Broken transfer case link

[sclan]

Your not gonna believe this, but i just went out and added the zip tie as a preventive mease as I posted in my previous post. Well the zip tie is on, but as I was cinching the zip tie down, the tip of the bushing broke off! The plastic was fragile. Barely touched it and it came apart!

Is the bushing still ok? Should I replace it? What does the open tip of the bushing do anyway?

I know the zip tie is on there good, but it was intended to be as a back up/precuation..now it may be the only thing holding the cable on!

Also, my bushing looked to be orange, and not white like in the picture below.

The attachement is a picture from another thread discussing the same thing.

http://www.jk-forum.com/showpost.php...4&postcount=14

[flick]

This pretty much sucks. My buddy has had this happen to him twice, once on each end of the cable. Finally the dealership "fixed" the issue by basically putting a cotter pin after the plastic bushing. Anyway, here are 2 threads that talk about this problem, and have some info from other users with their solutions.
www.jk-forum.com/showthread.php?t=92162

[uup4it]

I get to join the club, yippee! Unbelieveable, plastic, plastic, really?

X2 now!

[Blaaade]

Has anyone ordered a replacement bushing (68064273AA) successfully online? I have been searching online extensively and I cannot find a place to order from online. I would hate to go to the dealer (stealership) to get a few spares for this part. A few posters on other forums have stated that they ordered a bunch of them online, but they do not state where.

Anyone here have a link or website where they have ordered this bushing? I plan to work on a permanent fix, but I would like to replace the clip (zip-tied now) until I find the perfect solution.

Thanks!!

[riknapora]

Hey foks! I too broke down when my JK was barely broken in...in Alpine, at the top of the hill by the Ranger Station outlook. I had to ease it all the way down the hill in 4 because I had no clue what happened, and I wanted to get it in the parking lot to crawl under. So much for "free towing"...they only tow within 10 miles of a stealership. I got it in gear, drove home, and had to let my JK have a "sleepover" at the dealership where they replaced the entire cable (instead of the 30 cent bushing...no wonder Chrysler is broke). I was trying to sort through ways to keep the same thing from happening again, because of course Chrysler has yet to build a better cable/bushing/something, so I read through a lot of forums and spent lots of time online in general. I even contemplated taking off the t-case bracket to drill it, but when I crawled under my JK to remove the lever I realized that not only did Chrysler in their infinite wisdom decide to use a "torx-plus" bolt on the lever they also located it so close to the front yoke that the only way to remove said lever is to remove not only the front driveshaft but also the yoke...and didn't feel like tearing anything apart or disturbing a front seal that doesn't leak (yet). Instead, I bought a lever from the dealership and studied it. I finally came up with a cheap, easy, and effective fix that just about anyone should be able to do with some basic hand tools and some patience. I attached the pictures for your review...

http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60117205638626
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60130391364642
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60139323820338
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60151745539330
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60159699917170
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60168570489650
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60173932980082
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60183824247778
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60197488740610
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60207710737346

[mkjeep]

Hey foks! I too broke down when my JK was barely broken in...in Alpine, at the top of the hill by the Ranger Station outlook. I had to ease it all the way down the hill in 4 because I had no clue what happened, and I wanted to get it in the parking lot to crawl under. So much for "free towing"...they only tow within 10 miles of a stealership. I got it in gear, drove home, and had to let my JK have a "sleepover" at the dealership where they replaced the entire cable (instead of the 30 cent bushing...no wonder Chrysler is broke). I was trying to sort through ways to keep the same thing from happening again, because of course Chrysler has yet to build a better cable/bushing/something, so I read through a lot of forums and spent lots of time online in general. I even contemplated taking off the t-case bracket to drill it, but when I crawled under my JK to remove the lever I realized that not only did Chrysler in their infinite wisdom decide to use a "torx-plus" bolt on the lever they also located it so close to the front yoke that the only way to remove said lever is to remove not only the front driveshaft but also the yoke...and didn't feel like tearing anything apart or disturbing a front seal that doesn't leak (yet). Instead, I bought a lever from the dealership and studied it. I finally came up with a cheap, easy, and effective fix that just about anyone should be able to do with some basic hand tools and some patience. I attached the pictures for your review...

http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60117205638626
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60130391364642
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60139323820338
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60151745539330
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60159699917170
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60168570489650
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60173932980082
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60183824247778
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60197488740610
http://picasaweb.google.com/riknapor...60207710737346

That's pretty damn clever, good job! I'm too lazy to do all that though, I just check my zipties from time to time. That musta been kinda tedious to cut. You use a dremel?

[riknapora]

I also ordered a brass bushing, in case my nylon ones can't seem to hold up...but the shaft is 19/64, and most bushings are 5/16 ID 7/16 OD, which would work but end up with a lot of slop. I'd have to go with custom bushings, but for now the nylon one with the Threadsert should work far better than stock.

[riknapora]

I went kind of overboard...I found a big hardened washer, drilled the hole to almost 1/2", put it over the Threadset, and it slid down to just the place I needed to cut...that way, I used a hacksaw and ended up with a pretty straight cut. The metal is actually rather thin. I also bought aluminum Threadserts, which would cut and finish so much easier! I was going to go the tie route, but I wanted something more permanent because I often wheel with my hounds and wife, and they'd all look at me funny if I break down for too long...

[mkjeep]

I went kind of overboard...I found a big hardened washer, drilled the hole to almost 1/2", put it over the Threadset, and it slid down to just the place I needed to cut...that way, I used a hacksaw and ended up with a pretty straight cut. The metal is actually rather thin. I also bought aluminum Threadserts, which would cut and finish so much easier! I was going to go the tie route, but I wanted something more permanent because I often wheel with my hounds and wife, and they'd all look at me funny if I break down for too long...

Really good ingenuity on that, if my gorrilla sized hands can do it ,I may try, I'm impatient though. Congrats, you need to put that in the Write-up section.

[yellow08rubicon]

I will start off by saying

So several of us made a run up Martinez Mine here in AZ today. There were a couple of JK's (me and jrock776) a few TJ's and we were joined by one Toyota FJ. Prior to making the run, the FJ owner stated that he had never been on a run with Jeeps where one did not break down. Talkin a little smack, but that was ok, it was in fun.

We made the run up to the mine and had a great time. The Jeeps all handled the trails with ease, where as the FJ had its fair share of struggles, but made it none the less.

We turn around and head back out, make it past the most difficult parts and I go to shift from 4 lo to 4 hi and my shifter is moving freely and not engaging. I was still in 4 lo, however, it felt like a cable had broken with no resistance on the shifter whatsoever.

We stop and take a peek underneath and finally find where the cable from the shifter attaches to the transfer case. The small plastic clip that holds the cable on the transfer case arm was broken and the cable slipped off the arm. (this is where I will have pictures later I swear).

I do not know if this is normal, but it was held on with a plastic retainer clip!!

Thankfully we were able to get the cable to slip back on and hold it in place manually long enough for me to be able to shift into 2wd for the rest of the ride home.

I am sure you guessed it, the FJ owner looked at his rig and laughed and said he didn't seem to be having any problems. Again in fun, but I was pissed. A Rubicon with just over 3000 miles on it and it breaks.

Appointment at the dealer on Monday.

Has anyone else experienced this? Surely by the way it was put together, I can't be the only one.

Same happened to mine also! Something had completely tore it up and the plastic that was still there was real brittle. I fixed it using hardware from the store that will hold up a lot better than the factory clip.