AW4 no go. Torque or Tranny? Any tranny specialists?

[ParadiseXJ]

Hi there,

I drove my 88 MJ to work (25 miles), highway speeds, no issues. Went to lunch, it made a kind of screechy, metallic sound for about 5 seconds and the truck stuttered for about 1/4 mile. Parked at work, got in it to go home. Put it in reverse...nuthin'. Coasted out of my spot, put it in drive, nuthin'. Won't engage in any gear. Engine runs great.

Towed home, dropped it in the driveway, drained the pan. Nice clean fluid, full. Removed the pan, no chunks, flecks, clean screen, nothing on magnets.

Drained the t-case, checked the fluid, all good. Checked the chain, good.

Pulled the tranny, just to look at the torque converter.

The ONLY thing that is out of the ordinary (other than it won't go) is that the stator gear inside the torque converter spins freely in both directions. Like if I spin it, it has zero resistance, both ways.

TIA

 

[old_man]

When mine did that, it was the sprag clutch.

 

[ParadiseXJ]

I don't know what that is...or what the fix is?

 

[old_man]

The sprag clutch is deep within the bowels of the transmission and requires a complete tear down and reassembly. I just got a used tranny, did the swap and called it quits.

 

[ParadiseXJ]

I googled Sprag clutch. Yep, I think I'm going to go the same way. Done and done. So far ::gee:

Thanks

 

[ParadiseXJ]

I did a little more digging into this. old_man, you were talking a sprag in the tranny, not in the torque converter. Apparently there is also a sprag clutch inside the TQC. Which may explain why I found a small broken spring inside the bell housing and zero metal in the tranny. The splines inside the torque converter are loose, as I said, and the stator splines also turn freely in both directions. Apparently that's not supposed to happen.

Anyhoo, tomorrow I'm taking the spring and the torque converter to the tranny shop to find out if the converter is bad or not. I really don't see how three pieces of spring could find it's way from the tranny, past the seal to the bell housing. I can see how a small piece of spring...or three, could find it's way out of the torque converter.

Replacing the torque converter would be alot better than replacing the tranny IMO. The saga continues.