my 08 rubicon UNlimited got stuck in 4wd Lo. took it to the dealer. they said they have to order a cable because it broke. they said it's an external cable that runs from the transfer case to the (I think they said axle? or maybe transmission). Anyway what would cause the cable to brake?

 

the ends have a cheap little plastic retainer, you arent the first and it seems like quiet a few have been having this problem lately check out these recent threads about it

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...41#post1114641

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...t=52121&page=3

 

Usually it is not putting it into 4lo correctly
need to be rolling (under 5mph) in neutral and pull it into 4lo, it will go into gear with little effort.

 

Mine broke while at Moab for Easter Jeep Safari. I went Moab Off Road 4X4 to get it fixed. They said that they had seen 3 broken cables that week. They thought the cable end at the transfer case was to close to exhaust and was causing the plastic cable end to get hot making brittle and break.

They fixed my problem by welding a threaded bolt shaft to the transfer case shift lever and then welding another threaded bolt shaft to the end of the cable. Then threading a small hemi joint on the cable end. Then adjusted the hemi joint on the threaded rod for proper length put hemi joint on transfer case shift lever bolt and locked it down.

This should never break again.

Win T

 

I would like to see Jeep come out with a never break again fix. There has got to be something better than plastic. at this point I would be happy to see a TSB out on this.

 

Would love to see some photos of this

 

Check out the first thread in post #2. There are pics of mine that broke after I got off the trail. I took it into the dealer today and they have to order the part. You can't buy just the end piece, you have to replace the whole cable.

 

We don't want pictures of your nasty broken parts, we want pics of the mini hemi joint repair!

 

The first time I tried 4 low in my new Rubi it did the same thing. The cable did not break, but it did come off of the transfer case sector shaft. The retaininer clip that holds the shift cable cleavis to the shaft was either missing, or had come off. You can reach up there (after the exhaust pipe cools off) and manually move the sector shaft back into 2wd so you can drive it home. I bought a new retainer clip from Tractor supply and put it on myself because the dealer wanted the vehicle for two days just to look at it. My Rubi was built in Oct of 2008. One thing I noticed is you have to put a 1/4 turn of twist on the shift cable cleavis to get it to line back up with the shaft. I don't know if that is normal, or not, but that twist puts a lot of side force and could force off the retainer clip.

 

Tractor Supply is your friend for spare end clip retainers.