96 AW4 in a 97???

I came across a brand new AW-4 that has part number S-4810179. I am now told that it was made by Chrysler for the 96 model.

I brought it and my 97 XJ to my tranny shop to have installed.
The Tranny shop called and said that the wiring was all different and they didn't think that they could make it work.

Will this work without too much trouble, or is it better to start with another AW4 that was made for the '97?

If it can work, what is involved?

Appreciate all replies, I have to decide quickly what to do.

Thanks,
Jeff-97XJ

I was fairly sure it will work, although the wiring harness connector may be different. If thats the case, it may be simplest to drop the pan and swap over the harnesses. The NSS may have changed, but that can be swapped over from your old tranny.

What was your tranny issue, btw? Most AW4 problems are usually easy to fix electrical issues, like a bad TPS, solenoids, or rarely the computer itself. Hate to have you going through all this effort for something simple.

lawsoncl said:

What was your tranny issue, btw? Most AW4 problems are usually easy to fix electrical issues, like a bad TPS, solenoids, or rarely the computer itself. Hate to have you going through all this effort for something simple.

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I burned up the Tranny, it overheated and blew out the oil. The RPMs were going up near the end of its life and the speed was decreasing at the same time.

It still will drive, but I don't want to drive it because I fear more stuff getting mixed into the cooling system.

THanks for your reply-

The harness is definately different.
I believe that changing the harness is easy enough.
BIG PROBLEM THOUGH- is that the solenoids are different than the 97 solenoids.
Should I swap the solenoids from the 97 into the 96?
The TCU is different from 96 and 97 that is what concerns me.
I can't decide if I am better to put the old 97 solenoids into the 96 AW-4 or not.
Any Ideas?
Thanks-

Yeah that sounds like more than electrical. :}

How different are the solenoids. I thought they were the same and would bolt up, except the connector was located differently on the body. So long as you can get the wiring connectors on, I won't worry about swapping them. The TCU won't notice anything different between them.

yeah, the solenoids from 96 to 97 changed. The 97 still fit, but the connector is oriented in a different direction, as stated above.

The TCUs are different too. I have a 97 in my house right now that does not come close to fitting my 95.

Possible issues I see are the harness plugs (not a problem to splice), and the output speed sensor (can be reverted to old-style easily from what I understand). I don't believe the TCU signals changed much. The solenoids shouldn't be a big problem, lots of people have used wrong year solenoids on their trannies. You would probably want to use the old-style NSS to simplify your life--it would eliminate needing to change the connector on this one and all future replacements.