aw4 ?

O.K., I am putting this in modified thread because my jeep is modified. Everything except for the aw4.

I beat the living crap out of my rig this weekend in DeLeon, Tx. Our trail leader told us that we could blaze a new trail if we wanted. One other guy and myself took him up on his offer while the rest of our group sat back and watched us go. The other rig went first and made it, then it was my turn.

When I got to the top I was on my left rocker pretty hard trying to get my back left wheel to climb a pretty hard ledge. My front left was on the other side of the rock and I could not see the right side tires.

I was doing fine until I hammered on the gas and I got nothing. My rpms went up to like 2500 under load but I had no tire spin. It was like it was stalling up to launch it off the line at the track. At this point I decided to winch myself to the top before I torn up my tranny/torque converter any more. When I got to the top it was fine. I beat on it for another couple of hours and had no issues.

Can some one tell me what may have been going on? Did I just have a tire wedged or something that the tranny couldn't turn causing it to "stall" up? Sorry for such a long post.

you wouldn't happen to have a tranny temp sensor? do you have an auxillary tranny cooler?

sounds like you may have gotten it really hot

BrettM said:

you wouldn't happen to have a tranny temp sensor? do you have an auxillary tranny cooler?

sounds like you may have gotten it really hot

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Also did you check you fluid level, I have seen trannies act like that win the fluid is really low.

I do not have a tranny temp gauge or a auxillary cooler. I am guessing that the outside temp hit 90 degrees. It had a good level on the dip stick after I winched to the top. My engine temp never got over 180 degrees. I know that has nothing to do with the tranny temp but maybe it would give some idea as to how hot it got. About 5-10 min earlier I spent a good 15 min on a trail that was only 75 feet long. So, I worked it really hard there to.

If I did heat it up, what damage may I have caused? What should I look for?

As soon as I notice slipage I quit and winched. Then beat it some more.

I will try to post a vid of how I beat on it this weekend if I can get a link to work.

If you got it hot, change the fluid and get an aux cooler if you're gonna beat it hard.

CrazyXJ said:

If you had it on to much of a slant you probably starved it of tranny fluidseen it before.

Click to expand...

i've been pretty near verticle and never had that happen.

how bout this, Goatman and FarmerMatt were both like this for a few minutes and both have AW4s, no problems.

It was not all that vertical when it happened. As a matter of fact, I had it more vertical than that a few times after it slipped.

Would it be recommened that I take it to a quick lube place and have them flush out all the fluid and refill it it with new fluid along with a filter change.Or can I do a basic filter change and the five or six quarts that it would take, would that be enough? Auxillary cooler is in the near future.

Where does the tranny temp sensor hook up to on the tranny. Got a link to one?

I think the vid I was trying to load is to big.

fluid change would be good i guess, but i don't think it neccessary by any means. i've done that to my AW4 a few times and not changed the fluid and still runs perfect. just get a good auxilary cooler. a tranny temp sensor is something custom, either drill/tap it into the pan or put a T in one of the lines. do some searching (google)

Thanks BrettM. I will take your advice. I know that you have some tranny experience and I agree with you recomendation. When I checked the fluid it was nice and red and it did not have that burnt smell. Plus like i said it ran fine the second I got it to the top. I will not hold it agains you if my tranny takes a crap. I know how I treat it.

It never ends!

BTW, while we are on the subject, what temp range am I looking for the tranny to be at? Thanks

I had something similar to happen after a stick had broken one of the lines going to the transmission cooler losing about 6 quarts of fluid. I had to cell phone my son to bring me some transmission fluid to get back out of the mountain. Lucky for me I wasn’t on the back side of the mountain. It sounds like your transmission starved for fluid. Post up what you find.

I have the 35 spline 9'' in the rear. The more I think about the situation, I either wedged the right rear tire and the motor could not spin it, not enough power from my rig to snap that rear end or I heated up the tranny. If you look at the rock that my front right is leaning on there was an undercut at the back of that rock. I believe my right rear tire was wedged in there. I backed it up after it slipped to about where it is in the pic and winched her out. As soon as I got to the top it felt like it had full power. I then wheeled it for a few hours after that. Here is the pic, and a video not ten minutes after my "slippage".

Well if it slipped I'd say you cooked it some. THe AW4 is a tough beast though so don't worry too much yet. Because I'm cautious I'd flush the system. Just get a can of Berryman's B-12 (non aresol), a pint will do it. Add it into the transmission (at operating tempature) and run it for ten minutes. Every minute switch to another gear (P 1 min, R 1 min, N 1 min, etc...). After the ten minutes are up shut her down and immediatly drain the fluid.

If you want to you can pull the pan and change the filter at this point. Fill it back up with Dextron III/Mercon and have at it. This cured some serious slipping problems I had about four years ago and they haven't come back yet. I do this procedure about every other year now as maintenance.

Sequoia

As to the tranny temp gauge,
I put a filter in line when I did my cooler. Bought a filter base that was drilled/tapped for a temp probe. Added a little more volume to the system, a filter and a very easy temp assembly.
check out summit racing for ported filter bases.