Coming from two 6MT Tacos before the JT, the 8AT is just insanely good with factory 4.10 gears. Very smooth and good ratio split. It was my first AT truck in years and the only time I had a hint of regret was the lack of engine braking while towing steep grades... catch-22, it was more than the MT was rated to tow anyway.
If I'm headed down a hill, I can give the brake pedal a good firm push and release - if I feel the brakes kick in, it will drop 1 or 2 gears and apply engine braking. If I'm on the 45 mph limit and start down those hills by Pleasant Hill and it gains speed, a good brake push and release and it will kick down and hold my speed at roughly 45 - otherwise it would coast up to 50 or more at times.
Yeah it was still manageable, just not as brain dead as putting it in 3rd or 4th and the slippage requires a lot more RPM to achieve the same effect.
That is what partially informed my decision to go to an AT from the MT, plus my age. Nearly everyone on here has good things to say about the JT's AT, not so with the Tacomas as you probably know. I think the Aisin MT is a good transmission, but Jeep's decision to go with that dual disk clutch was a mistake that they are paying literally for now. The remedy in the recall is not to go with a single disk clutch, so they have learned no lesson. I can imagine some highly placed engineer, perhaps near my age, being stubborn about the dual disk system, and cooler and smarter heads are not prevailing at Jeep. I'm a geologist and use my JTR in the field, and from that experience I can say that there is nothing out there to compare. I've rented many SUV's and 4X4 pick-ups for fieldwork over the years, and the JTR works the best for me.
The funny thing is that everyone wants to blame the Taco AT but the 3.90 axles were too tall for the double OD design and after swapping third members from a wrecked MT into an AT, the 4.30 gears totally woke it up. It has an even deeper OD than the JT so I know some guys were running 5.29s even on 33s. Truck still cruised under 2500.
How many miles?
I'm at 60k now. Can't remember what I was last year when this happened..... Maybe low 40s?
I have never heard this before (not that it isn't correct). Somehow, however, Jeep manged to fit an MT with higher torque ratings into the smaller TJ, which had an inline 6 and was overall just smaller than a JL.
How different the trans and diffs are between the two vehicles!
