32RH to AW4 transmission swap

2000tjguy

Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2023
Messages
54
Location
Colorado
After building my Jeep this winter Im starting to plan for other things I want to do with it next winter and an atlas is on the list, while I’m doing the atlas I kind of want to ditch the 32rh that I have never really been a fan of. It’s always been leaky due to the torque converter lockup connector which I fixed but now it’s not locking up but atleast it’s not leaking anymore and I don’t really care about lockup since this is a trail rig only, the only time it sees the road is if I have to travel a short distance to a trail from my trailer.

The swap to a aw4 will be simple as I won’t be using a tcu and all the electronics will be in the shifter, this part is already all figured out. The part that I need to do some research on will be do I need to tv cable since what im looking at doing will do away with the tcu and turn it into a manual shift pattern?

Also if anyone has any info on what it will take to get it bolted to the motor?

Thank you for any info in advance.
 
@mrblaine has done some AW4 swaps. I also know that he very much dislikes that transmission.

Hmm I wonder why the dislike? A couple of my buggy buddies run them behind a lot of different motors and love them. The thing that had me worried was all the wiring junk but without having to use the tcu it does away with everything besides 3 maybe 4 wires on the trans wiring harness that run right to the shifter. Everything else is bolt in using a mix of aw4 and a couple items from the 32.
 
Hmm I wonder why the dislike? A couple of my buggy buddies run them behind a lot of different motors and love them. The thing that had me worried was all the wiring junk but without having to use the tcu it does away with everything besides 3 maybe 4 wires on the trans wiring harness that run right to the shifter. Everything else is bolt in using a mix of aw4 and a couple items from the 32.

It’s a terrible transmission. I’ve owned a few and don’t have anything good to say about them for sure. Just wait until Blaine chimes in if we are so fortunate that he might grace us with his presence he’ll let you know all the bad stuff about the AW4 😉
 
Hmm I wonder why the dislike?
Because I have one. I've done at least 10 of them and they have 3 things in common.
1- folks lie, lie their asses off about how good they are.
2- they run hot and anyone that says they don't isn't running a temp gauge.
3- they are terribly inefficient and rob more power than should be legal.

It got to the point doing the swaps I would send the owners an email telling them why this is not a good idea, blah blah blah.

After a couple of weeks, I'd get a phone call from them and it was always the same. "Why didn't you tell me how bad this transmission is?" Feels like I'm dragging an anchor everywhere and I can already tell just running around town I'm going to need a much bigger cooler.

I'd ask them to hold on a second, I'd go into my emails, find the one I sent them where I said this is not a good idea, forward that to them and tell them to read it while we are on the phone or read it and call me back. They would and then tell me that they really didn't believe me. Okay, well now what do you believe? I believe I should have listened. Good boy.

I had one here that we removed. It was the complete set of parts including a sub 15000 mile AW-4 which was one of two we found sitting on a shelf with less than 8000 miles each on them. My helper talked me out of it, I did my best to convince him, he wasn't having it. Fine, go ahead.

We do the swap, and he starts with the "this is great, awesome swap, blah blah blah"

Then one day out of the blue I get a call from him and he finally tells me the truth. I thought it was good until I got out to JV with it and I was trying to keep up with my buddy who has an identical build to mine except he has the 42RLE. Both have the same motor, same gears, same axles, same tires, similar weight conscious JV type builds, except the transmissions. The rig with the 42 just walked off and left him in the dust and having helped him with the motor swap, I know there is nary a thing wrong with how the 4.0 runs. The only thing they have going for them is a terrible OD, and they are reasonably durable.
 
It’s a terrible transmission. I’ve owned a few and don’t have anything good to say about them for sure. Just wait until Blaine chimes in if we are so fortunate that he might grace us with his presence he’ll let you know all the bad stuff about the AW4 😉

Hopefully he does cause I’d like to hear about it lol, I have heard nothing but good about them atleast for a trail/crawling rig… on the road they might be junk but that’s not my goal with this.
My tj is stretched front and rear, on tons, coilovers and 40’s lol… it’s strictly a trailer queen besides the off chance the lot at the trail head is full and I have to park somewhere else but even then the most it will move on a road is maybe 5 hopefully copless miles lol.
 
Hopefully he does cause I’d like to hear about it lol, I have heard nothing but good about them atleast for a trail/crawling rig… on the road they might be junk but that’s not my goal with this.
My tj is stretched front and rear, on tons, coilovers and 40’s lol… it’s strictly a trailer queen besides the off chance the lot at the trail head is full and I have to park somewhere else but even then the most it will move on a road is maybe 5 hopefully copless miles lol.

If your description is accurate, then there is exactly zero need to move away from the 32RH.
 
Because I have one. I've done at least 10 of them and they have 3 things in common.
1- folks lie, lie their asses off about how good they are.
2- they run hot and anyone that says they don't isn't running a temp gauge.
3- they are terribly inefficient and rob more power than should be legal.

It got to the point doing the swaps I would send the owners an email telling them why this is not a good idea, blah blah blah.

After a couple of weeks, I'd get a phone call from them and it was always the same. "Why didn't you tell me how bad this transmission is?" Feels like I'm dragging an anchor everywhere and I can already tell just running around town I'm going to need a much bigger cooler.

I'd ask them to hold on a second, I'd go into my emails, find the one I sent them where I said this is not a good idea, forward that to them and tell them to read it while we are on the phone or read it and call me back. They would and then tell me that they really didn't believe me. Okay, well now what do you believe? I believe I should have listened. Good boy.

I had one here that we removed. It was the complete set of parts including a sub 15000 mile AW-4 which was one of two we found sitting on a shelf with less than 8000 miles each on them. My helper talked me out of it, I did my best to convince him, he wasn't having it. Fine, go ahead.

We do the swap, and he starts with the "this is great, awesome swap, blah blah blah"

Then one day out of the blue I get a call from him and he finally tells me the truth. I thought it was good until I got out to JV with it and I was trying to keep up with my buddy who has an identical build to mine except he has the 42RLE. Both have the same motor, same gears, same axles, same tires, similar weight conscious JV type builds, except the transmissions. The rig with the 42 just walked off and left him in the dust and having helped him with the motor swap, I know there is nary a thing wrong with how the 4.0 runs. The only thing they have going for them is a terrible OD, and they are reasonably durable.

Maybe it’s a difference of people on road vs strictly crawlers? I had a buddy run one behind a 22re mated to a Dana 300 in a buggy and loved it, sold the buggy 3-4 years ago and the other guy is still running the same setup without issues.
They do run warm but with a big cooler it stayed in check atleast here in Colorado, I’m sure in jv the extra heat would be a pretty decent issue.
What other swap would you suggest so I can ditch the 32?
 
If your description is accurate, then there is exactly zero need to move away from the 32RH.

Looks like we are replying at the same time lol… everything about where I am build wise and goal wise for my jeep is true. The 32 is just annoying to me cause of the issues I have had with it, I guess now that it’s mostly fixed beside the lockup I could keep it until I’m ready to go to something different than the 4.0.
 
Looks like we are replying at the same time lol… everything about where I am build wise and goal wise for my jeep is true. The 32 is just annoying to me cause of the issues I have had with it, I guess now that it’s mostly fixed beside the lockup I could keep it until I’m ready to go to something different than the 4.0.

If you are really wanting to change out the auto to something else , take a look at Novak modded GM 700R4 , you'll end up spending some money , but It does have a much lower first gear and gives you the option of a more powerful Chevy engine down the road.
 
Maybe it’s a difference of people on road vs strictly crawlers? I had a buddy run one behind a 22re mated to a Dana 300 in a buggy and loved it, sold the buggy 3-4 years ago and the other guy is still running the same setup without issues.
They do run warm but with a big cooler it stayed in check atleast here in Colorado, I’m sure in jv the extra heat would be a pretty decent issue.
What other swap would you suggest so I can ditch the 32?

A good rebuild on the 32 would be my first choice.
 
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If you are really wanting to change out the auto to something else , take a look at Novak modded GM 700R4 , you'll end up spending some money , but It does have a much lower first gear and gives you the option of a more powerful Chevy engine down the road.

This is another option I was looking into as well, it doesn’t sound like a terrible swap either plus the lower 1st is another plus.
 
A good rebuild on the 32 would be my first choice.

The 32 works fine and the lockup worked fine until I had to cobble together the lockup connector since apparently the guy I bought it from decided to cut all the original connectors off and hard wire the stupid thing creating a terrible leak and now apparently the only way to get said connectors is to buy a whole new solenoid so you can cut the connector off then trash the brand new solenoid.
 
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At least the AW-4 swap is cheaper, eh?

Lol naw maybe I’ll stick with the 32 or look deeper into a 700r4 swap since I wouldn’t mind having od on the off chance I need to drive a bit to get to a trail from my trailer or just ditch the idea for now until I decide to ditch the boat anchor 4.0 lol
 
Lol naw maybe I’ll stick with the 32 or look deeper into a 700r4 swap since I wouldn’t mind having od on the off chance I need to drive a bit to get to a trail from my trailer or just ditch the idea for now until I decide to ditch the boat anchor 4.0 lol
A 7000R4 wouldn't be a good choice either. I'd stick with the 32RH and just fix its problem. I converted my previous (stolen) TJ from its OEM 5-speed manual transmission to the 32RH and still miss that transmission (and that TJ). I wish I could convert my current 42RLE to the 32RH, it's one of the very best automatic transmissions to have ever come out of Detroit.
 
Lol naw maybe I’ll stick with the 32 or look deeper into a 700r4 swap since I wouldn’t mind having od on the off chance I need to drive a bit to get to a trail from my trailer or just ditch the idea for now until I decide to ditch the boat anchor 4.0 lol

I know a few who have done the 700R4 swap. The adapters are not cheap. Trying to get a torque converter dialed in has been a big problem. One of them tried several, never could get it to the point where the money and time justified the lackluster performance so he finally pulled it and went back to a manual. The other one just lives with it.
 
I know a few who have done the 700R4 swap. The adapters are not cheap. Trying to get a torque converter dialed in has been a big problem. One of them tried several, never could get it to the point where the money and time justified the lackluster performance so he finally pulled it and went back to a manual. The other one just lives with it.

Good to know , what exactly is the torque converter issue ? Not enough stall speed , too much , lock up too early/late ? It seems odd since GM used this trans with V-6 and V-8's you would think you could find an acceptable TC spec. Thanks.
 
I know a few who have done the 700R4 swap. The adapters are not cheap. Trying to get a torque converter dialed in has been a big problem. One of them tried several, never could get it to the point where the money and time justified the lackluster performance so he finally pulled it and went back to a manual. The other one just lives with it.

Damn lol… if your main goal for a jeep is to eventually go to a ls what trans would you set yourself up with so you can order a atlas without having to re order stuff later on?
The main goal for this rig is to be a 4.8 or 5.3 ls, some type of auto and a atlas. This upcoming summer I will be putting in a order for a atlas but I would like to get it setup for that trans I’ll be running behind the ls, the ls probably won’t happen till the winter after this upcoming one just cause the atlas and trans will probably take up most of the budget this year along with other odds and ends from beating on it this summer.
 
Good to know , what exactly is the torque converter issue ? Not enough stall speed , too much , lock up too early/late ? It seems odd since GM used this trans with V-6 and V-8's you would think you could find an acceptable TC spec. Thanks.

Same thing I was thinking plus a lot of guys I know in the buggy world run a lot of different trannys and the 700r4 and the aw4 were the 2 I was looking into that would work good in my setup and with my end goal.
If they are both junk then I wonder what I should go with so I’m not having to change stuff around on a atlas later on.