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Newer aw4 in older jeep

Unclewolverine

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Kansas
Im a rural carrier and im looking at a 94 rhd with a bad trans to replace my 01 lhd with many problems, not the least of which is the expected cracked head. The trans is good in the 01 so i looked it up and someone said it can be done by switching some of the stuff in the tail shaft housing. Has anyone done it, and how hard is it?
 
I did this in my renix. I put a 2000 trans in it. It's not hard to make it work, the only real hard part is swapping the speed sensor gear in the trans. Basically you drop the pan and swap the wiring harness from the 94 into the 2001 trans (it's all plug and play but the connectors are different from 94 to 01). Then you would pull the tail housing off and take off the c clips that hold the speed gear in place and put on the one from your 94. Make sure you seal up the tail housing to the trans really well. The 2001 has an input speed sensor that the 94 doesn't, but you can just unplug it and leave the sensor in place. I have had great success with my trans set up this way.

Hopefully that makes sense.
 
What's wrong with the 94 trans? The AW4 is fairly robust and most problems are the TPS sensor or a bad shift solenoid which are relatively easy fixes.
 
It has 190k of mail delivery miles and he said reverse is about gone; which from what i understand is a sure sign its shot. Its in really nice shape though, no rust i can see in the pics. The only annoying thing i see is that the dash is kph, but im pretty sure i can just put in a correct american dash, i think its just plug and play :thumbup:
 
Well, I went ahead and bought it the swap seems pretty straightforward so I'm going to go ahead and do it probably start it on Sunday so I can get back to work on Tuesday wish me luck!
 
Lol, nah this is a 95 limited imported from japan. Its got all the good stuff, 242 t case, antilock brakes, leather in good condition! May be putting some 01 parts up though and eventually selling a rust free but stripped yellow unibody soon!
 
I decided against taking the one out of bumblejeep but i did pick up a 99 aw4 with 140k on it for dirt cheap. Ive got them both on the floor, hopefully will have time to switch everything over tomorrow, thanks 87renix, it does appear to be a much easier swap than i initially figured! Going to reseal the pan with right stuff and pop in a new rms while its up in the air.
 
I disassembled the old trans tonight and every single keeper broke on the plugs in the pan :/ thinking now it may be better to do some soldering, definitely dont want to risk the plugs coming undone at any point in the future!
 
It works! For anyone considering this swap in the future, if you are confident that you can do the trans install yourself then the modifications to make it work are simple. Just remove the transfer case adapter, swap the 4 prong wheel for the 2 prong out of your old trans by removing the snap ring; use your old adapter (the speed sensor boss is different,) and then since the connectors inside the pan are old and brittle just cut and splice the 3 wires that go into the pan through the grommet near the rear left of the trans. Just leave that unused input sensor there and there you go, 97+ trans in an older (95 in my case) jeep!
 
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