[osun92]

I bought a 88 and have been doing lots of work on it, new motor and just got my 3" lift completed, coming together really nice. Putting BFG 31" AT on it tomorrow.

I don't have an owners book and was wondering about the 4 wheel drive system. Is it shift on the fly or do you have to put the tranny in neutral and then put it in 4WD? It is an automatic.

Help would be appreciated.

[getpower]

I see no bad reprocussions with shifting it into 4Hi if you are moving (under 55 mph is the rule of thumb). At my grandpas hunting club a guy has an '84 Cherokee that we are running aroud in and shifting it in and out of 4x4 while moving, literally ALL day.

Think of it this way, if you are in the snow and it starts to get really slippery, you can shift it while moving, right. I mean, you dont see people pulling over to the side of the road to shift their truck into 4x4 do you.

Hope that helps, but it might be good for an actual Cherokee owner to step in here and say yes or no. But this makes sense to me.

And if your in doubt, just stop and put it into neutral and shift it. Unless your on the highway in the snow or something then theres no reason that you cant stop as a safety precaution anyway.

[SmrtJustin]

Yeah, its shift on the fly. Its perfectly fine to shift it into 4HI while you're driving down the road (assuming you're on the correct surface for it). I've heard some people say you may have to let off the gas for a second right after you shift it for it to actually engage, or for it to engage faster. I can't really comment on that I haven't had to use mine yet.

[Arawn]

Yup, and 4lo is a little different. You should come to a stop, and not sure about neutral, but I usually put the clutch in when I do it.

[jeepdrvr]

what about getting it into 4Lo?

[cdn_xj]

Operation of the transfer case between an automatic transmission is no different than doing so with a manual tranny:

Shifting from 2WD-Hi to 4WD-Hi can be done on-the-fly. Just don't do it when travelling too fast. As previously stated 50mph is probably the MAX speed you will want to do this at.

Shifting the TC into and out of Neutral and into and out of 4WD-Lo is NOT shift-on-the-fly. You will need to bring the vehicle to a complete stop and shift the transmission out of gear and into neutral first. With a manual transmission you can just clutch, but by doing so you're effectively in neutral anyways so it's 6 of one and a 1/2 dozen of the other.

The reason being that as soon as you shift the transfer case into neutral the driveline aft of the transmission is disconnected and the transmission can begin spinning with the flywheel again.

[96JXJ]

Originally Posted by SmrtJustin

I've heard some people say you may have to let off the gas for a second right after you shift it for it to actually engage, or for it to engage faster. I can't really comment on that I haven't had to use mine yet.

It may depend on the X-fer case. On my 92 with the 242 this helps. On the 96 with a 231 it doesn't make a difference. JIM.