Transmission or Clutch problem?

Mike,
Just saw your issue. If you still have the problem, see if it resembles this situation. My 94 YJ 4.0 first had a hard time getting into 2nd. (...then reverse, then it would pop out of 2nd just going down the road) Changed fluids saw minimal crud. Was thinking a tranny swap was the only way to go. I contacted many places for ideas or solutions then I came across the this company in Tx that sells rebuilt trannys for about $1k. Now he was FAR LESS than all the other quotes for apple-to-apple, however this guy suggessted I check a couple more parts before I buought one of their transmissions. So I did and he was right. Here is what he had me do. Go buy the local shop manual if you don't already have it. You can find one at any Autozone, Advanced, O'reillys etc.(whatever is in your area) I had Chilton's. It worked fine. Remove the metal Inspection plates from around the gearshifts in the floor pan. Follow the main shifter down to the top of the Tranny. You'll see some bolts holding what appears to be a cap on. I think I remember there being 4. I removed the cap. You will find at the base of the shifter a steel knob or ball attached to the shifter. It is suppossed to have a plastic cap assembly snapped on the ball which you will see mates into a socket assembly on the top of the tranny. In simplest terms this is more or less the linkage point between the physical shifter to the transmission. On my jeep the cap and the female socket had just fallen apart. (...they're hard plastic - got hot, brittle and fell apart, go figure) The bad debris goes right down through the tranny and definitly was some of the crud in my fluid. I bought the parts local to me at Turner 4WD, Canton Ga www.thejeep.com. (and for those wondering... NO I'm not soliciting for them, they just tend to have parts some times that other companies don't have) I think I spent less than $15 on the 2 parts and the book is about $20. Total time for teardown was about 30~45 min and reassembly about 15~20. The only tricky part was getting the double dust boot off since I had never done it before. Remove the gear shift knobs, their locking nuts, and both rows of retaining screws. Slide the first dust boot off the gear shifts (soft rubber with metal ring). Then you'll see the next dust boot is almost vaccum sealed to the gear shifts at the knuckles. We found it was best to get that dust boot and inspection plate to slide up the shift levers and off leaving the levers intact. (others may have a different opinion, but I can tell you from other clutch and tranny work afterwards, it's so much easier to access the top 2 transmission bolts through this inspection plate rather than the ol' reach around from underneath) On that second dust boot (looked vaccumed sealed) we slightly split it on the bottom edge for easy removal. There are no issues from dust, water, or exhaust because it is a double boot. Hope this helps you. 5yrs on this solution now. Take care- Ken [email protected]

Hi Mike,

Your description is excellent.

All the recent replacements make those components suspect. The symptoms point at two possible problems.
If the tranny had a linkage, I'd say that was it. The problem may be related though.

• Does the shift lever feel loose?
• Same shifting problems when trying reverse?
• With the engine off do the same shifting problems exist? (this one points away from the clutch)
  

• Check fluid level
• Any leaking fluid from master cylinder, operating cylinder or connecting lines?
• Has the fluid level fallen to a point where air could have been drawn into the cylinder?
• Does the fluid look clean, no particulates?