97 xj 4.0-MANY PROBLEMS......PLEASE HELP!!!LONG!!!

PLEASE HELP!!!1997 xj 4.0-MANY PROBLEMS......PLEASE HELP!!!LONG!!!

Hi all....I'm a noob to the board...
I have a stock 1997 xj 4.0 2wd with 87.000 miles on her.Not abused,and in excellent shape.
I swapped an AW-4 from a 94 xj 2wd with new torque convertor,NSS,new shift solenoids and relavent wiring about 10.000 miles ago after experiencing driveline vibes while sitting in drive after coming to a stop with brakes applied.The vibes also occurred under moderate to hard acceleration in 1st gear and smooth out at regular speeds.
so I dropped the transmission,and(get this!!!)

The torque convertor's snout had snapped off inside the front pump of the trans....
I dont have a clue as to how or why it happened...flexplate was bolted tight/no cracks,so...
I swapped AW-4's as I didn't feel like doing a front pump rebuild on the old transmission and it probably has fragments from the TC snout in it.
The swap worked fine then the vibes started a few days after the swap..

I've since checked (several times)the line pressure cable adjustment,ALL mounts,the flexplate for cracks,tightened all bolts,put in new u-joints 3 times,....nothing has changed.
Driveshaft looks good,no scars etc...oh...and the crankshaft had no endplay whatsoever(i've gone absolutely nuts trying to track down the vibe issue)
I've just driven her nice as possble to not cause anymore problems.......

Now a new problem has occured....I started her up this morning.....check engine light came on.....and the mileage odometer had RESET to zero miles by itself!!!
Speedometer now reads about 10-15 mph slower than my actual speed AND my fuel gauge is STUCK one notch below full mark!!!Everything else is fine...the onboard trip computer is stiil accurate as far as DTE goes,it shifts good.cruise still works.etc.....what the hell could have caused this????
MIL code is a 45(think my TPS is out of adjustment)
Please....i'm about to torch this thing....I dont want to....but I feel like it's cursed.I can't even sell it with the odometer and speedometer being all effed up.Thanks to all in advance.

A couple of suggestions/thoughts:

1. you have no lift, correct? If so, then I would look for output shaft runout/slop in the slip yoke. Also, take off the FRONT drive shaft, and see if the vibes are any better.

2. the dashboard issue sounds like it may be related to the infamous instrument cluster blind-mate connector. Take apart and clean that connector with q-tips and a small rubber pencil eraser. Then reassemble with some dielectric grease.

The TPS sensors were only adjustable on the RENIX systems.

JoBo

AZ Jeff said:

A couple of suggestions/thoughts:

1. you have no lift, correct? If so, then I would look for output shaft runout/slop in the slip yoke. Also, take off the FRONT drive shaft, and see if the vibes are any better.

Click to expand...

Note to Jeff: the front drive shaft can be a pain in the butt to remove on a 2WD XJ.

Ritchie, is this a new vehicle to you? Did the original vibes start all at once?

Does it show any evidence of body damage? I'm thinking maybe an accident has put something in a bind, causing the TC snout to break.

Re: PLEASE HELP!!!1997 xj 4.0-MANY PROBLEMS......PLEASE HELP!!!LONG!!!

ritchie said:

The torque convertor's snout had snapped off inside the front pump of the trans....
I dont have a clue as to how or why it happened...flexplate was bolted tight/no cracks,so...

Click to expand...

Did you unbolt the torque converter before pulling the tranny? Pulling the tranny without unbolting the converter puts a lot of weight on the snout and can easily snap it off.

AZ Jeff said:

then I would look for output shaft runout/slop in the slip yoke.

Click to expand...

You're getting the vibes when stopped, so I doubt it's shafts or the xfer case. This sounds like a bad mount, either motor or tranny. Does it do it in reverse with the brakes on?

i've had the jeep since last summer....no lift.2WD all stock except for the swapped aw4.It's in very good condition and hasn't been abused at all as far as i can tell...All the mounts are not just good...they're near perfect....tranny was removed and swapped with proper tools in my buddy's shop by myself....torque convertor was unbolted from the flexplate before removal of tranny....etc...Install of transmission was done by the book(literally).new soloniods and harness,NSS was taken apart and cleaned up
The check engine light went off tonight after about 15 miles...
TC was locking/unlocking while check engine light was on and trans was shifting from 3rd to OD.
Speeometer is still way off.but not bouncing around.A approximate 60 mile trip I took tonight showed up as around 110 miles on my odometer.The yoke has no slop at all.the vibes do occur in reverse while stopped with brakes applied....but not as bad as being in Drive with brakes applied.
The funny thing is,when the vibes happen while i'm stopped,I can actually ease off the brakes(remove the load)OR drop into neutral and back into Drive and it seems to go away quite a bit if not completely.My fuel gauge is still stuck at almost full.......any ideas as to what could be causing my multiple problems???
Thanks...

By the way...the jeep has not been in any major accidents.It's straight and tight.All paint matches on all panels.Everything is in order.If it had been smacked hard enough to snap off the snout of the TC,I'm sure the crappy cast aluminum trans case or bellhousing would have been trashed as well.The truck looked new when I got it.

I'm wondering if you don't have a grounding problem somewhere. Maybe the ground strap between the body and engine is making poor contact. That might explain the goofy gauges. A poor ground would affect the tranny solenoids as well since the ground path for the solenoids is through the tranny case. Otherwise a bad TPS could cause the tc lock/unlocking and shifting problems.

To those of you who pointed out that :
1. the vehicle was 2WD and
2. vibrations were present when stopped

I guess I had better learn to read better. I missed both of those clues. :wave:

In any case, I agree that it's a trans/motor mount problem, in all likelihood.

Thanks Lawsoncl......I'll check on that today and post again to let you know the results....hopefully this IS the problem and all my woes disappear!!!
Have a great day!!

I also just ran a carfax......clean...no problems.All ground straps/wires look good....no corrosion.....could the ECM have gone on the fritz???I'm stumped.Please help!!!!

Did you pull the instrument cluster and clean the terminals on the blind connector plugs as earlier mentioned??? This could very well be the reason for the fritzy guage and odometer readings. The odometer data is stored in the onboard computer as well as the instrument cluster. Any conflicts between these two can lead to erroneous readings. As for the vehicle speed sensor (VSS)....are you sure you indexed it correctly when reinstalling it. You mentioned you swapped transmissions and depending on the gear ratio on the original vehicle versus the donor, a different gear ratio would require a different tooth gear count in the VSS. There are indexing marks on the TC that correspond to the tooth count on the gear for proper operation.