tranny problem??

[ductape]

Hi all,

I just went on a little family outing for a couple of hours with the cruiser this morning and on the way back I noticed it was noisier than usual when cruising at 60-70 mph and when going uphill it was even worse and it seemed lacking power going up and instead of shifting down to accelerate up the hill it just stayed there and tried to go up in OD.

After that, I tried to accelerate faster on purpose and the engine revved up but almost no acceleration felt there. I never had automatic tranny slipping problem, but it could be it I guess. The other thing I noticed is a chhhhhhhhhht sound (like an air leak) when my foot is on the gas pedal and it stops as soon as I remove my foot.

I have a stock 95 FZJ with lockers and 33s. 177K miles

I searched with a few different things and got nowhere. If you guys have an idea I am all ears. Thanks

JF

 

[sseaman]

did you go through any water or mud?

 

[ductape]

nope, the roads were pretty dry with the exception of some melting snow in some spots...

 

[Kalawang]

I have a similar problem though a whole lot milder and intermittent. I don't always have the torque, or acceleration, I usually have, but it goes back to normal after a while. When it happens it feels as if there was slipping in the clutch. I'm still trying to find simple ideas on what to look at before pulling my tranny apart.

Please post your solution. It might help me.


Kalawang

 

[IdahoDoug]

Do a correct tranny fluid check, and check your coolant and transfer case levels as well. A little input from you on the engine RPMs while this was going on would have been useful. You make it sound like you were in low range on the freeway, basically.

DougM

 

[ductape]

About RPMs, it seemed pretty normal for a cruising speed of 60-70 mph (close to 2200-2400) but by going uphill at some point it started being noisy and the tranny wasn't shifting right, trying to downshift and then the RPM would go up to 3500-4000 for a short while but no real acceleration was happening (hence the slipping feeling) and it would go back to OD and 2300 RPM at the exact same speed as before.

All the while after that event, the chhhhhhhhhhht sound started to happen while my foot on the gas. It seemed I couldn't go a lot faster than 70 MPH on a fairly straight section of highway. I tried to accelerate quickly from 60 MPH to 75 MPH but the RPM just went up after a few seconds and no speed change happened so I stopped accelerating. I had a weird feeling that I shouldn't be pushing it too much with the kids and my father in law in the truck...

JF

 

[ductape]

Just a thought after reading your message about low gear. I don't know if this could be useful, but the day before I went on a snowy parking lot and decided to try if my lockers were still ok as I do regularly and it took a very long time to switch to Low and for the ABS and Center diff lock to appear. Then I engaged the rear lockers, they locked in a few seconds and when I engaged the front one, the rear one started blinking again as it had disengaged. both then engaged properly after a few seconds. When I transferred back to High, it again took longer than usual to feel the gearing change even after the lights had gone out in the dash.

After that it felt as normal. If I think about it, it has been a little sluggish going uphill for a while now, but nothing catastrophic.

JF

 

[ScottsHZJ80]

I have a friend who has had a similar sounding problem in her Nissan Patrol. It is a 3.0 l diesel with an auto behind it and Marks Adaptors rock crawler gear set in the transfer case.

In low range after a bit of not too serious wheeling it would loose drive and appear to almost find a new 'neutral' in there somewhere. The revs would skyrocket, but once it sat for a few seconds everything would appear to return to normal again and off she would go. It was behaving like it didn't have enough fluid in it but that was not the case.

IIRC it was fixed in the end by changing the fluid, cleaning the filters and adjusting the bands. Having said that nobody could tell her why it only happened in low range!! We tried everything to get it to do it in hi, and just couldn't.

I guess what I'm trying to say is if you haven't already, you may want to service the tranny, change the fluid, clean the filter etc.

Just an idea, never having owned an auto I don't know much about them!