Questions about a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

TapouT

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Location
Hickory nc
First off this may be long so I apologize for that and thanks in advance for the help. I test drove a 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited last week that I'm going to buy. It is the 4.0 model limited with the all time 4wd transfer case with selection of 4lo. Everything seemed good running and driving wise. It's actually one of the smoothest idling, driving, riding and shifting Jeep's I've ever been in other than a new one. A couple things I noticed...I turned the A/C on and turned it to the top vents (air blows out at your chest/face) and nothing would come out of the vents. All of the air came out of the floor vents. It did this on heat also and every other setting. The air blows cold and heat blows hot it just won't come out of the top vents.

Also, I pulled over into a field to try out the 4lo...I stopped, put the Jeep in neutral and shifted to 4lo and put the Jeep in gear and it just grinded really bad so I stuck it back in neutral and tried it once more and it did the same thing. I noticed that when pulling the shifter/lever back to go in 4lo that it moves with ease...it's almost like there's no tension in it at all. I know that on every Jeep I've owned so far when moving it into 4wd there's tension in the shifter and you actually have to use a little bit of muscle to pull it back. There was no tension at all. Could this be a linkage issue? How is this fixed?

I'm getting this Jeep at a very good price and will have plenty of money left over to play with fixing these things. I just hope neither of the problems are major.
 
The vent problem you describe is a typical problem in these year greand cherokees, there are a couple writeups on NAGCA if I remember correctly.

As for the 4wd, the 249 transfer case is the one you are tlaking about, and they are known to have vicious coupler (VC) issues but I am not sure if that is the cause of the situation you describe. Try going to an empty parking lot and doing some tight 'figure 8s' and see if the tires chirp, this could mean the VC is bad.
 
BigClay said:
The vent problem you describe is a typical problem in these year greand cherokees, there are a couple writeups on NAGCA if I remember correctly.

As for the 4wd, the 249 transfer case is the one you are tlaking about, and they are known to have vicious coupler (VC) issues but I am not sure if that is the cause of the situation you describe. Try going to an empty parking lot and doing some tight 'figure 8s' and see if the tires chirp, this could mean the VC is bad.
Click to expand...

I'll try that tonight when I drive it again before I buy it. The viscous coupling is pretty expensive to fix/replace from what I've read. If that is the problem, can it hurt anything else or will I just not have 4lo? Thanks for the help!
 
Your issue won't be the VC. They are a problem in the 249's though. I had mine go out and it caused a WICKED vibration. the Cure for the VC is a replacement one. New they are about $700 just for the VC. the cheap fix is to remove the front driveshaft and make it a 2wd vehicle.

the grinding you're describing and the loose shift lever makes me think possibly shift linkage. I'd crawl underneath find the linkage and check for slack. Hopefully that's the problem and not internals. if the T-case is bad, I'd swap it out for a 242 or a 231 and replace the shift pattern plate.

Vent issue, like said, common problem and there's plenty of fix write ups online.
 
The vent problems is often just a vacuum leak....
Def plan on replacing the 249 with a 242 as soon as possible.
 
also the grand Cherokee has issues with the electric windows make sure they all work. My neighbor has a grand Cherokee and they have to keep replacing the window motors cause they break and the windows fall down. I believe there is a tech bulletin about it as well.
 
the Window issue is easily fixed with a little fabrication. The cheap asses that designed the mechanism that raises the window put in a POS plastic part that breaks. I looked at mine after the second one broke and I made a metal tab and welded it in place of the plastic clip and it never had a problem after that. What sucks is it could have been part of the metal stamping that the plastic clip clips on to and they never would have had the common breakage that they are known for.
 
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