenoids are on the tranny i just can't think of a feasable way to figure out what wires do what on the jeep side.

I have figured out that the jeep is a late 96 with early aw4 electronics. the color wires on the 96 and newer transmission are the same as the color wires on an old 91 transmission i had lyring around so i simply wired that up, and all i can get is first gear.

why they would change the color wires on the other side of the harness is beyond me, but i gotta hope i can find a wiring diagram that is correct or just begin guessing.

Unless someone could tell me an easy way to figure out which wire does what (coming from the tcu)

If you're getting 1st, then the #1 solenoid is hooked up as its the only one powered for first gear. Second gear activates both #1 and #2 solenoid. #3 is the t/c lockup. Looking at the 97 FSM, the solenoid wire colors are White=#1, Orange/White=#2, DarkBlue/White=#3.

You have the rear speed sensor wired up and using the original sensor?

i have been doing alot of reading up on it and have figured out that much.

it appears as my wiring is in check, but im printing up some some more schematics while at work. i have found out my jeep has some 96 parts and some 97 parts and that seems to be what is throwing me off.

i have figured out which wires are for each solenoid on the tranny side by switching them on using a jumper wire.

i just need to get the vehicle side of things in check

lawsoncl said:

You have the rear speed sensor wired up and using the original sensor?

Click to expand...

i wish i could tell ya

im using the sensor out of the donor transmission. (according to alldata it is a 96 but it shares more in common with a 97 than a 91-95. right now im just printing up as many wiring diagrams as i can to give me plenty of ideas to try tonight.

if there is a speed sensor compatibility issue i soppose i could simply swap it over? ill check part numbers now.

but my jeep trans control wiring seems to be for a 91-95.



as a last resort i can hook up my manual shifter

just looking over it. my speed sensor wasnt hooked up for much of the tests i made last night trying to get it to shift.

could very well be my issue.

it was a hectic night. my neighbor called the police while i was trying to get it to work. claims i was speeding up and down the road peeling out and whatnot.

all i had was first gear, and all i did was bring it up to about 3k rpm's in hopes it will shift.

bad output speed sensor.

its perfect now.

thanks for the help lawson