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Am I going to hose up my transmission?

S

Spidey

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Wichita, KS
Just installed 32" Maxxis Bighorns and was planning on wheeling them this weekend.

My transmission is not able to keep up. Downshifts quite at 60-65 mph, then back up again. Back-and-forth fairly frequently, even on fairly flat stretches of road.
I did notice that if I shift into 3rd it will hold and run at about 2100-2200 RPM.

Obviously, I'm not going to have enough time to re-gear before tomorrow...

The trek to our favorite wheeling spot is about 2.5 hours... am I going to hose my transmission if I drive it that far in D or 3rd?
 
Manual or Auto?

What gears you running?
 
You'll be fine. There are plenty of people on this board running tires bigger than 32 with stock gears and, although to transmission isn't happy, it works. Don't worry about it. Mine was on 33's with stock gears and it was my DD for 6 months 30+ hwy miles per day, not to mention city miles.
 
aroncull said:
Manual or Auto?

What gears you running?
Click to expand...

Auto. It's a 1992 Limited and had a tow hitch, so I always assumed that it had the factory tow package with taller gears... maybe not so much.

I've never had the rear diff cover off long enough to count the gear teeth...
 
ddeadserious said:
You'll be fine. There are plenty of people on this board running tires bigger than 32 with stock gears and, although to transmission isn't happy, it works. Don't worry about it. Mine was on 33's with stock gears and it was my DD for 6 months 30+ hwy miles per day, not to mention city miles.
Click to expand...

OK, that makes me feel better. I'll just make sure he's full of tranny fluid!

Would you recommend driving at highway speeds in D or 3rd gear?

Thanks for the help!
 
Your tranny keeps shifting in and out of overdrive. Putting the gear selector in "3" stops this and is for towing trailers and steep grades. I think you will be fine driving in 3, you will probably burn a lot more gas is all. Alternativly you could speed up (or slow down) a bit untill you find a speed where the tranny will stay in overdrive.

my two cents.
 
I have the same problem when I went from stock 28's to 31's, but mine only does it in a strong head wind, you must have it constant with the little bigger tires, I dont think theres a problem with running highways out of overdrive, when I do that I run around 2100 rpms, some would say that is more ideal anyway, IMO you will be fine, although I would stick in a tranny cooler asap. Let us know how it works out. Some say you burn less gas in that rpm range anyway, although I dont notice a big difference and it goes against my common sense.
 
temperature will be the problem if your TC doesn't lockup.
Keep an eye on how warm it's getting, and take extra fluid for it if you cook the fluid and it boild out of the dipstick tube or soemthing.
If you're going to be running it this way for a while you may want to think of investing in a trans cooler, hell, you might want to do that anyway. Trails are hard on fluids.
 
If you have a 4.0L engine with your automatic transmission, then you have 3.55 gears. I'm currently running 3.55's with 32" tires (until I can regear), and I do all of my highway driving in 3rd gear, with the RPM's running around 2100 at 55 MPH. It runs just fine. I added an aftermarket transmission cooler to mine, but if you have the factory tow package, yours already has one.
 
Been running 33's on 3.55 gears for awhile

Tranny does not like it at all.. but im going to change that soon...


4.88's lol
 
It is fine to run in 3rd i've done it while towing a trailer and shifting up and down to OD got annoying so i stuck it in 3rd, it does get a bit hotter so keep an eye on it!

As your rig is a 92 you could do a TC lock mod without tripping the CEL, and then run in 3rd with the TC locked at will, this is easy and something you can "install" before the trip, takes about 1 hour to do and will reduce the heat back to "normal" level

search for info on this if you are not sure how to do it

or go hear http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoAutoSwitch.htm

scroll down to Torque Converter Switch part

Later
 
All great ideas.

The TC mod sounds like a mod that I can handle, and the tranny cooler and tranny temp gauge are also getting added to my list.

It was rather windy here in the Land of Oz today, but every day is windy. I guess that means it was a normal day, right?

Thanks to everyone for their input.

I truly appreciate it!
 
The best thing I did was to ream the taper out of the throttlebody below the throttle plate. This improved response and light throttle power so I rarely had the trans want to downshift unless it was hilly. Gearing was 3.55 with 33" tires. I rate it as one of my favorite mods for drivability. It took about an hour and cost about $10.00. The change in driveabilty is priceless...
 
The TC (torque converter) will lock up in third if that is the gear that is selected. There is no need to do any kind of mod to make it happen. Driving in third will not hurt a thing. You may even get better gas mileage in third. Letting your transmission shift in, and out of overdrive (fourth) will cause it to heat up. In fact 90% of the time that you think its down shifting out of fourth gear it is actually unlocking, and slipping the torque converter. Which brings the tranny temp up quicker than you might think. I can watch my temp (coolant) gauge rise if I let my transmission try to pull a long grade in D with the TC unlocked.
 
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