1990 jeep yj

Jul 06, 2006 5 Replies

I have a 1990 jeep yj with a 5 speed transmisson. After you drive it for a period of time, when you stop, you can't get it to go into 1st gear. No grinding, it just won't move. If you let it roll a little, it will go into gear. Once you are moving, there is no problem shifting gears. Anyone have any idea what the problem is? Transmission shops around here have never heard of this problem.



My 95 YJ was like this too. I had the transmission rebuilt but before you do that you could try changing the lubricant. I am now using Penzoil Synchromesh from Autozone and it makes a big difference with the shifting (even with the rebuild). I've also read on newsgroups that Redline MT-90 is very good in these YJ transmissions.

chuck wrote:

Chuck, It sounds like your slave cylinder is going bad or you've got excessive air bubbles in your line. Just like your brakes, if you've got air bubbles in your line from your master cylinder to your slave cylinder they're going to build up even more as the line gets warmer and warmer as you drive. My advice is to start with a simple bleeding of the clutch and a long test drive. If that doesn't work, you probably have a slave or master cylinder going bad. When it won't shift into first at a traffic light, or whatever, does it help to try and get it in gear while you've got the engine revved up?

When I had a bad slave in my YJ, I found pumping the clutch worked.

My slave went out a few weeks ago. Bought the last one at Auto Zone and they gave me a new one at no cost.

Later Mike

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