Halfmoon

Bought today a 1995 Wrangler Rio Grande , 4cyl, manual tranny .
I bought from a guy that towed it behind a motor phone .
It came with a tow bar and he told me I could tow it home .
I hooked it up , he said he put the transfer case in Neutral , the Transmisson in Neutral and the steering in the unlocked position.
I went about 4 to 6 miles and When I got on the main highway I went about a mile and I felt a bump and looked in my mirror only to see major smoke .
I pulled over and there was major smoke coming from under the hood .
I discovered the oil and smoke was coming from the front axle housing .
The front drive shaft was red hot as was the differential.
The front axle and diff was locked up .
So ? What the heck happened ? Thanks

jedg

Hrm... I don't think your configuration should have caused a problem with the axle. I think it should have been Transfer Case in Neutral and Transmission in Park. The important part is the TC in neutral so that the transmission isn't being worked. Your front axle and driveshaft will turn regardless of the transfer case and transmission.

Has to be an issue with the front axle that was already present.

Halfmoon

j


I think ink your right. With a Manual Tranny and XCase in Neutral it should not have caused any damage.
As long as the XCase was not in 4WD , the Tranny could have been in gear
and not caused a problem.
I now believe the front axle may have had bad bearings ?????
its the strangest thing I've ever run into . I thought for sure someone on a site like this would have the answer or had the same experience?
Anyway I found out that you don't want to post in the wrong model . Lol

dahreno

I'm just wondering if having unit bearings in the front axle instead of manual locking hubs caused all the internals to continually turn the drive shaft. Maybe should have removed the drive shaft before towing ? I'm just guessing here, I've never towed a Jeep. Interested in really what happened.

silverbullet88

Are you sure you had the transfer case in neutral?

dahreno

^^^ I guess it is a possibility he did. It is a new vehicle to him.

Halfmoon

Your right it is a new vehicle to me and the guy I bought it from put the tranny in N and the Xfercase in N . I let him do because he was familiar with it and he had towed this thing all over the SE US and this was the way he towed so ,
Who was I to argue. The jeep owners manual definitely says to put the tranny in gear ? Doesn't say what gear but ? Considering the very short distance I traveled before I had a problem , it doesn't make sense to me that a major problem would have occurred ? I've found stories of damage to automatic transmissions but I haven't found one about damage caused by having a manual transmission and transfer case in Neutral?
I have found plenty of guys that have pulled their YJ with both in Neutral and never had a problem ?
So im pretty much screwed but you know " You Pays Ya Money - And -Takes Ya Chances " I plan on taking my trailer to get it this weekend .
Pill bring it back to local shop that I use and find out what happened and maybe even Why ? I think more guys have towed these things with both in neutral, that don't want to admit it.... LOL Anyway I'll post as soon as I find out something
I still like to know if there's anyone that used the Neutral configuration and had problems or those that never had a problem or actually did . Thanks

Halfmoon

ok. Here's what happened.
Had "0" to do with the towing.
The diff was low on grease , so the ring gear and piņon melted onto each other. Ruined the housing . Had to find a front housing with a 4:10 gears
compared to the rear being 4:11. Local salvage yards did not show a 4:10 in 95 YJ . But they did make it with 4:10 front and 4:11 rear
The rip off was finding one local FOR $ 400 Bucks !
Thanks to all for help.