This question is about a Jeep, but a lot of later model Mopars used this same tranny, so the question spans.....
97 Jeep Wrangler, 4 cyl, A904 automatic. I bought this Jeep yesterday with the assumption that the trans was bad. I've driven this thing probably 150 miles so far and the transmission shifts fine. It upshifts smoothly, downshifts smoothly....it runs great EXCEPT......when I start from a dead stand still and step on it pretty hard, it will shudder about 3 or 4 times before it takes off. If you drive it normally, it does fine........when it hits a little torque on a hard takeoff is the only time it does it....it just hit me, could it possibly be a broken trans mount?? I haven't even looked at that!!.....anyway, I went this morning and bout a new filter and new fluid, I was gonna try that, it does have 111,000 miles on it and I have no way of telling if the trans has ever been serviced.
Any Ideas?

what kind of fluid did you buy?

What does it do when you put it into Man1? Any difference? This will help answer some questions.

I bought ATF+4 to go in it.
And Yes it still does it in MAN 1, but it DOES NOT do it in reverse.

It's hard to troubleshoot this without seeing it, but You do need to look for mounts or anything that would torque and hit any part of the body or frame. The only thing that could cause this in the trans would be the forward clutches breaking loose under heavy load. This is not a real common problem, but it does happen. You eliminated the low sprag by putting it into man1 and it still doing it.

I had one do that before,was like the clutches or something was sliping and it would bang bang bang till you let off..

drive it easy and it was fine,just could not get it in a bind and torque it

short while later it went out,the front band eat the drum up and it died

I allways wondered if it was the over running clutch slipping the rollers or the clutch packs slipping or broke drum or drums slipped foward and eating themselfs up

I know I seem to kill a lot of 904s and a few 727 with my driving

wont hurt to start checking around for another one,just in case a rebuild needs some hard parts inside

could it be the torque converter clutch going bad/not fully disengaging, bogging the motor down?

Sounds like the rear clutches are slipping on hard acell which are the ones applied in first. Ron

They (rear clutches) are applied in all forward gears.

Is there an adustment or a fix for that other than a rebuild?

If it is the rear clutches chattering, no, no adjustment. You may want to throw a gauge on it to see your pressures, but you will probably find that they are within range. The pressure tap is on the front servo, by the filler tube.

To isolate slipping clutches from a possible broken mount, place the shifter in 1 and stall the converter against the brakes.