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Aw4 Valve Body Check Balls

Ecamacho

NAXJA Forum User
Location
CA
Good morning NAXJA community. I have done some extensive searches regarding this topic and I was seeing if someone could help me out with a picture or a diagram. I have thumbed through about 5 and cannot find my configuration.

I got a 2000 jeep xj with about 350k on the clock. I have rebuilt the transmission recently at home and put it back in the jeep. All the gears shift fine until I get past 45mph and the OD gear feels like it's dragging and slowing the truck to a stop. As soon as I slam the lever back into 3, it is fine. Solenoids tested fine on the bench but I will check one more time. TC is new, wiring is new, all new clutches/seals/band.

I am questioning the check ball locations in the valve body but the ASTG manual that is posted in here seems to show the wrong configuration. Would anyone happen to have a pic of this? I have posted what mine looks like below.

WZjMWfo.jpg
 
The 2000 FSM shows the ball on the bottom left of your picture is the larger one. Also doesn't show that one on the top left.

I also found this image via google. The FSM looks the same except no C ball.
2010-02-22_025126_lowervalvebody.gif
 
Hey lawsoncl,

Thanks for checking some of your sources i appreciate it a lot. Interesting so it looks like I have an extra check ball apparently. I pulled 9 out so I put them back the same way. I think this kind of rules out my valve body as the problem. My gut is telling me maybe I installed the one way clutch in the OD assembly backwards or something since I am getting that drag feel.

Pressure should be fine since I installed a new pump and I air tested the clutches and everything seemed to work fine. Solenoids are at 12.8 - 13.1 ohms (I used a crappy meter). I am going to slap in a new TPS i have laying in the toolbox and disconnect the TCM and see if I can manually shift and see where that gets me.

Thanks again
 
You can double-check the locations with a strong light and a magnifying glass. The seats for the check balls are a slightly different wear color than the blank locations.
 
The drawings I found all said "if equipped" for the #9 ball, so if you started with 9 you should probably install 9. It also looked like you had it in a different location than the drawings that showed it.
 
I did a Transgo kit on my 2000, the drawing I have from them is different than the 1 shown by lawsoncl.
 
RCP was the drawing similar to this one provided by Transgo? Based on this drawing I had that last 9th ball where they indicate some vehicles don't have it.

Anyway I disconnected the TCM and ran the manual shift patterns. 1-3 gears are beautifully crisp but when I get it to overdrive it still does the drag/slowdown until I downshift. Seems like either some other part of my VB is messed up somehow or I didn't install the OD brakes/planets/sprags correctly when I rebuilt it. Here we go again...

PvZztub.jpg
 
Yes that's the drawing I have and used.
 
Morning guys,

Problem solved. My idiot self put in the one way clutch in the OD drum/planet upside down so it was stopping the rotation of the gears when the clutches applied from 3 to overdrive. I had a spare trans and I pulled out the OD to see which way it locked and sure enough it was the opposite way. Thanks for all the help my friends. Let's hope this time it works I really don't want to drop the trans a 3rd time...
 
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