AW4 transmission slow takeoff

[Ken Seymour]

I drove my 87 2wd Comanche around my property yesterday for the first time. In drive you need to give it more throttle than it should take. Shift into first and the takeoff is normal. The kick down cable end is broken and disconnected from the throttle body. Does that make a difference? Cory at Jeep Cemetery got me one. I have to drop the transmission to put it in. The transmission is just too dirty to do it without dropping it.

1987 Comanche 4.0l AW4 2WD

[eaglescout526]

Yeah that kick down cable is pretty important. It does exactly like how you want it to do to shift the transmission down a gear or two when you throttle it. 

[Ken Seymour]

Since I'm not done with repairs I can't take it off the property yet so doesn't get to shift. I need to drop it out of the truck to clean the case. I don't want to damage it with dirt changing the cable. I don't want to spend $400 on rebuilding it if the kick down being out of position is messing with it in drive. The pictures only tell part of the story. This truck has been horribly abused. 

[89 MJ]

You shouldn’t need to drop the whole trans. Should only need to drop the pan. I’d throw a new filter in there too while you’re at it. Here’s a thread on changing the kick down cable. 
https://naxja.org/threads/kickdown-cable-issue.1109877/

 

I don’t think that the transmission rebuild will cost $400 either, unless you’re doing it yourself. 

[gogmorgo]

Nothing a wire brush, degreaser, and a rag can’t fix. No need to drop a trans just to clean it. 
 

You’ll want the kickdown cable installed for sure but the thing not going into first gear on its own in overdrive is consistent with the trans computer being disconnected, fuse pulled, etc. The transmission defaults into a manual mode when that happens. It’s strongly possible that was done deliberately to make up for the broken lockdown cable. 

[Ken Seymour]

17 hours ago, gogmorgo said:

Nothing a wire brush, degreaser, and a rag can’t fix. No need to drop a trans just to clean it. 
 

You’ll want the kickdown cable installed for sure but the thing not going into first gear on its own in overdrive is consistent with the trans computer being disconnected, fuse pulled, etc. The transmission defaults into a manual mode when that happens. It’s strongly possible that was done deliberately to make up for the broken lockdown cable. 

Make sense. So in Drive it is trying to takeoff in OD overdrive. I'll need to figure out how to fix it. Thanks