Looking at getting another 3rd gen. I got lucky when I bought my TJ at 75000KM, as the transmission had been rebuilt at 35000km. Can someone PLEASE help with a few questions. First, when did Mitsu stop using the breaking wave spring? and is the AWD auto transmission stronger than FWD? Do AWD cars ahve same wave spring (bustable) as FWD. I hope to be able to get a 3rd gen that won't ahve wave spring issues. I am leaning towards TL/TW/KL/KW, either AWD or VRX (sports suspension). Thanks guys.

I don't think anyone knows about the wave-spring for sure.
My family has had issues with an '01 TJ and an '00 KJ - both were 4-sp auto (one tippy, one std).

The small family-owned transmission business who reco'd my KJ tranny were well-aware of the wave-spring issue when I took my KJ in, and kept the broken parts of the box to give back to me. They routinely replace a 3-layer wave-spring with a single-layer wave-spring made of thicker metal - which replacement item they "thought" was from an older model of the gearbox. When I tried to pin it down, however, these folks deal with an auto-trans parts specialist, not Mitsi spares. Between us, we never worked it out.

As I recall, the Mitsi Part Number for the wave-spring had been revised 2 or 3 times since my car was built - and I did have the changed numbers and dates-of-effect from the local Dealer - which I have since LOST. (D'OH!! big D'OH!). The dealer parts guys had no idea if the changing part numbers meant the part was actually revised/re-engineered, or just a new number allocated for a random reason. Were not even able to say if the various part numbers were 3-layer or single-layer springs. (Mitsi Parts folk rarely know anything, in my experience - apologies if any members are parts guys.. They need a VIN-number for even the most generic bolt/washer/grommet - and then tack on heaps of freight, and still end-up with the wrong parts).

Later, dad's TJ Exec did the wave-spring thing (at much higher km's than the KJ) and he and my brother dropped the box out of car and took it to a different rural city for reco - that workshop seemed less-aware of the wave-spring scenario (and thought we were wankers for suggesting it) but we were right, and they showed dad the box stripped-down and laid out on the bench etc, and ended-up being pretty decent and did a good job - much cheaper, but we had the drama of remove/re-install box to the car. $2200- for my KJ about $900 (maybe $990-?) for dad's TJ.

Unless you have seen the wave-spring, its hard to understand or for me to describe the 3-layer versus single-layer version.

From old threads, here is link to US site discussing the problem with the wave-spring causing damage to boxes:

http://www.transmissiondigest.com/tech/TD200508/200508ShiftPointers/200508ShiftPointers.htm

I wonder would MMC tech advice phone number in Adelaide give any info about the issue?

UPDATE: A re-read of the US article states that (in their market) "Only the F4A51 transaxle behind the 3.0 V-6 engine has this spiral-type wave cushion spring. The F4A41 behind the four-cylinder engine has a typical circular one-piece cushion spring".

A check of the Workshop Manual PDF's will probably indicate which model gearbox goes into AWD's , but I don't think we know, for example, if the 5-sp tippy boxes have the troublesome wave-spring or not.

when i rebuilt mine i put the single piece wave spring in... from memory when i was speaking to the trans shop the old bloke (or i might of read it on here somewhere) was telling me that the 5 speeds were a completly different box and he hadn't had any come in with the wave spring failure....

I thought the issue was fixed with the TJ series II, although thats probably wrong. On the forum here I only ever remember seeing people with issue having a TJ/KJ series I come to think of it... It could be they're putting the series II under just the name TJ/KJ, but in any case I believe it had been changed with the later models.

Maybe people who had had the issue could list their model and we can get an idea of the models affected.