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Baja shifter

I puchased a rail shifter from Rory a couple
months ago. The best money I have spent
on my XJ to date... A quality product, fast
shipping, easy install. I plan on purchasing a
rock shifter from him sometime in the near future.
Being able to hold the AW4 in any gear makes
it a crawler out of this world !
The only drawback I have experienced is on a
downhill grade. The AW4 acts like it is in
neutral, { no fault of the shifter } and will take
off "coasting" if the factory shifter is not
manually shifted into low gear. It only took this
happening to me ONCE to remember to downshift
before decline ! This thing is also fun to use on
the street, It is used on my DD.........
 
jabbo-1 said:
I puchased a rail shifter from Rory a couple
months ago. The best money I have spent
on my XJ to date... A quality product, fast
shipping, easy install. I plan on purchasing a
rock shifter from him sometime in the near future.
Being able to hold the AW4 in any gear makes
it a crawler out of this world !
The only drawback I have experienced is on a
downhill grade. The AW4 acts like it is in
neutral, { no fault of the shifter } and will take
off "coasting" if the factory shifter is not
manually shifted into low gear. It only took this
happening to me ONCE to remember to downshift
before decline ! This thing is also fun to use on
the street, It is used on my DD.........
Click to expand...
You may want to try adding a switch for torque converter lockup. Caution, only use it in second gear and above, and you should wire it up so that hitting the brakes disables it. And yeah, the only way to get true engine braking on the AW4 is to put it in 1-2 and let it go into 1st gear, it doesn't seem to have engine braking in second gear. If I understood the hydraulic diagrams in my FSM a bit better I would try and figure out how to customize the AW4 valve body to enable engine braking in second and possibly other gears.
 
No new pics

Ok, Here's my theory!
You the customer after surfing the web, an e-mail, and maybe a phone call......
You:
1. buy a cool new shifter.
2. tear your Jeep apart if it isn't already.
3. take pics cuz you can't drive it and you needed a break anyway.
4. get it installed.
5. get behind the wheel for a test drive, WOW.
6. spend the rest of your free time wheelin', downloading pics is lost and forgotton cuz you are out wheelin'!

I look at this as a good thing. Buy, install, wheel, have fun.
Kinda Quote:"to explore strange new trails, to seek out new areas and new locations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."
 
jabbo-1 said:
The AW4 acts like it is in
neutral, { no fault of the shifter } and will take
off "coasting" if the factory shifter is not
manually shifted into low gear.
Click to expand...
The AW-4 has engine braking in every gear, when shifted through the manual shifter. 'Has nothing to do with the torque converter lockup. Something about the hydraulic routing doesn't allow it if you remotely control the solenoids without moving the manual shifter.

I have the Montana Fab controller in my jeep. The controller will work and drop the trans into 2nd or 1st in any manually selected gear, but only provides engine braking when the shifter is in 1/2 while it's in use.
 
I'll kick this back to the top. I purchased my rail shifter and just got it installed. Still need to finish touching up the wiring and such but works like a charm. Like everyone says just dont leave to TC locked up when u stop. The TCM didnt like it and jumped to limp mode and made it real interesting to drive back home stuck in high gear. This is for my DD just for S&G.
 
I installed the Rail II on my 2000 Cherokee this week and for some reason, the shifter sets off an engine light and after switching the shifter on and off a couple times, the shifter somehow takes over all shifting, even if there is no power to the switch. Any ideas?
 
Can that be coded out?
 
cmd_53 said:
I installed the Rail II on my 2000 Cherokee this week and for some reason, the shifter sets off an engine light and after switching the shifter on and off a couple times, the shifter somehow takes over all shifting, even if there is no power to the switch. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

I encountered the same thing in my '98. The solution was to add some dummy resistors to the circuit, AND to keep the RPMs below ~2,500 when you are using the manual shifter. See this thread for more details, including schematics.

I have had mine installed this way for several years now, and it works perfectly. The only time the CEL comes on is when I let the RMPs get too high, such as when engine braking down a very steep hill. So, I don't do that. :looney:
 
How about accelerating and reving it out to 4000-4500rpm. Will that set a CEL?
 
cmd_53 said:
Alright, so how would you suggest installing resistors?
Click to expand...

Again, take a look at this older thread.

Here's one post from that thread showing the circuit board I built with the dummy resistors on it, as well as some photos of the final installation and a copy of the schematic.


raneil said:
OK, I was finally able to get some quality time in the garage this weekend, and resumed testing. I discovered that my test rig was riddled with bad connections. Too many alligator clips in a rat's nest of wires. It retrospect, it's a small wonder it ever worked at all. In an effort to clean up the mess, I cobbled together a small circuit board (my first!) to hold the relays and provide reliable connection points for the resistors (so I could swap out values for testing) and all the wires from the tranny, TCM, switches, and shifter. All in all, it's 12 wires and 3 resistors connected to the board.

IMG_7480.jpg
IMG_7486.jpg


IMG_7487.jpg


Testing revealed that 1k-ohm 1W resistors are sufficient, and that means the current draw is reduced to the point where the resistors don't even get warm during use (less than 0.2W being dissipated) -- a significant improvement over the big 12 Ohm resistors that got too hot to touch.

Here's the board with the resistors. I may just leave it as is rather than making a whole new board just to solder them in place. It would look better, but it wouldn't perform any better, and no one's ever going to see it again anyway. And this allows me to easily swap out resistors in the future should long-term testing reveal the need.

IMG_7488.jpg


And here's the final installation. It works great -- I've driven it for about an hour total (over several short trips), switching back and forth between the manual shifter and the TCM with no ill effects and no CEL. The torque converter can be independently locked, unlocked, or controlled automatically by the TCM also with no ill effects and no CEL.

IMG_7491.jpg


IMG_7493.jpg


IMG_7495.jpg



All in all, I couldn't be more pleased with the results so far. The real test will come in a few weeks when we head to the Rockies for some testing on the trail.

Incidentally, the schematic I posted earlier has an error in it. I don't seem to be able to edit that post (because it was too long ago?), so here is the corrected version which also has the resistor values updated.

Shifter%20Schematic%20v3.gif
Click to expand...
 
I am in the middle of this install of the Baja 2 and cannot get the tranny to go back to "stock" when switched. It's either shifter or no go...
Please help! And I'm sure this thread is dead but the internet is not helping me and I've gotten six different ways to do this just on here alone...
 
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