TheonlyREDhead 2008 JK

you can look at my sig I have pretty much a stock JK 2 door with 17"s




There I am driving on some old logging trails and.....






I start to go down a steep hill,
thinking it may be like the one I just came up I stopped and put it in neutral and pulled the shifter back to put in 4 high and......





(this is the picture I took while I was stopped getting ready to shift into 4 high)



I suddenly have no gears????Not even park. The 4wd drive shifter just slides forward and back.


You can see the road is not rough and those were the type of trails I had done for the previous couple hours,

I also had not been 4 wheeling for a few weeks, but had just used 4 high 15 min earlier for about 4 min and went back to 2wd.

I was stuck.


I had jeep friends on another trail and luckily had a signal and they came to help one of the guys popped something in gear with only 2wd and not supposed to touch the shifter.

and I just got it back from the dealer ---

The dealer said they replaced , Transfer case Shift Rod caused by gromet missing.


Has anyone heard of this?

Explain it to me can a stick on the trail or road for that matter just hit a gromet under there and leave me helpless???? If it wasn't for them I could have been stranded. I know the rule is don't go 4 wheeling alone but look at what I was on that could have been a country road really.


Isn't there a guard for this.

Help me

Do I need to pay someone to teach me how to flip the little shifter thing under the jeep because this could happen anywhere?????


Help

RED

tgrt

Not enough information to make any type of diagnosis. However, obviously people do allot more without any issue. One question I have for you is why are you stopping and putting your transmission into neutral to shift into 4HI? Even going into 4LO you usually need to go a few miles per hour.

mikesjk

When you have your jeep in 4low and shift to 4hi or 2hi you need to be rolling a little. You were at a dead stop and probably pushed the shifter to hard and broke the piece off the transfer case. When I say shift on a roll it means your tires barely need to be turning. Remember when we fixed it I had wiredawg push your jeep a little and you push on the cable.

This problem had nothing to do with your jeep or the road you were on.

TheonlyREDhead 2008 JK

I was told by the dealer repair department

a. I could shift into 4high while in drive but stopping would be easier on the transmission, he even said he shuts off the engine and shifts to 4 low.

What is the best way to switch gears???


on, off, neutral moving at idol, ???


My last 4x4 was a rodeo stick so I put the clutch in (nuetral) and shift the other shifter into 4 h or 4l and then put it in 1st so I figured neutral was easier

Red

TheonlyREDhead 2008 JK

MikesJK, thanks again Bro (this is the friend that got me going).

I know you must know best you were there and you fixed it but,,,,,

do you think that shifter is so fragile that if puled improperly (not hard) it will snap that gromet everytime????


I figured a stick or something hit that gromet in a one in a million way to pop it off. I didn't here a pop when I shifted, as soon as I pulled it back 1 inch from 2 to 4h it was like the cable was disconnected and I had no gears???

I understand if I was yanking on it but as I said I am so worried to mess up my jeep I gently pulled back while in neutral at a stop and it happened.

What is the best way to shift?

What if your stuck you can't shift stopped without the risk of snapping the gromet???

How can I makes sure this doesn't happen is there a way to reinforce that gromet connection?? a solid piece or back up wire??

Red

wrnglrguy

Exactly what I was going to ask. You should be rolling when shifting to 4wd with a Wrangler. You can stop, but if you do, you are supposed to shut off the engine (if I remember correctly). Does no one read their owners manual?

The 4wd system on the Wrangler is a shift on the fly system. There is absolutley no reason what so ever to stop. Going to 4lo requires you to be rolling very SLOWLY, and have the transmission in N, but you should still be rolling. I would think stopiing every time would actually cause wear over time. No reason to stop, or reverse when going back to 2wd. You are not locking the hubs like older 4wd. You are simply locking the two driveshafts together.

Check out this link...

http://www.jeep.com/en/4x4/how_systems_work/rock_trac/

MOWrangler

Poppycock... The JK and most recent transfer cases are designed to shift into 4 high on the fly. The only time the manual tells you not to engage is if the rear wheels are spinning but the front isn't moving.

from memory, 2-hi to 4-hi can be done on the move up to around 50 MPH. I generally don't engage that fast, but it can be done on the move.

4-hi to 4-lo is typically done while rolling in neutral at 5 MPH or less. I have heard of people who stop to do this switch, but that can be problematic if your syncros are not lined up at that time. (not that it would hurt anything, but you might not be able to pull the stick back into 4 lo)

Going out of 4-lo to 4-hi should be about the same as the hi-to-lo switch, and
4-hi to 2wd you can do at any point going forward. The only time I have had problems is getting into or out of 4-lo, and that was before I read on here about doing it with the tranny in neutral while rolling forward slowly. Since then is has been easy!

Most of this is in the manual as well. Give that section a quick glance and you should be good to go.

pearl-drum-man

First off, if you were moving this probably wouldn't have happened. Even for 4-LO, follow the procedure stated in the manual and you won't have any problems. I'll bet because you were stopped and trying to shift the gears weren't aligned and the extra force on the lever is what popped the shift linkage off, this has happened to a few others. They do have a plastic connector on it somewhere, which is probably a bad decision by them. Sounds exactly like what happened based on your information.

Mark Doiron

I recall a thread from about a year ago with pictures of the failed part. It does seem that the part is way under-engineered.

Woods, are you catching this?

pearl-drum-man

Yeah, there was actually just another one about a week or two ago and he did a trail fix with zip ties. It does seem like a good spot for someone like Woods to come up with an improvement for.