Questions and Answers

Jeep Has No Kick Down Q. Hello, and thank you beforehand for your help. I have a 1990 Jeep Cherokee Limited 4X4. 6-cylinder, 4.0 liter engine. Fuel injection, automatic transmission, P/S, A/C, and cruise control. Milage is 150,000+.

The problem I am having is lack of power. The car drives fine and once on the highway it can pick up high speeds (75 mph or higher). But when accelerating from a stop or low speeds or when going up a hill, it is hesitant.

One thing I have noticed is that when I am cruising at any speed (and the overdrive seems to have engaged)and I suddenly step all the way on the accelerator to gain speed quickly or when the road starts going upwards (over a hill), it never switches down to a lower gear. If I slow down it will switch to a lower gear but not when I suddenly accelerate from a cruising speed. I don't know if it's normal or not. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.
Regards,
Jorge

A. When you step on the gas pedal it is supposed to down shift under certain conditions. If you have no down shifting at all when you step on the gas under any condition, you may have an internal transmission problem.

The first thing to check is the Throttle Valve Cable (TVC) adjustment. To do this:

1. Shift transmission into Park, shut engine off and raise hood.
2. Press cable release button.
3. Push cable conduit back into cable sheath as far as possible.
4. Rotate lever on throttle body to wide open throttle position. Cable will ratchet to correct adjustment point as lever is rotated.

Throttle Cable Components

If, after the adjustment is made, the problem persists, the transmission valve body is probably at fault. Before getting into the transmission, I would do a fluid and filter replacement. Fill transmission with Mopar Mercon or Dexron II automatic transmission fluid. A lot of transmission problems have been fixed by using the Mopar fluid.

Additional Information provided courtesy of ALLDATA