SubSonic

Well got it all tightened up and back together and it ran perfectly. Picked up my girlfriend and brought her to her car. She got a mile and it started acting up again. It began slipping so badly it wouldn't even move again. We pushed the jeep back to the shop with my Comanche. I'm just about over it. Anything else I should try before I throw in the towel and core it out for a rebuilt one?

No it's not cracked... which is good I guess... still has more vibration then I would like.... It seems that the passenger side tranny bolt was stripped so I used a smaller bolt and put a nut on the other side and locked it down... It's atleast running now... ;) However I found the passenger side reverse E12 Torx bolt just hanging out on the bellhousing.... any tips on getting that one back in? I remember the reverse Torx were a b*@$£ on the Comanche and that was with two people... not sure if I can even get it started by myself... it seems to like one person to hold it while the other is under the car w/ an extension and a wobbler... so any tips to doing it by oneself?

Yeah it seems the bolts were missing on both the left and the right side (tranny to motor bolts) I was able to recover one and put it back in before I discovered the other one missing on the left. I'd prefer not to pull the other one out again just to look at the bolt... so do any of you know what size bolt I need to pick up for the other side?

That's possible... I've been under there for the last 2 hours... it's got a weird vibration I've been tracking... one of the tranny to motor bolts had backed all the way out! :eek: I've begun replacing/checking the bolts and have actually gotten the thing to engage... although VERY unhappily and noisy at that but it would to nothing at all prior.... I'll check the flexplate as that is a good point...

@Eagle I wish I could tell you... I wasn't in the vehicle when it "jumped out of gear" so it's difficult for me to assess exactly what it felt like. I wish I was driving when it happened. From what I can tell now it definitely feels like a tranny, atleast from experience... but if it happens to be anything else I'd definitely be much happier to have it be that. It almost seems to me that the Jeep may have been throwing codes b/c the computer became confused when the motor was no longer giving power to the wheels... but 'm not sure if the Jeep computer works like that at all... I've only messed with the C4 in my 67 Mustang (so of course no dummy lights/error codes), the rest of my cars have been standard. I also had a CPS go bad in my Comanche... which was a manual, but it affected performance and gas mileage in that. How would that affect the auto transmission engagement... just out of sheer curiosity? I'd love for it to be a CPS, because while it's not the most fun you can have it's a hell of a lot better than a tranny :rotf: @Harper Yes it's an AW-4... and I already checked connection on the CPS... unplugged it (of course won't start) plugged it back in and it started right up... so it is getting some sort of reading, that's not to say it's not faulty of course.

Edit: Forgive me as it is not a Comanche... but it is still a Jeep Cherokee, so I thought you guys might be able to help. Well I'm usually a manual transmission guy myself, afer all both my Cherokee was and my Comanche is... but... recently my girlfriend picked up a 1997 2wd Jeep Cherokee (~150k mileage) It's been running well for the past month and a half (aside from slight oil consumption, it is still a Jeep after all :D ) Until about 3 or 4 days ago when it began making what sounded to be a rod knock, after doing my research, I learned that often the flex plate to torque converter bolts will loosen up and cause that exact noise... so I crawled under there, and sure enough they were a bit loose. The noise completely went away. We thought this was great. But yesterday while driving down the highway it seemed to jump out of gear so my girlfriend pulled off, it died. She restarted it and it then drove to a parking lot where it began throwing codes, such as crankshaft position sensor and camshaft sensor. (We were able to limp it to an autozone nearby to get them read) From that point on it refused to engage in any gear both reverse as well as forward and seems to have a bit of vibration coming from the general transmission area. I tried resetting the computer in hopes that being a computer controlled tranny there might be the very off chance this would help, no dice. We got it towed to my shop. So in conclusion, is it worth attempting anything... (common failures etc.) before I just scrap the tranny for the core and replace it with a rebuilt one. We really don't even have the cash to be dealing with this kind of problem at the moment so any help or ideas to a specific problem are GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

The gearing actually makes good sense. And no I was only comparing launch from first to higher speed with the auto. The highway was a comparison to my 93 Cherokee which was also a manual tranny. It had much more kick at those speed, even in fifth. Believe me I'm not expecting earth shattering acceleration in 5th (afterall it is more or less just an od gear), but I would hope that I could actually accelerate in fifth to some degree, even very slowly. However, the gearing is a definite possibilty for the difference from my Cherokee because even though it was a manual it was 4x4.

Sorry if I mistyped what I was trying to say... No the lack of power in 5th gear is more around 75mph, where I would expect to not have to downshift in order to reach 80 or 85 in any sort of timely manner. What I was attempting to say is at higher speeds 50+ the pull (in any gear) doesn't seem to be terribly strong.

Take it with a grain of salt... or whatever :brows: But my dad bought his/later my Jeep Cherokee in 1993, 2Dr, H.O, 4x4, Manual. Awesome truck, ran Penzoil in it from birth and just because, I continued the tradiation. Ran great it's entire life... (until I flipped it at 280,000 miles :( ... even then it still ran great...excluding all the other issues)

OK, well I finally got the clutch sorted out 75mm of spacing later... Well as I said before I just replaced the crankshaft position sensor when the tranny was dropped, seemed like a good time ;) and the motor is damn near brand new (1991, H.O.) 6 months since I put it in... The crankshaft pos. sensor seems to have improved the long cranking time some... (sometimes it cranks right up like my cherokee used to and other times it cranks for a little while, but nowhere near what it would do at times before.) Lower speed (less than 40mph) has been drastically improved and is spot on with a buddy of mines cherokee (granted his is an 01 with an auto and 4x4, which i'd expect might slow it down a bit) Mines a 1991, 2wd. (manual) But past about 50 or so it just seems like the power isn't there like it should be, it doesn't bobble or anything it just seems like it's not making a whole lot of power. It will eventually get up to any higher speed, I just feel that it takes longer than it should, and downshifting to 3rd/4th if I want it to accelerate. I have noticed a very slight rough idle that most probably wouldn't even notice, it's pretty minute but it is there. I had a 93 cherokee, so I know the 4.0 isn't the smoothest motor but I can tell when something is just slightly off. Also the gas mileage seems just under what I would expect... I do A LOT of highway driving and the Cherokee averaged well over 20mpg and it was a 4x4 manual, I'm averaging 15mpg... (I understand drag might have an effect) So on my list of things that were NOT replaced when the motor was are: wires, o2 sensor, cap/rotor, fuel injectors... But before I just start throwing these parts at it since money isn't unlimited I wanted to see if you guys had some opinions of a cause... Thanks in advance...

Thanks very much for the input. The line actually looks fairly new. The flywheel was my next guess, actually. It's finally just going to a shop, blew out a new master cylinder my making it possible to push it all the way in before the pedal quite hit the floor. Even then the problem still existed. Even cold. So I'm guessing the flywheel was machined before.

It has been bled... and bled some more. I am creating an adjustable length link on the master cylinder, hopefully going to get enough distance to get the clutch pedal up some more...

I bought mine with a drop in, rust isn't that terrible, however it does scuff the paint on the top... but it doesn't have the greatest paint by any means... so if it does get resprayed at some point, I might opt for a spray in bed liner...

Sometime around October of Last Year I picked up a 1991 Comanche (wanted the HO motor, since I had great luck with Cherokees with the same motor). Anyway, picked it up for cheap because the motor was bad and took that one out and dropped in a fresh one. While it was out I checked the clutch and it looked almost new... 5 months later the disengagement point has crept to ridiculously low levels, after it is warm it would no longer go into any gear from a stop and will creep forward with the pedal completely depressed. It continued to get worse so I decided it was time for a slave cylinder, which means a clutch as well. Old clutch was now more or less destroyed from the abuse of not ever completely disengaging. Put in new clutch and slave cylinder/tob. (Put in new crankshaft pos. sensor while I was at it b/c it's been getting poor gas mileage and taking a while to crank since I've been driving it.) Unfortunately problem still exists, so I then decided to go with a new master cylinder... no dice. Extended the linkage on the master cylinder slightly... yet still dangerously low disengagement point, still hard to put in gear from a stop. I am almost out of ideas, besides maybe some sort of spacer between the flex plate... but I'd prefer not to have to pull it again. So, any input is greatly appreciated.