Jeep wont go into gear

So I took off the shifter cover this morning. Surprise !!! one of the little ball bearings was wedged inside the housing (where it wasn't supposed to be). I only hope the other two are in the rails where they should be. Otherwise, they dropped inside the tranny.

More to follow. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

No surprise at all!! Sounds like you did a power shift, pushed the one rail too far, dropped the ball out. This will lock that rail in place, that locks out the other two rails. I'd expect the other two balls to be where they should be. If you are missing them you might luck out and get them to come out when you drain the oil but usually it's time to drop the tranny out and find the little buggers. :(

Look for sloppy fits, otherwise just reassemble it.

When you describe the issues, the rails are exactly opposite of the shift pattern on the shifter. So if 4th is lower right, the 4 gear rail position is upper left. I'm not sure where reverse hangs out on that tranny, that is likely the rail that lost the ball.

Roy, I'm pretty sure its the reverse ball that fell out (the one with the biggest fork). Ok, So here's my dilemma. The bolts that hold the rails together all have one of those "Bent up, doggie ear" washers (to prevent the bolt from moving).. I'm having a bitch of a time moving those doggie ears down to remove the bolt. Any thoughts. Do I need to replace with those doggie ears or will a lock washer do the trick?

Ok, so what parts should I replace? Just the 3 balls and springs?

I'm having a hard time finding the springs for the shift rail poppet balls. I called 4WD Hardware and Quadratech they don't have them. Anyone know where to find them?

OK, so I took the cover apart this weekend. Much to my surprise the three popett balls and springs are all where they are supposed to be. Yet, I still have an extra ball bearing (found wedged inside the cover in front of the reverse rail), albeit smaller than the popett balls. So now I'm scratching my head trying to figure out where the hell this extra ball bearing came from that's not listed in any of the diagrams. Guess what? It's the ball bearing that is part of the back-up switch. The little ball rides on top (or upside down installed) of the back-up switch spring. That little s*it of a ball caused all my problems. So it's not going back in as I already manually turn on my back-up lights. However, I did notice some corrosion on the popett balls. So I'll replace them and should have my rig back on the road this week.

Thanks for everyone's help on this.