AW4 transmission - no 4th gear...Range Sensor???

Well, my check engine light is on and the local transmission shop told me it is a range sensor. At this same time I seem have lost my 4th gear and OD. Therefore on the road/freeway I am staying in 3rd gear.

After doing some research the only thing I have found on range sensors is that when they go bad it makes your reverse lights inoperable, nothing about the transmission defaulting to third gear. Could it be the control module?

Can someone help me out?

I have seen a few people reporting that a dirty or misadjusted NSS on the newer Jeeps (OBDII) can cause it to not shift into 4th gear. You didn't mention what year, but your profile says 1998. If the codes says ranges selector, I would start there.

You seen Go-Jeeps writeup on cleaning it? http://go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoNSSrebuild.htm

lawsoncl said:

I have seen a few people reporting that a dirty or misadjusted NSS on the newer Jeeps (OBDII) can cause it to not shift into 4th gear. You didn't mention what year, but your profile says 1998. If the codes says ranges selector, I would start there.

You seen Go-Jeeps writeup on cleaning it? http://go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoNSSrebuild.htm

Click to expand...

Yes, 1998 Cherokee. NSS?

NSS?

Clicked the link, nevermind

Wow, that website is very informative. I will try cleaning/rebuilding the NSS and then go from there. Hopefully that is all it is.

Would it cause the check engine light to kick on though?

Yeah. Marcus (go-jeep) has quite the collection of helpful writeups.

Yes it will cause the check engine light. If the tranny computer sees the transmission in a different gear than the range-selector indicates, or movement when the range-selector isn't saying its in gear then it will throw the P0700 and P0705 codes.