1996 Grand Cherokee transmission rebuild & on to other stuff

[SirRobyn0]

Well I'm just posting this for anyone that is interested. @idahovette I thought you might be interested in seeing the paperwork for this one.

(UPDATE: this thread is going on about other stuff on the Jeep as well)

Anyhow, so long story short I own a 1996 Grand Cherokee 5.2L limited. We've had it for around 10 years or so. Last fall it developed a little bit of a whine in the transmission which progressed to being quite loud fairly quickly. Noise was heard at a stop in drive or reverse, but as you'd speed up the noise would quite down before it shifted. My transmission builder suspected that the whine was coming from the converter but because it had 275K on it, and I'd pulled the pan and found copious amounts of brass in it, he said it's time for a rebuild.

So I pulled it out week before last and got it back at the end of last week. I've been slowly getting back in and should be taking it for a test drive on my lunch today.

He said there was obvious signs metal had circulated though the system and it was basically just worn out any way. Here's the slip if anyone is interested. Keep in mind I'm living in one of the most expensive parts of the country, it's pretty likely it would be cheaper where most of you are.

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[Originalthor]

Thats not a horrible price. To rebuild a 700r4 is 1700 to 2500 bucks. A 4L80E is 4200 bucks plus.

Buddy and I bought a dodge Dakota with a bad transmission on the spot thinking it would be easy to find a used one. Yeah good luck and was 2300 bucks for a rebuild. 46re I think it was.

 

[DoubleDingo]

I could live with that price for a rebuild. My AW4 has 213k on it, and when I decide to get a new engine it will be getting rebuilt along with the transfer case. I may buy a Dana 44 for the rear as I plan on getting an engine from Golen and it will be a stroker.

 

[SirRobyn0]

@Originalthor @DoubleDingo Keep in mind that is a wholesale price. How much off retail that is I have no idea as I didn't think to ask. What I'm really thrilled with is to be using a guy that is semi-local. One of the forum members (and if I think about it long enough I might even remember who it was) Gave me a referral to transmission shop in Yakima a while back, that's about 140 miles away or so, which is certainly do-able for a day trip, and when I was figuring out were I was going to take the 700R4 last fall he was about $400 less. But man my time is valuable to me. It would be a pain in the butt to drive over there if something needed to be looked at. So even if Dan is a little more I like that he's relatively close by.

The Jeep has the 42RE.

 

[SirRobyn0]

Well drove it for about 45 minutes during my mid-day lunch break and it performed really well. The shifts are just like they should be. the whining is gone. My plan was to have it done yesterday so I could leave the truck, run the Jeep home come back today in the Jeep and tow it home with the truck, but because I didn't get it done yesterday I'm just going to jump to towing it home tonight. Tomorrow I pick up certain food waste from a food bank after work that we feed the birds. Normally I take the truck, but I'm thinking I might just hook my little utility trailer to the Jeep and do that. It's about an hour and a half worth of driving, first in the city, then a couple highway miles the country roads out to the farm. Be a nice little run to make in the Jeep to see how it does.

The Jeep developed another little issue not long before the transmission started acting up, and that is discharging at idle. I threw an alternator in it, but that did change anything so I guess that will be next. I'm thinking maybe a ground...

 

[SirRobyn0]

I could live with that price for a rebuild. My AW4 has 213k on it, and when I decide to get a new engine it will be getting rebuilt along with the transfer case. I may buy a Dana 44 for the rear as I plan on getting an engine from Golen and it will be a stroker.

I would have loved to have had the 5.2 rebuilt while I was having the transmission rebuilt, but man I had the trucks transmission rebuilt in November and now the Jeeps, that's $4,300 and does not include anything else like fluids. My 5.2 is hanging in there pretty good but at 275K it uses some oil and seeps from a number of places as well. Very little oil pressure at idle. All the things you'd expect for a high mileage 5.2. But the most important thing is she's back on the road and doing good. Transmission performed flawlessly last week and over the weekend. Hoping to look at the charging system issue on Tuesday at work. The next project on the Jeep will be tearing the dash apart to replace the leaking evaporator and may as well do the heater core while in there.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Not to hijack your thread with my stuff, but for conversation purposes, the tired 4.0 surely needed some extended highway time. It does leak like you said your 5.2 does. It marks its spot everywhere it sits...lol... Funny thing, too, is it leaks like crazy when cold, but nothing noticeable when up to operating temperature.


Have you looked into Jeep Cables? You mentioned a possible bad ground, they make great kits to replace the charging and grounding cables. American company, great quality, responsibility priced.

 

[SirRobyn0]

Not to hijack your thread with my stuff, but for conversation purposes, the tired 4.0 surely needed some extended highway time. It does leak like you said your 5.2 does. It marks its spot everywhere it sits...lol... Funny thing, too, is it leaks like crazy when cold, but nothing noticeable when up to operating temperature.


Have you looked into Jeep Cables? You mentioned a possible bad ground, they make great kits to replace the charging and grounding cables. American company, great quality, responsibility priced.

Your good, post away about your Jeep, the worst thing that might happen is I learn something new!

You even run 15W40 diesel oil in your Jeep? I remember back in the 90's I ran 15W40 oil in all my high mileage engines, but somewhere along the lines I discontinued that practice, but came back to it a couple years ago and am now a firm believer. So the Jeep use to have trouble with a couple seconds of lifter clatter when cold, and the oil usage. I use to add 1/2 a quart of hyperlube to the 10W30 I was running. Switching to 15W40 (no hyperlube) I use a little less oil and the cold start clatter is gone. I did not notice a change in oil pressure.

No I have not looked into Jeep cables, is that the company name? I was hoping to check it out the issue over the last weekend but did not get around to it, but I hopefully will at work tomorrow. My plan is to run a full test on the alternator using a load tester, and then re-run the test with jumper cables, black from battery negative to block, positive from batter positive to alternator charge lug. See if the test changes and if the lack of charging at idle changes.

Embarrassingly enough I threw an alternator in it a while back without running any tests, just assumed it was an alternator issue. So if it is a bad unit I can get it warrantied.

 

[SirRobyn0]

@DoubleDingo Might as well show you what she's doing. At cruise this morning running the headlights, rear defogger, heater and fog lights this is what the gauge was reading.

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That's completely normal, what's not normal is this when I pull up to a stop.

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That's low than normal. In the past it would sit typically just below the 14, like half way between the 14 and the mark below it at idle with a heavy electrical load like this morning.

Hoping to get a change to check it out today.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Yeah, that's low for sure. Yes, https://www.jeepcables.com/ is the website. Worth a look.

I may not have updated my thread. I quit using the 15w40 about three weeks after switching to it. There was too much piston slap and lifter noise upon startup. I switched to the 5w40 T6 and all of that noise went away.

 

[SirRobyn0]

Well I did a quick test on it during lunch using the jumper cable method and it made no change. Got to take a moment to load test it and see what that shows....

 

[SirRobyn0]

Well I tested it after work. At idle in park 13.8 volts peak amps 60. In gear with heater running, headlights and fog lights on 12.2 volts 50 amps, obviously that's no good.

Check over the grounds, connections and wiring no change. Actually that stuff is all in much better shape than I expected.

I see the voltage regulator is part of the ECM. I know you can field the alternator, to bypass the ECM to test total output ability of the alternator, but I noticed every time I'd wiggle the charge terminal on the alternator it would make a noise from the alternator after that it seemed to not want to charge as well.

So leaning towards it being a defective alternator, I called to get it warrantied. Not in stock. See it next Monday. So I ordered a reman'd Bosch Alternator from another supplier will see it in the morning. So I'll have to send the current unit back to O'reilly's and pay the core charge on the new reman'd unit.... As long as this fixes it I'll be happy.

 

[DoubleDingo]

 

[SirRobyn0]

I know right....

 

[Grit dog]

Not to hijack your thread with my stuff, but for conversation purposes, the tired 4.0 surely needed some extended highway time. It does leak like you said your 5.2 does. It marks its spot everywhere it sits...lol... Funny thing, too, is it leaks like crazy when cold, but nothing noticeable when up to operating temperature.


Have you looked into Jeep Cables? You mentioned a possible bad ground, they make great kits to replace the charging and grounding cables. American company, great quality, responsibility priced.

I’ve been told that leaking while sitting more than running is main seal(s) leaking vs oil pan.