For the last couple weeks I'd been crusing these groups trying to find the cause of a nasty rattle that had developed in my '97 Cherokee (4.0L, automatic, 89K miles). At idle, it had a nasty knocking noise. Not a detonation knock, this was somthing metal on metal.
From the sound, I was almost certain it was in the exhaust system. A rubber mallet to the cat didn't turn up anything, everything seemed solid. I went to the fan clutch, not there. I was fearing something internal. Rolling under while it was running, it sounded like it was coming from inside the oil pan, but then, no, it was the bell housing!
I pulled the inspection plate, and every one of the God forsaken bolts in the torque converter was loose! The noise was the TC rattling around on the flywheel...
Is this at all common? From where I was at, I could only get a box end wrench up to tighten them, so I didn't pull them and use lock-tight, although I think I will soon.